BY MAX KUTNER AND JOSH SAUL
FROM LEFT: ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG/GETTY; JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS; PREVIOUS SPREAD: DREW ANGERER/GETTY
JAMES COMEY spends a lot of time away from Washington, D.C., and despite what you might have read, it’s not because he has no friends left there. Comey travels, a lot, all over the country. After the U.S. Senate confirmed him in 2013 as the director of the FBI, he resolved to visit each of the agency’s 56 field offices. “He did not want to just be sitting behind glass doors at FBI headquarters,” says Michael Steinbach, who retired in February as the FBI’s executive assistant director overseeing national security. “He wanted to get out.” And he isn’t just racking up frequent-lier miles—he talks to his agents and solicits their thoughts and concerns.
At those field offices, Comey tells agents the offitcited anecdote about how during a visit to a NASA facility, President John F. Kennedy asked a custodian, “What’s your job here?” and the custodian replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon.” David Johnson, who retired in December as the FBI’s associate executive assistant director for the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch (CCRSB), says Comey uses that perhaps apocryphal tale to underscore his fervent belief that everyone working for the bureau has a single mission—protecting Americans from the bad guys. “He’s trying to get buy-in from the entire organization about what the organization should be doing and how people can contribute,” Johnson says.
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SPLITTING HEADACHE: IS FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY FIR TO TAKE ON TRUMP
Many say FBI Director James Comey torpedoed the presidential aspirations of
Hillary Clinton, and he may soon do the same for Donald Trump. As the bureau’s investigation of Russian interference in the election and the possible collusion of Trump’s camp builds toward a confrontation, America needs to
know if their top G-man is a righteous warrior or a self-righteous prig.