White House greenlights GOP plot to smear Comey and undermine FBI

When not busy comparing U.S. federal investigators to “terrorists,” Trump and his allies are set to launch yet another smear campaign against a veteran Republican with a long career in law enforcement.

The rolling attacks aren’t just designed the taint the reputations of special counsel Robert Mueller and former FBI Director James Comey. They’re designed to tarnish key American institutions and to raise doubts about the rule of law in the U.S. as Trump clings to power.

Comey’s memoir, “A Higher Loyalty,” will be published next Tuesday. The book has already topped Amazon’s bestseller list, even before it was released.

That release will be marked by an extensive media push, with Comey sitting for high-profile interviews with virtually every national television news outlet in the country. CNN is even airing a town hall with Comey.

That media blitz begins Sunday with an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, who says Comey compared Trump to a “mob boss.”

In preparation, the Republican National Committee — with the White House’s blessing — is rolling out its own campaign to label the former FBI director a liar and a fraud. The plan, CNN reports, “calls for branding the nation’s former top law enforcement official as ‘Lyin’ Comey’ through a website, digital advertising and talking points to be sent to Republicans across the country.”

The RNC’s attack “illustrates how seriously Trump’s allies are taking the memoir.”

The story Comey is preparing to tell about Trump will likely only add to the deep woes the White House currently faces.

It was Trump’s reckless move on May 9, 2017, to fire Mueller that ignited so many of the controversies that still surround the White House today.

The blockbuster firing quickly set into motion the naming of Mueller as special counsel.

Testifying before Congress last year, Comey relayed how Trump had demanded his loyalty, asked him to drop an investigation into his then-national security adviser, and repeatedly pressured him to announce that Trump wasn’t under investigation.

Since that testimony, Comey has mostly remained out of the spotlight while he wrote his memoir.

Like most of the law enforcement veterans who have become the target of Trump and Fox News’ wrath, Comey is a longtime Republican. He served as a deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and was then appointed by President Barack Obama to lead the FBI in 2013.

But none of that matters now to the GOP, which remains committed to trying to eviscerate anyone who poses to a legal problem for Trump.