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News Tip: Comey ‘More of a Threat as a Former FBI Director,’ Expert Says

Duke faculty comment on firing of FBI Director Comey

Steve Hartsoe
Forrest Norman
Karen Kemp

President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired FBI Director James Comey. The following Duke University professors offer insights on the potential ramifications of the firing.

Christopher Schroeder

  • Quotes:
    “The firing of FBI Director James Comey is a serious, democracy and Constitution-threatening action. Comparisons to the Saturday Night Massacre and Watergate may in some ways be overdrawn, but in two fundamental ways the similarities are undeniable,” says Christopher Schroeder, a law professor at Duke University who has served as an assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the United States Department of Justice.

    “First, in each case, the president fired the individual responsible for investigating potentially criminal behavior of the president’s inner circle, including the president himself. Second, in each case the president stood before the nation and lied about the facts, rhetorically flicking his wrist at charges claimed to be baseless, or in today’s parlance, fake news, or sent his aides out to do it for him.”

    “The nation is choosing sides on the Russian election interference investigation before the facts are in. Both sides and everyone who remains uncertain should at this point share one desire: A trusted, independent investigation that brings out all the relevant information. Otherwise, we risk a profound loss of trust in the President and the office he holds that no one should want.” 

    “Will we get an independent investigation? This depends critically on whether there is a third similarity between 1974 and today. Nixon ultimately walked the country back from a precipice only when Republicans Hugh Scott, John Rhodes and Barry Goldwater met with him and reported that Nixon’s support among his own party’s elected officials had evaporated. Republican members of Congress viewed the situation from the perspective of the health of the nation and its institutions.”

    “Today, will enough Republican leaders take the same perspective, or will they see this as a battle between Democrats and Republicans to win or lose, and circle the wagons? In the next days and weeks, we will figure out whether the bipartisan interests of fact-finding and truth-telling prevail, or whether they will be crushed by partisan rancor.”

  • Bio:
    Christopher Schroeder is a professor of law and public policy at Duke University. He has twice served as assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the United States Department of Justice, during the Obama and Clinton administrations. He was responsible for legal advice to the attorney general and the president on a broad range of legal issues, including separation of powers and other constitutional issues. He has also served as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
    https://law.duke.edu/fac/schroeder/

  • Archive video on President Trump’s executive orders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvjHFD7NxAw

  • For additional comment, contact Christopher Schroeder at:
    Schroeder@law.duke.edu

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    Media Contact:
    Forrest Norman
    (919) 613-8565
    norman@law.duke.edu     
                                       

    Peter Feaver

  • Quotes:
    "The legitimate questions about what the Russians were doing cannot be fired away. Indeed, if Comey has damaging testimony to offer, he would seem to be even more of a threat as a former FBI director than as an acting one,” writes Duke University political scientist Peter Feaver, a former national security adviser to President George W. Bush, in a blog post on Foreign Policy.

    “The Russian issue, which was a cloud that hovered over Trump’s first 100 days, increasingly looks like it will darken his second 100 days, and beyond.”

    “I think the way forward -- and out -- is the same one that struck me as obvious two months ago: A blue-ribbon independent commission patterned on the 9/11 Commission and empowered to give the American people a complete accounting of what foreign powers did to intervene in the 2016 election.”

  • Bio
    Peter Feaver is a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University. He also directs the Triangle Institute for Security Studies and is director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy. From 2005 to 2007, Feaver served as a special adviser for Strategic Planning and Institutional Reform on the National Security Council Staff at the White House.
    http://polisci.duke.edu/people/peter-d-feaver 
     
  • Archive video interview (different subject): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jEfu74jU2Y

  • For additional comment, contact Peter Feaver at:
    pfeaver@duke.edu (available until 2 p.m. Wednesday)

    ---
    Media Contact:
    Karen Kemp
    (919) 613-7394
    karen.kemp@duke.edu

    Bruce Jentleson

  • Quotes:
    “During Watergate the core questions about President Richard Nixon were what did he know about the break-in and cover-up and when did he know it?” says Bruce Jentleson, a professor of public policy and political science at Duke University and a former senior adviser to the U.S. State Department policy planning director.

    “For President Donald Trump the comparable questions are why did he fire FBI Director James Comey, and why has he fired other Justice Department lawyers associated with issues involving investigations into possible relationships of concern his associates and President Trump may have had with Vladimir Putin and other Russians?”

    “As serious as Watergate was, this case may not only be a violation of the Constitution but could compromise the nation’s security. An independent prosecutor needs to be appointed, quickly and with sufficient assurances of independence to have the confidence of the country. At the same time Congress must keep pushing its investigations, as should the media and others.”