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How James Comey responded to Flynn’s indictment

A biblical subtweet.

James Comey Testifies At Senate Hearing On Russian Interference In US Election
James Comey Testifies At Senate Hearing On Russian Interference In US Election
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Jen Kirby
Jen Kirby is a senior foreign and national security reporter at Vox, where she covers global instability.

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. He is reportedly now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller and his team on their investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

There are many ways to process this news. Some might celebrate. Some might try to temper such celebration as premature. Some might point out the irony of those “lock her up” chants.

And some — such as former FBI Director James Comey — might Instagram a scenic picture of a stream and caption it with a not-so-subtle Bible verse:

“But justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,” Comey wrote, citing Amos 5:24.

Comey also posted this image on Twitter last month, which depicts the Great Falls of the Potomac River. He included a different caption then — a quote about the struggle for truth to overcome lies — but then said in a follow-up that the image reminded him of Amos 5:24, which he said was his “favorite scripture verse.” As the Washington Post noted at the time, Comey happened to publish that soon after Trump called him a “liar” while on a trip to Asia.

Trump fired Comey in May, as the then-FBI director was leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Comey later testified before the Senate that Trump, during a White House dinner in January, had pressed him for his “loyalty.” (It is likely not a coincidence that A Higher Loyalty is both the title of Comey’s forthcoming book and his Instagram handle.)

At a separate meeting in the Oval Office in February, Comey said, Trump described Flynn as a “good guy,” telling Comey: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”

Comey only started tweeting under his own name in October; he’d previously been using the handle Reinhold Niebuhr — an American philosopher and theologian whom Comey also likes to quote on other big indictment days.

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