Time and again, James Comey has stood up for that most sacred of U.S. values—the rule of law. He needs to do so again.
Editor’s Note: As Former F.B.I. director James Comey gets ready to testify before the U.S. Senate on connections between Donald Trump’s closest aides and the Russian government to potentially influence on the outcome of the 2016 election, many people are drawing comparisons to Watergate. We reached out to Joe Wilson, author of The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir, who draws a more recent historical parallel.
Jim Comey has his date with destiny this week. I don’t know Comey personally, but he has been a big part of my adult life. As Deputy Attorney General, Comey appointed Pat Fitzgerald as special counsel in the prosecution of the Bush Administration for the treasonous betrayal of a covert CIA officer—my wife, Valerie Plame. That case resulted in the conviction of the Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis Libby for, among other things, obstruction of justice. Libby took the fall for his boss.
Time and again, Comey has stood up for that most sacred of U.S. values—the rule of law. He has challenged political leaders from his own party. He has the opportunity to do so again this week. In fact, his task will be particularly delicate. He has to tell the U.S. Congress and its Republican majority that our President and his senior advisers have committed treason. I hope and have confidence that he will be up to the challenge.
It just so happens that while Comey is testifying, I will be at an event with Hillary Clinton. We are both going to Galveston, Texas, for the commissioning of the USS Gabrielle Giffords, a ship named in honor of the U.S. Congresswoman who took a bullet to the head.
I supported Hillary’s candidacy for President, and I was as dismayed as anyone by Comey’s overcooked response to the Clinton emails—and by the effect that non-issue had on the election. I worked in the White House when emails became the communications vehicle of choice for the executive branch, and I am very familiar with the debate on official records and informal exchanges. Lines that are clearly drawn now were not as clear then.
Whatever fault Hillary should accept for using a private email server, it was not treason, the selling out of our country to a foreign power.
That is what is at stake today.
Donald Trump will not be at the Senate hearing, but he will be the man on trial.
There is clear evidence that Trump’s election campaign compromised our nation to benefit of a foreign power. We must stand up to that.
Trump has bulldozed that etiquette of social and political behavior and has thrust us into a period of real danger. He will, if given the chance, destroy our system of governance. He offends everything I stand for and have fought for my entire adult life.
Joseph C. Wilson IV is a former United States diplomat who exposed the manipulation of U.S. intelligence to create a false impression about the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The subsequent leaking of Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent led to the criminal conviction of Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.