Latest Articles

Loyalty to Self

June 15, 2018  •  City Journal

The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General's long-awaited report found no explicit political agenda or motivation for former FBI director James Comey's "extraordinary" violations of FBI and DOJ rules, regulations, policies, and procedures. Nor did the 568-page report challenge Comey's decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email in handling secret information while serving as President Barack Obama's Secretary of State. "We found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations," concluded Michael Horowitz, the independent-minded inspector general, after reviewing 1.2 million documents and interviewing more than 100 witnesses.

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North Korea Summit: A Trump-Kim PR stunt or a major step toward denuclearization?

June 13, 2018  •  Fox News

The Singapore summit was quintessentially Trumpian – a made-for-TV spectacular, long on red-carpet pageantry and short on substance. It was also Trumpian in another sense: both President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made vague pledges they can easily ignore should follow-on talks falter.

President Trump expressed optimism Wednesday about the outcome of the talks, tweeting: "Just landed - a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!"

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Stay the Course Against ISIS

May 30, 2018  •  City Journal

It's tempting to see the Islamic State's retreat in Iraq and Syria as an American victory, but at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing last week, several terrorism experts issued a stark warning: don't gloat; stay the course.

Though badly damaged territorially, Islamic State has not been defeated, they maintained. They warned that it would be a major strategic blunder to declare victory prematurely and withdraw American forces from the fight. They agreed that ISIS is much diminished but observed that its "virtual caliphate" remains capable of carrying out lethal attacks and inspiring mayhem at home and abroad—and that the movement underlying it, militant Islamism, continues to grow.

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Comey & Plame, spinning away on Scooter Libby

May 10, 2018  •  New York Daily News

There are many ways to lie. The simplest is to assert something that is patently false. But a more insidious, effective way is to ignore facts that contradict one's narrative.

Consider the reaction of former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA employee Valerie Plame to President Trump's recent pardon of I. Lewis (aka Scooter) Libby. In 2007, Libby, who had been Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted of perjury and obstructing justice during the investigation of how Plame's identity had been leaked to the press four years earlier. In pardoning Libby, Trump declared he had been unjustly prosecuted.

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Trump's Iran deal move splits America from its European allies -- that's a problem

May 9, 2018  •  Fox News

President Trump's unilateral withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal has driven yet another wedge between Washington and its closest European allies – a longstanding goal of Iranian policy and a major gift to Russia.

The decision announced Tuesday by President Trump flouted public appeals from French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson. All of them came to Washington in recent days to plead with President Trump not to walk away from the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The Europeans argued that abrogating the agreement threatens the solidarity of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a united front against Russia.

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