Skip Rudy Giuliani.
Say no to Chris Christie.
If President Donald Trump ever wants to move beyond politics and restore faith in the FBI, he needs to pick someone he doesn’t know to lead the nation’s domestic intelligence and security service, Akron Police Chief James Nice, a retired FBI executive, said Wednesday.
“The new director needs to come in and make it clear they are not a Trump puppet,” Nice said. “FBI agents are strong-willed people — CPAs, attorneys, professionals — and they are not going to be pushed around.”
Nice, an Akron native, came home in 2011 to take the city’s top cop job after retiring from the FBI, where he served 26 years investigating everything from the Los Angeles riots to 9/11. His last job with the federal agency — chief of the Undercover and Sensitive Operations Unit — was based in Washington, D.C.
In the 24 hours since Trump sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey telling him he was fired, Nice on Wednesday estimated he’d spoken with at least 35 current or former agents and FBI executives about what had happened.
“The general consensus was everybody liked James Comey in terms of the way he did business and what he brought to the agency. He was a well-received guy,” Nice said.
Yet there was consensus, too, that Comey’s actions in the run-up to November’s presidential election — first saying no reasonable prosecutor would pursue charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server and then, in October, seeming to reverse course by saying the FBI had reopened the probe after discovering a new trove of emails in the case — had hurt the reputation of the FBI, Nice said.
“People actually trust the FBI,” he said. “When you come into a room, there’s a higher level of trust, just the highest for being FBI — completely honest, no corruption.”
Comey’s actions involving the Clinton probe made Republicans and Democrats question what Comey — and, to a lesser extent, what the FBI — was doing and why. That, he said, eroded trust across the political spectrum.
Nice, who has taught law enforcement around the world, said too many countries don’t trust their nation’s law enforcement. He doesn’t want that to happen in the United States.
“If the goal is to restore confidence and [Comey is] the guy people were losing confidence in, you put a new person in,” Nice said.
Nice said he and others connected to the FBI thought Comey’s job might be at risk in January when Trump took office.
But as the months of the new presidency ticked by, Comey’s job seemed more and more secure, he said.
That’s why Comey’s firing Tuesday was such a bombshell, he said. No one saw it coming.
The timing of Trump’s action — coming days after Comey asked the Justice Department for substantial new resources to continue its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election — has raised different issues of trust.
Did Trump fire Comey with the hope of derailing the probe that could involve some political allies?
Trump’s political adversaries suspect so, even though the White House flatly denies it.
In the end, Nice said, it likely won’t matter. FBI agents will continue the Russian probe, along with scores of terrorism, government corruption and other investigations unabated, overseen by layers of FBI directors.
“The organization is bigger than the director,” Nice said, “and most of the agents I know understand that.”
Amanda Garrett can be reached at 330-996-3725 or agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.