The Justice Department is trying to prosecute James Comey for the third time, and the president's explanation of why is that Comey is a "dirty cop." Asked about the case, Donald Trump then added, "I don't know much about it." That is a hell of a legal theory: total conviction, zero information.
Third Time's the Charm, Apparently
According to court documents made public Monday, the Justice Department filed a "criminal information" in Washington federal court charging Comey with transmitting and conspiring to transmit national defense information. The allegation is that he shared classified material with a New York Times reporter in October 2016. That is a very specific accusation about something that happened a decade ago.
The Guardian, relaying Reuters reporting, notes that the department said it filed the document to stop the 10-year statute of limitations from expiring earlier this month. So the clock was about to run out, and the department sprinted to the courthouse to stop it. Not the behavior of a team with a slam-dunk case. The behavior of a team with a deadline and a target.
And this is attempt number three. Three. At some point a prosecutor is just a guy who keeps asking the same question after the answer comes back no.
The Legal Theory of Vibes
Here is the president's full contribution to the discussion, delivered at Joint Base Andrews: "I think he's a dirty cop." Pressed on the actual case, he said, "I don't know much about it."
Let that sink in. The man who runs the executive branch, which includes the Justice Department doing the prosecuting, has a firm opinion on Comey's character and no particular knowledge of the charges. He has the verdict. He skipped the discovery.
This is supposed to be the part where a president says he can't comment on an ongoing prosecution. Instead we got a drive-by insult from a man who admits he hasn't read the file. If you wanted to design a scenario that looks like a personal vendetta wearing a federal badge, you could not do much better than this.
Comey's Response: Short and Tired
Comey posted a video on Instagram. "They're back again," he said, referencing the Justice Department, and he didn't offer further details. "I'm still innocent," he added.
That is the energy of a man who has been through this twice already and is handling it like a recurring dental appointment. His lawyers have already asked a judge to dismiss the case, arguing it is legally improper. We will see what the court makes of a charge filed in a hurry to beat a statute of limitations.
The Dingo Daily is not in the business of declaring anyone's guilt or innocence from a blog post. But the pattern here is hard to miss, and a pattern is exactly what a judge is going to look at.
Meanwhile, in Mississippi
The same day, Trump showed up in Corinth, Mississippi, to campaign for Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and told the crowd his rallies have "totally changed the dialogue." His modest self-assessment: "Nobody's ever campaigned like I have for midterms."
Then a protester started a dialogue of his own, raising the subject of the president's ballroom and where it might most appropriately be located. We don't have a transcript of the suggestion. We have our guesses, and the protester gets full credit for understanding the assignment.
It is a small moment, but it captures something: the man says he has changed the dialogue, and the dialogue immediately talked back.
The Cheesecake Factory Feud
Over the weekend, Barack Obama joked that Trump's renovation of the White House, with its "gold everywhere," has "the White House looking like Saddam Hussein open a Cheesecake Factory." It is a very good joke. It is also, based on the reaction, an accurate one, because nothing triggers a man like an accurate joke.
Trump responded by lashing out in racist terms at his predecessor, telling reporters that Obama "doesn't notice dirt and filth" of the White House. He called himself "a very clean person," said "you have to explain that to Obama," and declared the former president "not smart at all."
The dirt and filth line is a choice, and not a subtle one. A president who could have answered a Cheesecake Factory joke with a joke of his own reached instead for something ugly. Consider the Comey case alongside that, and a picture forms of an administration whose reflex under pressure is to swing at people rather than answer them.
Brazil Votes, Trump Calls It Rigged
Also on the president's list of grievances: the comeback victory of Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, over his far-right opponent, Flavio Bolsonaro. Trump said it "looked like another rigged election, frankly."
Note the word "another." He is not describing evidence. He is describing a category, one that apparently includes every election his preferred side loses. It is the same move, aimed at a different country.
No fraud was cited. No findings were offered. It looked rigged to him, and in this administration, how a thing looks to the president is increasingly the whole standard of proof.
The Dingo Take
In 1692, Salem didn't need the accused to be guilty. It needed the accusation to be loud, the accuser to be certain, and the clock to be running. The Justice Department just ran a modern version of that play: a deadline, a decade-old allegation, and a defendant the president already dislikes.
The president knows almost nothing about the case and has decided anyway. His Justice Department had a statute of limitations about to expire and rushed a third attempt to the courthouse. If you were a juror, or a judge, or just a person who likes your law enforcement to be about law, how exactly are you supposed to read that? As a prosecution or as a grudge with a filing number?
Comey may or may not have a defense that holds up, and that is for a court to decide. But when the president calls a man a "dirty cop" while admitting he hasn't looked at the facts, he hands the defense its best exhibit. Nobody had to leak that one. He said it out loud, at an airbase, on camera.
Comments