Comey's failure to investigate leaks led to his firing

Paul Sperry:
The straw that broke the camel’s back for now-ousted FBI Director James Comey was the investigation he apparently wasn’t doing.

President Trump’s much-reported frustration with Comey almost certainly arose from the G-man’s failure to get to the bottom of Obama aides’ illegal leaks of classified information — leaks aimed at undermining the incoming Trump administration.

And top Republicans in Congress shared that concern.

Under grilling last week, the director refused to say whether he had launched a probe into illegal leaks by the Obama team of highly classified intelligence intercepts of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and possibly other private US citizens working on the Trump transition.

“I don’t want to answer that,” Comey told Senate Judicary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley. The chairman described that reticence as odd given how the government “regularly acknowledges” when it’s investigating classified leaks.
...
Anger boiled over Monday, after two ex-officials, Obama intelligence czar James Clapper and holdover Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, testified that nobody at the FBI had talked to them, four months after the leaks, even though they’d be key witnesses in any probe.

That suggests Comey either never opened an investigation or has been dragging his feet. The next day, Trump fired Comey.

A week earlier, Grassley sent Comey’s boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a letter urging him to make sure the leaks are “fully and impartially investigated.” Grassley indicated he wasn’t confident Comey or his deputy, McCabe, were up to the task.
...
Is the FBI obstructing justice by not investigating these leaks which appear to be a part of a liberal coup operation against the new administration? While I think this is a good reason for firing him, if true, it is not clear to me why the administration didn;t just say this was the reason up front.

Kimberley Strassel at the Wall Street Journal has more on the failure of the FBI to investigate the leaks.  One reason may have been that the leaks were coming from within the FBI.

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