Folks are exercised about FBI Director Comey's decision not to recommend prosecution of Clinton, and his recent defense thereof in a memo to the bureau's employees, which memo was immediately leaked to the press. See two examples from recent Power Line posts here and here.
My view is that before Comey announced his decision he was informed by the White House and/or the AG that there would be no prosecution and that his choices were (a) to announce that as his recommendation or (b) to resign and make a stink about their stonewalling. As any good bureaucrat with an eye on his pension would, he knuckled under.
Yes, I know, we'd have preferred Comey to fall on his sword, and sacrifice his career for the greater good. Sadly, that isn't how the reward matrix is constructed.
Go ask Archibald Cox, Elliot Richardson, and William Ruckelshaus how taking a principled stand resulting in the Watergate Saturday Night Massacre worked out for them. The fact that I, a political maven, had to go look up their names should tell you everything. They basically became non-persons.
I suppose his memo is a desperate bid to keep leakers from sharing their dissatisfaction with the less-tame elements of the press. Recent FBI retirees must be a particular problem as they're hard to coerce..
