Finally, we’ve got confirmation. Fired FBI Director James Comey is on twitter with the handle @FormerBU. The account always kept a low-profile, only making one post before October. That changed with Oct. 18, with several random nature pictures in places described as West Point, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This also included the image of a man looking at the sunset in Iowa. Finally, he posted this on Monday morning.
Goodbye Iowa. On the road home. Gotta get back to writing. Will try to tweet in useful ways. pic.twitter.com/DCbu3Yvqt3
— Reinhold Niebuhr (@FormerBu) October 23, 2017
Hey, look, it’s a guy who looks a lot like James Comey, staring off pensively into the distance. Comey’s friend, national security expert Benjamin Wittes, confirmed that the account indeed belongs to the fired FBI Director.
Ok, in light of this latest tweet, I will confirm that @FormerBu is, in fact, James Comey himself. https://t.co/6QbhOG7Qzp
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) October 23, 2017
Comey confirmed months ago that he has an account, but didn’t say which one. Reporter Ashley Feinberg hunted it down in March, when it carried the handle @projectexile7. She noted that Wittes followed this random, low-profile account.
The name Reinhold Niebuhr belongs to an influential American theologian. Comey wrote about him in a college senior thesis. This is only “Reinhold’s” sixth tweet, the 5th in this month. The first one happened in March, in an apparent show of respect to Feinberg discovering the account. It included a link to the FBI’s job page.
https://t.co/L5ehuMFGat pic.twitter.com/x53gCG7Nvc
— Reinhold Niebuhr (@FormerBu) March 30, 2017
In the new tweet, “Gotta get back to writing” is a nice little clue about what Comey is up to. The former law enforcement official has a book deal. This memoir, about his career, is scheduled for publication next Spring. Expect every political journalist and their uncle to read it for juicy tidbits. President Donald Trump fired him in May, ostensibly for doing a bad job. The timing didn’t attract the best optics, however. The FBI was investigating Russian interference in the 2016. Part of that probe involved alleged collusion with the Trump campaign. The public blowback led to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint a special counsel to take over the inquiry.
Update – Oct. 23, 1:01 p.m.: This article has been revised to include confirmation that this is Comey’s account.
[Screengrab via PBS]
