There is something profoundly sanctimonious about Benjamin Wittes and fired FBI Director James Comey sitting under a the banner of “Lawfare” and pontificating about the need to save beloved “institutions of government”.  Even the terminology “Lawfare” describes the intentional use of the legal process to wage ideological war against your enemies; in this example, political enemies.

In this soundbite captures from a Brookings Institution symposium break-out session sponsored by Benjamin Wittes and the Lawfare Blog, Wittes interviews James Comey about the threats posed by the sunlight of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes.

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The Lawfare group is mentioned several times in text messages between corrupt FBI Agent Peter Strzok and DOJ Special Counsel Lisa Page.  The group of like-minded, politically motivated, lawyers was used frequently by Lisa Page to frame arguments within their investigative endeavors during the Clinton exoneration and Trump investigation.

Accordingly, recently resigned FBI Chief Legal Counsel James Baker announced after his departure he was going to work for Wittes at Lawfare.  Birds of a feather.. etc.

The position espoused by James Comey in the video snippet is almost identical to the espoused motives of his friend Robert Mueller.  Both officials reconcile allowing the politicization and weaponization of the FBI and DOJ around the premise of ‘defending the institutions’.  It’s an absurdly circular framework of ideology.

There is no doubt Comey allowed, and at times promoted, the political use of the FBI in an effort to achieve goals based on his own corrupt standards and values.  One only needs to look at the conduct of the upper-tier of officials within the agencies to see the breeding ground for agenda-based institutions.

FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Chief Legal Counsel James Baker, Chief of Staff Jim Rybicki, Director of Public Affairs Michael Kortan and embattled FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok are all clearly outlined as participating in some of the most corrupt internal schemes in the history of the agency.

This “tight group” as Comey describes, have all been fired -or demoted then resigned- with clear evidence of misconduct outlined by the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility.

The sole remaining person (on the FBI side) central to the “small group” endeavors is demoted FBI agent Peter Strzok; likely due to cooperation at some level with the ongoing internal investigations.   We have yet to fully understand the scale of the corruption therein; but the parts we do know are astounding.

The mindset in this Wittes/Comey interview is bizarre to say the least.  Corrupt the  institution for political motives – then decry transparency demanded of the corruption therein in an effort to preserve the institution.  To quote Emerson: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.”

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