How James Comey Infected the FBI (and other urban myths)

Yet again, retired FBI agent James “Mayor Jim” Gagliano has published his opinion in the New York Post. This time he’s presenting himself as the self-righteous defender of the First Amendment in the face of continuing—and unnecessary—attempts to enact a federal domestic terrorism statute.

In his latest musing, Mayor Jim (yes, he’s the mayor of the Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY) criticizes the work of former U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg and former FBI Agent Tom O’Connor in pushing for a DT law as “nothing more than window dressing.”?

Let me here insert a bit of personal bias. I would certainly give more weight to the arguments presented by two deeply experienced, DT subject matter professionals over that which Mayor Jim has issued in opposition.

Beyond legitimate differences in arguing one side or the other, Gagliano has an insatiable need for attention and a low tolerance for those who disagree with him (I’ve been blocked from his LinkedIn and Twitter sites). Sounds a lot like our former president.

Many retired agents have found opportunities on various cable and network news outlets to inform audiences on law enforcement, intelligence, and overall criminal justice topics. Their FBI experience empowers their voices with unique and unmatched authority. Most exercise that power with restraint and objectivity without venturing into conjecture and speculation. Some do not. Repeatedly.

Over the years, the FBI’s national reputation has enjoyed ups and downs just like law enforcement in general. Each success—or failure—affects the FBI’s reputation but over time, it has been a universally respected institution.

Still, it is one thing to withstand the often erroneous and incomplete assessments from “outsiders” yet quite another to hear it from the ranks of former FBI officials.

But this is a nation that guarantees free speech, not speech free from error or context.

Which brings me to the latest dustup with Gagliano.

Within the last 12 days, Gagliano has appeared in the New York Post (twice), on Newsmax, and on the “Closer Consideration” podcast. Personally, I don’t care how often this guy morphs into a talking head, but I do care about his ad hominem assaults on the character of current and former FBI colleagues.

He may object to my characterization, but I’d urge that folks research his material—and there is a lot of it—and form your own opinion.

Just since January 18, Mayor Jim has attacked the current Dallas SAC, Matt DeSarno, retired agent and past president of the FBIAA, Tom O’Connor, former USA Chuck Rosenberg, former Acting FBI director Andy McCabe, former President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

He seems to hold a special animus for James Comey, Andy McCabe, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page stemming from the Midyear Exam and Crossfire Hurricane investigations and his superior ability to find the flaws in those cases, even though he admits he “never worked in the counterintelligence realm.”?Let that sink in for a moment.

During his Newsmax interview Gagliano attempts to soften his written criticism of DeSarno by saying, “I knew that he [DeSarno] was speaking and parroting talking points from the public affairs office at FBIHQ…” (emphasis mine). One wonders how he knew. ?

In that single passage Gagliano references a common theme that runs through a lot of his commentaries—that FBIHQ is filled with incompetent blue flamers while the field, especially the New York office, is where the real FBI works.

A one-office agent like Gagliano can be forgiven for his NY-centric bias. After all, it has a most-exemplary track record of success, and he is not alone for holding that view. But to launch into, yet again, another unnecessary and inaccurate character assassination of Comey and McCabe to add “color” to an interview is just pathetic.

But this is what he does, repeatedly. He has described the FBI by using the term “woke” in a pejorative sense. But Merriam-Webster defines woke as “chiefly US slang; aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).”

How tone-deaf can one be to criticize the FBI, which has an ugly chapter or two in its history with respect to its treatment of people of color, for being actively attentive to issues of racial and social justice?

Of course, Gagliano knows all of this because, well, here he is in his own words, “I served in mid-level management and was appointed to an acting Senior Executive Service position. That’s the upper echelon of bureau leadership. My final position before I retired in 2016 was the special assistant to the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York office. Understand this to be ‘the last man in the room’ when the leader of the FBI’s largest field division made critical decisions.”

Now I suppose the “upper echelon of bureau leadership” might mean different things to different people, but to me it’s an unfinished thought. Is being an acting legal attaché upper echelon? ?

What about being a special assistant to an assistant director? What exactly does that position entail, besides being the last man in the room with him (or her)? We can guess, but maybe it was a supremely challenging role which helps explain why only the immensely trained and capable Mayor Jim, and not some lesser mortal, could fill it.

In Gagliano’s world, dedicated, hard-working agents who promote and cycle through FBIHQ are somehow sellouts to the legions of street agents who have chosen to remain in the field. But why does such a distinction even exist?

