Dropping the Hammer on James Comey- Commentary!
Summary of eRumor:
A commentary titled “Dropping the Hammer on Comey” has appeared in forwarded emails and on social media.
The Truth:
The widely circulated “Dropping the Hammer on Comey” commentary describes former FBI Director James Comey as “a poisonous snake of the highest order” and paints Comey’s career as one marred by cover-ups, corruption and collusion with the Clinton Foundation.
It’s not clear exactly where this commentary originated. It was widely circulated on social media in the days and weeks after President Donald Trump fired Comey in May 2017. We weren’t able to verify the original author of the post, but a lengthy version that appeared at the self-described “alternative news media” website StateoftheNation2012.com has been widely circulated.
The site introduces the commentary as “an excellent comment on Facebook.” A woman named Lisa Frank is identified as the author at the bottom of the piece. We weren’t able to track down the original post, or it’s author.
The commentary begins by stating that James Comey has been “highly paid to deliberately provide cover for high-level corruption by the Clintons and Obama.” Of course, the fact that Hillary Clinton blamed her election loss on Comey’s decision to write a letter informing Congress that he was re-opening the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server in October 2016 would appear to contradict the commentary’s claims.
And we previously investigated claims that James Comey had financial ties to the Clinton Foundation, which resurface later on in this commentary, and found them to be unproven. Although it’s true that Comey worked for Lockheed-Martin and HSBC bank, two businesses that have ties to the Clinton foundation, there are no direct links between Comey himself and the Clinton Foundation.
Given that this writing expresses the author’s personal views of James Comey and his career, we’re classifying it as “commentary.”