Jim Comey, the former head of the FBI whose time was marked by his high-profile investigation of Hillary Clinton, delivered an impassioned message to his old colleagues on Tuesday night — and turned to philosopher Marcus Aurelius to do so.
Comey made the remarks in a post on his Instagram account, where he encouraged his former FBI colleagues to resist taking “anyone’s side,” and reminded them: “You will be okay in the long run.”
“The water is rough right now and the sea is likely to rage over the next four years, but your children and grandchildren will be proud that you stayed true to the values of your great institution,” Comey wrote.
He told them to follow Aurelius' advice, and "be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over."
"'It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls around it,'" wrote Comey, quoting the philosopher.
His message comes just weeks before Donald Trump is set to make his return to the White House. The Trump-Vance transition team is currently working to install dozens of Trump loyalists into high-profile government positions, many of whom have made alarming threats to go after the incoming president’s political opponents.
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While he didn’t mention Trump by name, Comey hinted at the simmering political climate in his message.
“In just the last few years, you have been called upon to execute court-ordered search warrants in the home closets of prominent politicians across the aisle,” Comey wrote. “In the case of a Democratic senator, you found gold bars taken as bribes; in the case of a Republican former president, you found piles of top secret documents, taken for reasons yet unknown.”
It was those investigations that Comey said “predictably” led politicians and their supporters “to decry the alleged partisan bias of the FBI.”
He pointed out in his post that the agency’s focus should be “devoted only to finding out what is true” and by design means agents “will have few fans among politicians who have done something they shouldn’t have.”
“It will always be that way, although the painful division in modern America has made the lying voices louder and nastier than ever, and social media has unfortunately made them easier for you and your loved ones to hear,” Comey wrote.
He added: “But when the liars leave the stage, you will still be at work, trying to find facts in a careful and honest way.”
