News Release

Comey Firing

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CocomeyMARCY WHEELER, emptywheel [at] gmail.com, @emptywheel
Available for interviews beginning Thursday afternoon, Wheeler writes widely about the legal aspects of civil liberties, surveillance, government secrecy and the “war on terror.” She blogs at emptywheel.net. Recent pieces there include “The Tuesday Night Massacre,” “Why Accuracy about WikiLeaks Matters” and “James Clapper: Unmasking And/Or Jeff Sessions?”

COLEEN ROWLEY, rowleyclan [at] earthlink.net, @ColeenRowley
Rowley, a former FBI special agent and division counsel whose May 2002 memo to the FBI Director exposed some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures, was named one of TIME magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002.

Following Comey’s firing, she said: “In July 2013, I suggested in this New York Times op-ed that James Comey should answer a lot of hard questions before the Senate confirmed his appointment by Obama as FBI Director, explaining why he had signed off on the Bush administration’s torture, unlawful detention and illegal warrantless surveillance programs. But in 2013, the Senate barely scratched the surface before rushing to confirm Comey, ironically lauding his integrity.

“But if anyone in government actually cared about integrity and upholding the rule of law, maybe Comey ought not to have been hired in the first place! Comey’s unorthodox press briefings are far less significant to adherence to the Constitution than his prior illegal actions. But I doubt that his press statements in the lead-up to the election are actually why Comey was fired. Hillary Clinton’s campaign apparently suspects that Trump and gang just seized on the Clinton email investigation as an opportunistic way of getting rid of Comey and they may be right.”

She just addressed the Comey firing on the radio program “Flashpoints.”