During his podcast on Closer Consideration, Gagliano describes James Comey with a string of glowing adjectives before blaming Comey for “infecting” the Bureau with a culture where Comey “surrounded himself with a lot of people that I felt were ‘yes men’ and I knew who they were. Andy McCabe worked for me. I knew him personally. I felt that [Comey] surrounded himself with callow, inexperienced folks and there was this confirmation bias that took place where if the Director said it then it was just going around the table and nine other people mouthing, ‘yes, of course.’” ?

To claim that Andy McCabe “worked” for Gagliano is a stretch. McCabe was a SWAT team member and Gagliano was the team leader. That’s not a typical supervisor-subordinate relationship where you review an agent’s work, conduct fille reviews, consider various investigative tactics, etc., but to an otherwise FBI-ignorant audience it conveys a deeper connection.

The events surrounding the FBI’s handling of Clinton’s emails and Comey’s decision to publicly describe those efforts before the nation put the FBI on a collision course with both political parties, the two 2016 presidential candidates, both chambers in Congress, and tin-foil conspiracy weavers throughout the nation.

Some feel that was Comey’s most egregious error. But I view it has his stand for FBI independence in the face of a comprised attorney general and withering attacks on the FBI’s competence. Unfortunately, some of the more cutting comments came from many former FBI officials like Gagliano.

Those perceived screw-ups were dismissed when DOJ IG Michael Horowitz issued his final report. I went to great detail in a piece for my fedupgman blog that discusses the more serious allegations and how they fizzled into oblivion.

In a bit of a surprise, Gagliano plays the victim card near the end of his interview on the Closer Consideration. He is recounting his guest appearance on CNN the morning after Comey was fired. Gagliano described his disgust with how one of Trump’s goons delivered the termination letter to FBIHQ and how Comey learned of it while addressing FBI employees at the Los Angeles field office.

Gagliano believes that since he was so critical of Trump in that moment, that CNN hired him full time because “that’s the angle that they were obviously taking on this.” Then he explains, “As my position on Comey evolved, I don’t want to say I fell out of favor, I just began to be used a lot less.”

He goes on to say that he had to read all the IG reports and he became “disgusted, disappointed and angered.” Those emotions which he expressed in 2018 didn’t cause CNN to terminate him; he chose to leave CNN because it had an agenda which he did not support.

Yet he has no agenda concerns over appearing on freaking Newsmax?

Please.

After all this, I know that Jim Gagliano loves his family and did do dramatic work overseeing the task force that broke the back of gangs in Newburgh, New York. But guess what, the Washington Field Office, in 1992, under the direction of then-SAC Robert Bryant (later deputy director) created the FBI’s first multi-agency Safe Streets task force. It counts former Deputy Director Mark Giuliano among its charter members.

When that squad conducted “enforcement actions” in some of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods, it was not uncommon for the residents of those beleaguered areas to lean out their windows and applaud as the knuckleheads and gang bangers were led away in cuffs by men and women in FBI raid jackets. ?

By the way, James V. DeSarno, Matt’s dad, was the criminal ASAC at WFO during those groundbreaking days. It’s easy to see that Jim’s cool head during challenging times is in the genes.

?Great work exists throughout the Bureau and even folks who cycle through FBIHQ to WFO or Baltimore or wherever, are among the very best the FBI ever hired. And yes, there have been more than a handful of those who were out of their depth while standing on the top step in the shallow end of a wading pool. Stuff happens.

But when we’re outside the cadre of active-duty FBI employees, we ought to respect a certain level of decorum when discussing current FBI activities.

James Comey was fired by a corrupt, amoral idiot of a president because he wouldn’t knuckle under to look the other way on a case.

Peter Strzok was fired for nothing more than embarrassing the Bureau, even after the recommended discipline was a 30-day suspension.

Lisa Page was terminated as well. I hope she prevails in her suit.

And Andy McCabe, fired hours before he was eligible to retire, was even in DOJ’s prosecutive cross hairs for a very long time before the case was dismissed. And he successfully sued for everything he lost because of his mistreatment. I am very happy for Andy and his family.

History will continue to evaluate the last several years aided, perhaps, with new information that might yet emerge. ???

Polls and attitudes and politics shift like the wind. But the FBI’s core strength was always derived from its people and their commitment to the Constitution. As long as they continue following the path to truth, undistracted and undeterred by critics from any quarter, they will honor the FBI’s past while ensuring its honorable future.

Finally, Andy McCabe is often asked if, knowing how it all turned out, would he have made the same decisions regarding the investigations in the Trump era. And he always says yes, that to do otherwise would have been malfeasance.

Were those all “yes men” sitting with Comey and McCabe when that decision was made? I doubt it. But I wasn’t in the room.

And I’m pretty sure Mayor Jim wasn’t either.