James Comey Gives A Whole New Meaning To The Term "Useful Idiot"

.@Charles__Marino , a former Secret Service agent and national security expert, tells me James Comey is "gonna have a very, very, very long night."

From his experience in the USSS, Marino predicts the Washington field offices for the USSS and the FBI have already been…

— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) May 16, 2025

It wasn't until I got up this morning that I began to realize Comey's 8647 Instagram post hadn't just gone viral, it had metastasized. As both a true crime fan and a follower of the various lawfare cases against Trump, I have sort of a sketchy idea of what can happen if you get the feds on your case. James Comey, as a former FBI Director, should have had a much clearer idea -- but if he did, he apparently never thought it would apply to him.

Farther down in the tweet embedded above, Susan Crabtree quotes more from the former Secret Service agent Charles Marino:

"Look, here's the deal, they're sending agents out, and they're gonna talk to him, and he's not gonna have a choice. He's gonna have to talk to them, because this stuff about, well, I, you know, I found this on the beach. I didn't know what it meant. None of that makes sense."

Just as a true crime amateur who enjoys watching perps being interviewed on TV, I can imagine the questions he's going to have to answer (that is, unless he elects to remain silent, which would nevertheless be disastrous for his reputation):

• "You said in your post that you saw the message in a walk on the beach. Where was that beach?"
• "What time did you see it this morning?"
• "Was anyone with you when you saw it?"
• "Can you take us to where you saw it?"
• "It sounds like you had your phone with you, and you took a photo of the message yourself. Did you in fact take the photo yourself, on your phone?"
• "Can we look at your phone?"

Susan Crabtree, who made the post embedded above, has a much more complete and insightful report at Real Clear Politics that's the most comprehensive I've seen to date.

As an attorney and former top law enforcement official in the nation, Comey is well aware that he can decline an interview without having an attorney present, so he may refuse to cooperate with Secret Service agents’ questioning until he can hire a lawyer to represent him. On the other hand, Comey could agree to demonstrate how open and transparent he is and immediately cooperate and sit down for an interview.

The problem is, as the former Secret Service agent said, "None of that makes sense". Former FBI Director Comey was out for a morning beach stroll. He almost certainly wasn't alone, he likely had an entourage or maybe just a security guy with him -- he's 6'8" and clearly identifiable. Where was this beach? Where on the beach, exactly, did he see the message? Did he discuss it with anyone who was with him?

Oh, by the way, the agents are going to be scouring the area around the beach for security cameras that will confirm or dispute his version of events, which frankly strikes me as improbable.

If he doesn't answer questions, the Secret Servioce/FBI are going to get his phone via subpoena, not to mention video footage, and that will likely establish (or not) his location at the time he claims to have been on the beach. If he took the photo, it'll be on his phone with metadata as to the time and place it was taken. If he didn't take the photo, how did he find it? Did he discuss it with anyone? If he destroys or wipes his phone, he's in trouble for obstruction of justice or tampering with evidence.

If anything on the phone differs from what he's said publicly -- I actually doubt if he took the photo, or he was on the beach when he said he was -- he's got problems with PR and the prosecutor. If there are any contradictions, no matter how small, in what he may have told investigators, he's got the problem that lying to federal investigators is itself a crime, something he himself has used against Trump's advisers.

Just looking at what's come out this morning has me stunned at the incredibly poor judgment this displays -- this guy is presumably a top attorney and a former FBI director, and he's exposed himself to precisely the sort of legal and investigative trouble he was trying to create for people like Michael Flynn and Trump himself.

In January 2017, then-FBI director James Comey decided to send FBI agents to interview Flynn. Knowing that Flynn had asked Kislyak to ensure Russia did not respond harshly to U.S. sanctions and also that Vice President Pence, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and Press Secretary Sean Spicer had all said Flynn told them he had not made such a request, Comey decided that Flynn needed to be interviewed as part of assessing whether Flynn was acting under Russian influence. The FBI discussed how to structure the interview, and then-deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe called Flynn on 24 January, asking him to meet with two FBI counterintelligence agents; Flynn agreed. McCabe also asked if Flynn wanted a lawyer present, to which Flynn said no.

The two agents met Flynn at his office later that day and asked Flynn about his exchanges with Kislyak regarding the late December 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution regarding Israeli settlements. According to the FBI notes, Flynn told the agents he had not tried to influence Russia's vote on the resolution; in fact, he had asked Kislyak to have Russia oppose or delay the resolution. The FBI agents also asked Flynn whether he had asked Kislyak to avoid escalating the diplomatic conflict. According to FBI notes, Flynn responded: "Not really. I don't remember. It wasn't, 'Don't do anything'". After the meeting, the agents prepared an FD-302 form, a form used to summarize an FBI interview, for the discussion with Flynn.

. . . On 13 February, Flynn resigned as National Security Advisor, writing that he had given "incomplete information" of his conversations with Kislyak.

If anyone should be aware of the potential for getting into this sort of hot water, it's Comey himself, but here you are. The first thing I did was check Comey's age, and to my astonishment, he's only 64. He can't plead senility, as some did for his predecessor Robert Mueller, who was 74 at the time of confusing testimony to Congress in 2019.

Elsewhere in her RCP report on Comey's beach blunder, Susan Crabtree gives some details that might provide insight into Comey's state of mind:

Others on social media and cable news Thursday night questioned whether Comey was trying to gin up publicity in advance of the release of his new book, “FDR Drive,” a legal thriller, which will be out May 20. \

[Fox host Jesse] Watters asked [Director of National Intelligence Tulsi] Gabbard whether she thought Comey was trying to “goad” the Trump administration into investigating and prosecuting him to make him a legal martyr so he can regain political relevance.

I've learned enough about the publishing industry to know that when Washington figures like Margaret Truman, John Ehrlichman, or Jim Lehrer write thrillers, they're being paid to attach their names to books that have been ghostwritten by hacks. It sounds like Comey needs money -- his career seems to have lost momentum after Trump fired him as FBI Director in 2017, and he probably needed the new book and the book tour to try to rehabilitate himself.

While he's probably already received his advance, I wouldn't rule out his publisher canceling the release of the book in light of the current controversy, which rules out the book tour. But even if the book comes out and the tour is still on, Comey is going to have other things to worry about, and I would guess he's going to have to pay a whole set of lawyers much more than he'd ever earn from the thriller.

Which brings me to the queston: was James Comey ever all that smart? Scott Adams has always had insight into the potential of guys who are tall with good hair: