It is being widely reported that James Comey lied to congress last week. He widely misstated the number of emails that Huma Abedin forwarded to her then husband Anthony Weiner. This is, of course, being characterized as an exaggeration, but saying under oath that “hundreds and thousands’ emails were involved when in reality there might have been dozens is like a cop exaggerating a cell phone into a gun and using it as an excuse to shoot a black kid. In both cases the exaggerations are for the purpose or providing cover for law enforcement to engage in unlawful acts, like murder or swaying an election.
The question then is what is congress going to do. Congress has shown in the past that disrespecting them with a lie, even an ancillary lie, is grounds for serious penalties, up to impeachment proceedings. Are the going to tolerate our top FBI man making up facts to support his belief that some people are just crooks and even if there is no evidence, that evidence should be manufactured? Or are they going to take a stand and begin proceeding against this person who himself seems to be a criminal.
The only downside to removing Comey, is, of course, that Trump will likely put someone in at the FBI who is even a more blatant criminal.