The tragedy of James Comey

Why the former FBI director is a tragic figure in the classic sense: someone undone by a flaw inseparable from his virtues

Former FBI Director James Comey.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

For those who first learned the name of James Comey in 2016, the progress of this past year may have seemed like a cruel farce.

Unable to come up with a sufficient basis for an indictment of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the former FBI director nonetheless closed the bureau's investigation of her private email server by giving her a stern and public chastisement — a move that angered Democrats who saw that departure from normal practice as blatantly political while enraging Republicans convinced of Clinton's guilt. Then, when new evidenced surfaced on the eve of the election, he announced the reopening of the investigation, quite possibly tipping the balance to elect President Trump. And finally, since being retained by Trump, he has publicly fretted about having unintentionally changed history, then testified to Congress in ways that were quickly revealed to be misleading — which provided the official rationale for his Tuesday dismissal by the president.

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Noah Millman

Noah Millman is a screenwriter and filmmaker, a political columnist and a critic. From 2012 through 2017 he was a senior editor and featured blogger at The American Conservative. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Politico, USA Today, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Modern Age, First Things, and the Jewish Review of Books, among other publications. Noah lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.