1 Boring Old Man

I’m trying to stop obsessing about the NY Times article [U.S. Lawyers Agreed on Legality of Brutal Tactic] that read James Comey’s leaked emails as saying he approved of Torture [or, at least, didn’t disapprove of it]. I’m just going to set that point aside. If you read the seven pages, his feelings about this are quite clear, as was his advice. Getting us all hung up on refuting their frame changing spin is a standard technique, and I’ve fallen into that hole for a couple of days. emptywheel and Dan Froomkin have responded to that article’s allegations much more cogently than I could ever muster.

But there are a couple of lines in one email that nobody’s mentioned, or at least I don’t find mentioned. Comey has repeatedly tried to get AG Gonzales to balk in response to the White House pressure, to no avail. As he speaks to Gonzales before the AG heads to a meeting of the Principals [Comey repeatedly says "Principles"], he gives him something:

The first paragraph makes Comey’s stand very clear. He even mentions the C.I.A. Torture Video [later destroyed]. But then he talks about giving Gonzales "a card" with a listing of all [Torture?] techniques "including some things that never get mentioned because they are ‘preliminary.’" What is he talking about? It seems important. Comey was pleading with Gonzales to do the right thing, to talk some sense into the Principals. In his last act, he hands this card to AG Alberto Gonzales.