Next FBI chief has work cut out for him to stay independent

WASHINGTON — After Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey’s was fired, his successor faces a tough challenge to assert independence while pursuing a politically-charged investigation into links between United States President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.

Analysts and former agents said Mr Comey’s exit gives the FBI much-needed space to get past accusations that he botched the probe into Mrs Hillary Clinton’s email server last year, helping swing the election in Mr Trump’s favour.

But, as FBI directors since the agency’s creation 108 years ago have found, politics is never far away, and clashes with the occupants of the White House who select them are almost inevitable.

Whoever takes the lead of the 30,000-strong investigating agency could also end up crossing swords with Mr Trump over the probe into Russian interference in the election, which the President has repeatedly branded as “fake news”.

But not aggressively following that risks more accusations that the agency has given in to politics.

“It is no longer possible for the FBI to conduct its investigation into the Trump campaign’s involvement in Russian electoral interference in any meaningfully independent way,” said Mr Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. “Even if the next FBI director avoids any hint of improperly seeking to influence the investigation, the damage has been done; the sight of Comey’s head on a pike is influence enough.”

J Edgar Hoover, who led the country’s top police agency for 48 years from 1924, had a legendary upper hand over the White House thanks to secret files on politicians he amassed over decades.

But since then FBI chiefs serve presidents at their own peril. Hoover’s successor L Patrick Gray, acting director under then-president Richard Nixon, was forced out after just under a year for obeying White House orders and burning Watergate-related documents.

In 1993, then-president Bill Clinton fired director William Sessions, who served nearly six years, citing a report about managerial abuse but also clearly seeking his own top cop.

But Mr Sessions’ replacement, Mr Louis Freeh, turned the tables. The former FBI agent became a constant antagonist as the Clinton White House plunged into a series of scandals, most notably the Monica Lewinsky affair that nearly saw Mr Clinton being removed from office.

But it also made Mr Freeh look partisan, on the side of a Republican assault on the Democratic president.

Mr Freeh was never apologetic about taking a stance against Mr Clinton, who he said lacked a “moral compass”. “His closets were full of skeletons just waiting to burst out,” Mr Freeh wrote in a 2005 tell-all book.

Mr Comey was well-liked by the FBI rank and file after then-president Barack Obama named him director in September 2013. The former lawyer and prosecutor paid attention to staff needs, said 25-year agency veteran Ed Shaw. But when Mr Comey went public on July 5 last year to announce that he would not recommend criminal charges against Mrs Clinton for mishandling classified emails, Mr Shaw said he and many of his colleagues were deeply disappointed.

In the middle of the election, Mr Comey dangerously dragged the agency into politics, said Mr Shaw, when he should have stayed quiet and forwarded his conclusions to the Department of Justice (DOJ). “That was recklessly poor judgment,” he said. “You don’t talk about investigations, let the DOJ do that. That’s their job.”

No one knew at the time that Mr Comey was also juggling another case that involved the Trump campaign and Russian interference into the election. Together, said analysts, the cases put him in an almost impossible situation — anything revealed before or after the Nov 8 vote could draw a severe backlash from political parties and accusations of favouritism.

“When you are going up that high on the food chain, the higher you fly, the harder you fall if you make a mistake,” said Mr Shaw.

Agents critical of Mr Comey’s handling of the Clinton case nevertheless worry about what happens next.

The FBI Agents Association said in a statement they want a voice in who Mr Trump nominates. Mr Comey’s focus “was to ensure that the bureau’s investigations complied with the law and the Constitution, and that agents performed their mission with integrity and professionalism”. AFP