The following is from a former FBI agent:
link:
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/443741-jim-comeys-own-words-justify-bill-barrs-review
Conducting any investigation — as Comey did — out of FBI headquarters, let alone the Director’s Office, is not by the book. It is so outside “the book” that current FBI Director Christopher Wray is implementing policy, according to reliable internal sources, that restores investigations exclusively to the field offices and prohibits headquarters — where the FBI most closely intersects with the flame of political D.C. — from ever conducting investigations again. Prudent, and good news for the country.
Comey said that running confidential human sources and undercover operatives is normal activity. It is, but under tight restrictions. Targeting U.S. citizens working for a presidential campaign with confidential sources, non-FBI undercover investigators, and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) electronic surveillance, is not normal. It’s never been done before. There is no “book” for it.
This is where U.S. Attorney Durham has his work cut out for him. Did Comey and his team follow
Attorney General Guidelines, which govern the proper use of these investigative techniques? A lot of digging is needed here.
In addition, experienced counterintelligence investigators will tell you that when there is an intersection of Russian intelligence operatives and a U.S. citizen, the normal “book” calls for the FBI to warn the American about Russian intelligence “tricks” and then obtain cooperation, to help learn even more about Russian objectives.
This traditional book was not followed by Comey’s team, nor were those courtesies extended to the Trump campaign. Instead, campaign members were immediately targeted for investigation. In light of Comey’s recent comments, we may now know why.
His infamous
news conference on July 5, 2016, where he invented a new FBI authority to decline prosecution of a presidential candidate, only to then publicly excoriate her, was not by the book. His later decision, just days before America voted, to unnecessarily
reopen an investigation that he had declined was not by the book either, and it caused a disruption to the election about which the Russians could only fantasize.
His decisions to
reveal the existence of an FBI counterintelligence investigation into a presidential campaign during congressional testimony, his
leaking of FBI materials to the press, and his post-firing
book tour and media blitz are all unfamiliar behaviors for an FBI director. They definitely were not by the book.
For all of these reasons, there is growing concern, based on Comey’s own words and actions, that the FBI may have been hijacked by a partisan political operative. So the attorney general clearly is justified in his appointment of Durham.
The real FBI, the agents and analysts and support personnel who day in and day out truly conduct themselves “by the book,” want the trust of the American people restored in the FBI. It is a value we should all be fighting for.
Kevin R. Brock, former assistant director of intelligence for the FBI, was an FBI special agent for 24 years and principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). He is a founder and principal ofNewStreet Global Solutions, LLC.
