The
American people — not to mention the credibility of the world’s oldest
democracy — require a thorough, impartial investigation into the extent
of Russia’s meddling with the 2016 presidential election on behalf of
Donald Trump and, crucially, whether high-ranking members of Mr. Trump’s
campaign colluded in that effort.
By firing the F.B.I. director,
James Comey, late Tuesday afternoon, President Trump has cast grave
doubt on the viability of any further investigation into what could be
one of the biggest political scandals in the country’s history.
The
explanation for this shocking move — that Mr. Comey’s bungling of the
investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server violated
longstanding Justice Department policy and profoundly damaged public
trust in the agency — is impossible to take at face value. Certainly Mr.
Comey deserves all the criticism heaped upon him for his repeated missteps in that case, but just as certainly, that’s not the reason Mr. Trump fired him.
Mr. Trump had nothing but praise
for Mr. Comey when, in the final days of the presidential campaign, he
informed Congress that the bureau was reopening the investigation into
Mrs. Clinton’s emails. “He brought back his reputation,” Mr. Trump said
at the time. “It took a lot of guts.”
Of
course, if Mr. Trump truly believed, as he said in his letter of
dismissal, that Mr. Comey had undermined “public trust and confidence”
in the agency, he could just as well have fired him on his first day in
office.
Mr. Comey was fired because he was leading an active investigation
that could bring down a president. Though compromised by his own poor
judgment, Mr. Comey’s agency has been pursuing ties between the Russian
government and Mr. Trump and his associates, with potentially ruinous
consequences for the administration.
With
congressional Republicans continuing to resist any serious
investigation, Mr. Comey’s inquiry was the only aggressive effort to get
to the bottom of Russia’s ties to the Trump campaign. So far, the
scandal has engulfed Paul Manafort, one of Mr. Trump’s campaign
managers; Roger Stone, a longtime confidant; Carter Page, one of the
campaign’s early foreign-policy advisers; Michael Flynn, who was forced
out as national security adviser; and Attorney General Jeff Sessions,
who recused himself
in March from the Russia inquiry after failing to disclose during his
confirmation hearings that he had met twice during the campaign with the
Russian ambassador to the United States.
We have said
that Mr. Comey’s atrocious handling of the Clinton email investigation,
which arguably tipped the election to Mr. Trump, proved that he could
not be trusted to be neutral, and that the only credible course of
action would be the appointment of a special prosecutor. Given all that
has happened — the firing of the F.B.I. director, on top of Mr. Trump’s
firing of the acting attorney general, Sally Yates, and his dismissal of
nearly all United States attorneys — the need for such a prosecutor is
plainer than ever. Because Mr. Sessions is recused, the decision to name
a special prosecutor falls to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein,
whose memo, along with a separate one by Mr. Sessions, provided Mr.
Trump with the pretense to fire Mr. Comey.
This
is a tense and uncertain time in the nation’s history. The president of
the United States, who is no more above the law than any other citizen,
has now decisively crippled the F.B.I.’s ability to carry out an
investigation of him and his associates. There is no guarantee that Mr.
Comey’s replacement, who will be chosen by Mr. Trump, will continue that
investigation; in fact, there are already hints to the contrary.
The obvious historical parallel to Mr. Trump’s action was the so-called Saturday Night Massacre
in October 1973, when President Richard Nixon ordered the firing of the
special prosecutor investigating Watergate, prompting the principled
resignations of the attorney general and his deputy. But now, there is
no special prosecutor in place to determine whether the public trust has
been violated, and whether the presidency was effectively stolen by a
hostile foreign power. For that reason, the country has reached an even
more perilous moment.
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