James Comey’s A Higher
Loyalty is the book of the year (at least, so far), and some may think they should read it and wonder whether they can be
bothered. Should they?
Sacked FBI Director James Comey’s apologia A
Higher Loyalty has made quite a splash, and seems to have got under the President's skin. It is very much a book of its time and place, and books that
hit the headlines don’t always hang around afterwards. But this one might have
a longer half-life than most. James
Comey isn’t Hemingway and I guess wouldn’t claim to be, but he’s a concise,
engaging writer with a story to tell. There are also some brief but sharp
glimpses of people we think we know –
Rudy Giuliani, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama; all of them really
quite vivid. There is also plenty to hold one’s interest before one even gets
to Donald Trump (who appears quite late).
But it’s Trump who is the final target of the book. And good
though it is, I am intrigued as to exactly why Comey wrote it.
A Higher Loyalty
isn’t really an autobiography; rather, it’s a series of morality plays structured
round the events of Comey’s life. So we start by hearing of his struggles at
school in New Jersey, and how he learns one must call out bullies. He talks
about working in a supermarket as a teenager, and the lesson here is what he
learned about leadership from his boss. He is a young lawyer in the
prosecutor’s office in New York, and this lets him discuss the Mafia dons he
helped put behind bars and their morality and code of conduct. He takes his
first major post in government, as Deputy Attorney-General in the George W.
Bush administration, and we are into the story of illegal surveillance and
torture, and how he must demonstrate its illegality. Then he is FBI Director under Obama, and
gives us a glimpse of the latter and of what Comey considers leadership –
courtesy, patience and empathy. Throughout,
there is a theme of public service, and of this higher loyalty – to truth, to
public service, to the Constitution.
All of this is carefully preparing us for when we get to
meet the Orange One, round about page 200. And every life-lesson we’ve read
about in the book so far comes alive at this point, showing us exactly why
Comey thinks him morally bankrupt, soulless and a danger to democracy.
A Higher Loyalty,
in short, is a very neat hatchet job on Trump. But why write it? After all, if
Comey’s the copper-bottomed public servant he’d have us believe, he’d take his
secrets to the grave. I think there are three possible reasons for doing this.
Two do not reflect that well on Comey. The third, however, does.
First, this book could be a self-justification. Comey’s
conduct regarding the Clinton email affair, the way he presented the FBI’s
conclusions on it in July 2016, and his decision to reopen it that October have
made Comey a serious hate figure in some circles. The emphasis Comey puts on
this episode supports the theory that this book is an apologia, as does his
detailed description of his battles with Dick Cheney and his Chief of Staff,
David Addington, over surveillance and torture. As Laurence Dodds put it in a review
in the Telegraph (April 16 2018), “James
Comey wants you to know that he is a good man. Or at least, that he tries. ...[He]
depicts himself as an honest agent in a den of vipers.”
Not everyone is 100% convinced. Carlos Lozada’s review
of the book in the Washington Post (April 14 2018) cites a passage in which Comey
refers to information that could have compromised the then Attorney-General, Loretta
Lynch; but he does not say what it was. It was almost certainly an email in
which Lynch is said to have made improper promises to the Clinton campaign
about the investigation; in fact, there are doubts about the email’s veracity,
and maybe Comey should not have mentioned it. I also wondered if Comey should
have written about the Clinton emails that his team were not able to see (from early in her time as Secretary of State); in
so doing he cast fresh doubt on the affair while claiming that he considered it
closed. That seems a little disingenuous.
And sometimes Comey is just too sure of his ground. Late in
the book Comey comments that: “Doubt, I’ve learned, is wisdom. . . . Those
leaders who never think they are wrong, ... are a danger to the organizations
and people they lead.” This doesn’t impress Lozada. “Trump,” he says, “is the
most severe example of that tendency in this book. But he is not the only one.”
In short, if this book is about self-exculpation, it’s not a total success.
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| Happier times: Comey's appointment is announced (FBI/Wikimedia Commons) |
But there’s a possible second motive for writing this, which
is to set out his stall regarding his next job. Comey is only 57, and wouldn’t
be thinking of retirement. He is currently teaching, but it’s hard to believe
he wouldn’t like to jump back in to the fray. He may see himself as a candidate
for Attorney-General. He may even dream of being Vice-President. Although not
currently registered, he’s historically a Republican. If the Trump presidency
ends very badly, as many Americans seem to expect, any Republican candidate in
2020 will need to distance themselves from the disaster – difficult, as many
swung round behind Trump when he won the nomination. One way might be to have as
their running mate one of Trump’s fiercest critics and worst enemies – and a
man who has stated clearly, in this book, that he believes in the rule of law. Still,
so far Comey has given no sign he wants high office again. And there is a third
explanation; that he has written this book because he is sincerely worried
about what Trump may do to the country’s institutions, and wishes to warn
people.
In particular, he
believes Trump does not understand, or at least not accept, that certain public
officials are not there to serve not him but the broader polity. This is
dangerous. Comey’s main example is the way Trump tried to get a pledge of
loyalty, as a Mafia boss would; the FBI Director cannot give such a pledge –
his duty is to the law. Comey could also, had he wished, said more about the
pressure Trump has put on his Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions, because the
latter has followed the law now and then instead of the President’s wishes.
This isn’t a perfect book. Comey is likely not a perfect
person. Democrats won’t be convinced by his explanations of 2016. And while
Comey does admit to doubts about his past decisions and conduct (Lozada was too
harsh), it’s true he can seem sanctimonious now and then. Even so, Comey seems sincere. “Politics come
and go,” he writes. “Supreme Court justices come and go. But the core of our
nation is our commitment to a set of shared values ...to restraint and integrity
and balance and truth. If that slides away from us, only a fool would be
consoled by a tax cut or a different immigration policy.”
Exculpation? Extended resume? Maybe, in part; but I’m going
with the third explanation . This book is a hatchet job on Trump, to be sure,
but it’s not simply personal. Comey, a senior public servant, wrote this book
as a statement of values that he holds dear, and a warning that they are under
threat. For many, that will be reason to read it.
Mike Robbins's essay Such Little Accident: British democracy and its enemies
was published in December 2016 and is available from Amazon and other online retailers, or through bookshops
(ISBN 978-0-9978815-0-9, ebook; ISBN 978-0-9978815-1-6, paperback)
Follow Mike Robbins on Twitter (mikerobbins19), on Facebook or on Goodreads
