Narrator: Imagine a hospital room in the dead of night. The Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft, lies gravely ill in an intensive care unit. Suddenly, the President’s Chief of Staff and White House Counsel arrive, intending to persuade the incapacitated Ashcroft to sign off on a controversial domestic surveillance program that his own Justice Department has deemed illegal. But they are not alone. Racing to the hospital just moments before them is the Acting Attorney General, James Comey, who has alerted the Director of the FBI. Comey stands vigil at Ashcroft’s bedside, determined to prevent a subversion of the law at the highest levels of power. When the White House officials press the ailing man to sign, Ashcroft, summoning his strength, lifts his head and points a shaky finger at Comey. “There,” he says, “is the attorney general.”

This dramatic standoff, a moment of immense pressure and principle, is just one of the defining events explored in James Comey’s memoir, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership. The book is a journey through the corridors of power, offering a rare and candid look at the ethical dilemmas that confront leaders when personal allegiance clashes with the rule of law.

Narrator: James Comey’s understanding of leadership was not shaped in a classroom but in the stark realities of crime and justice. His career began in the trenches, prosecuting the Gambino crime family in New York. There, he learned a fundamental lesson from Mafia turncoat Sammy “The Bull” Gravano: for the mob, “The Life begins with a lie.” The Mafia’s entire structure, from its secret initiation rituals to its code of conduct, was built on a foundation of deception. This world of transactional loyalty, where honor was a facade for violence and self-interest, provided a dark mirror to the principles of ethical leadership.

This perspective was sharpened by a terrifying experience from his youth. As a teenager, Comey and his brother were held at gunpoint in their own home by a notorious serial attacker. Facing what he believed was certain death, Comey learned a profound lesson about the value of life and the nature of evil. That encounter instilled in him a deep-seated desire to protect others and pursue justice, a path that led him away from a pre-med track and toward a career in law. These formative experiences—confronting both the organized lies of the Mafia and the random chaos of violent crime—cemented his belief that true leadership is not about power or control, but about an unwavering commitment to the truth.

Narrator: Comey’s principles were put to the ultimate test during his time as Deputy Attorney General in the George W. Bush administration. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the White House authorized a secret NSA surveillance program, codenamed Stellar Wind, to monitor communications within the United States without warrants. When Comey and his legal team reviewed the program in 2004, they concluded that a key part of it had no legal basis. They advised the White House that the Justice Department could not certify its legality.

This set the stage for the dramatic hospital confrontation with a sick John Ashcroft. The White House, determined to continue the program, attempted to bypass Comey and get approval from the ailing Attorney General. Comey’s intervention, backed by FBI Director Robert Mueller, thwarted the effort. In the days that followed, Comey, Mueller, and other top Justice Department officials were prepared to resign en masse. In a tense Oval Office meeting, Comey stood his ground, telling President Bush he could not approve something he believed was unlawful. He was not loyal to a man or an agenda, but to the law. Ultimately, President Bush relented and ordered the program to be modified to address the legal concerns. This episode became a defining moment for Comey, solidifying his belief that a leader’s highest loyalty must be to enduring values and the Constitution, not to the fleeting demands of political power.

Narrator: As FBI Director under President Obama, Comey found himself at the center of another political firestorm: the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. The FBI’s task was to determine if classified information was mishandled with criminal intent. The investigation placed the Bureau in what Comey’s deputy called a “totally screwed” position. As the 2016 election neared, the FBI was caught between two intensely polarized political tribes.

The situation came to a head in late October 2016, just eleven days before the election. The FBI discovered a trove of hundreds of thousands of Clinton’s emails on a laptop belonging to the disgraced congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin. Comey and his team faced a terrible choice: speak or conceal. To conceal the discovery would be to mislead Congress and the American people, as Comey had previously testified the investigation was complete. To speak would be to risk influencing a presidential election.

Fearing a “catastrophic” blow to the FBI’s credibility if the discovery was concealed and then leaked after a potential Clinton victory, Comey chose to speak. He sent a letter to Congress informing them of the new development. The decision ignited a political inferno, with many blaming him for Clinton’s loss. While the new emails ultimately did not change the FBI’s conclusion, the episode illustrates a core challenge of ethical leadership: sometimes there are no good options, only choices between “bad and worse.” In this case, Comey chose to protect the long-term credibility of the institution, even at the cost of immense personal and political criticism.

Narrator: Comey’s final and most profound test came with the election of Donald Trump. From their very first meeting in Trump Tower, Comey recognized a leadership style fundamentally at odds with the principles he had spent his life upholding. The meeting was ostensibly an intelligence briefing on Russian election interference, but it quickly devolved into a discussion of political messaging and spin.

The conflict crystalized during a private dinner in the White House Green Room. In a scene Comey likens to a Mafia induction, President Trump demanded loyalty. “I need loyalty,” Trump said. “I expect loyalty.” Comey, committed to the FBI’s independence, could only offer honesty. This interaction established a core conflict between a president who viewed relationships as transactional and an FBI director who believed in institutional integrity. The pressure continued when Trump later cleared the Oval Office to ask Comey to “let go” of the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

This clash of worldviews was unsustainable. Comey’s refusal to pledge personal fealty and his commitment to pursuing the Russia investigation without fear or favor ultimately led to his firing in May 2017. The experience served as a stark warning about the dangers of a leadership style that seeks to bend independent institutions to the will of a single person, eroding the very foundations of truth and justice on which a democracy depends.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from A Higher Loyalty is that ethical leadership is not a passive quality but an active, daily struggle. It is the conscious choice to serve a set of enduring values—truth, integrity, and the rule of law—above any loyalty to a person, a tribe, or a political party. James Comey argues that this higher loyalty is the bedrock of our public institutions and the essential ingredient for a functioning democracy.

The book leaves us with a profound challenge. In an era of intense polarization, where loyalty is often demanded by our chosen "tribe," we are forced to ask ourselves: What is our higher loyalty? What are the core principles we are unwilling to compromise, and what are we prepared to do to defend them when they are tested?