In creating fiction, writers may perhaps express truth that cannot be said in settings that require close conformity to observable facts. In that his purpose was to interest audiences, Shakespeare had license to depart from historical fact in creating plays such as Henry VIII.  Filmmakers who depict actual persons and events may not have to hew to the actual history in the way that most serious scholars must try to do.  A biopic on Hannah Arendt included a scene in which Israeli covert operatives accosted her while out for a solo walk on a road in rural Connecticut; thus far I cannot confirm this incident actually happened. In the biopic “The Comey Rule,” filmmakers also took some liberties with the history for dramatic purposes.

Filmmakers claimed to base “The Comey Rule” on James Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty.”  The film asserts that FBI Mid-Year Exam investigators could not recommend an indictment of former Secretary Hillary Clinton because her carelessness was standard government practice. In contrast to this, Comey wrote they could not recommend indictment because of what General David Petraeus had basically gotten away with, which was much worse than what former Secretary Clinton did. Comey was concerned others without the public stature of Petraeus or Clinton could face severe punishment for comparable misdoings; and, in fact, authorities would go on to throw the book at Reality Winner, whom I consider a hero.

“The Comey Rule” depicts a foreboding among those who found it unfair to make FBI investigations of Hillary Clinton publicly known, contrary to FBI practice, when an investigation, pursuant to some things campaign worker George Papadopoulos had said, of possibly treasonous behaviors of Donald Trump was kept secret.

In 1988, Newt Gingrich said, “This war [against Democrats] has to be fought with a scale and duration and savagery that is only true of civil wars.”   Republicans who had united against communism now opposed Democrats with so much virulence as to afford inroads to a national adversary.

It appears, now, that President Trump only approved sanctions against Russia to get a better deal on Russian diesel fuel.

Mary H. Hall

South Hadley