A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership

James Comey

Apr 2018 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by James Comey

About this audiobook

"Comey's conversational tone instantly connects with the listener, and hearing him deliver the book's highly charged contents in his own voice brings authenticity and immediacy to the presentation...This greatly anticipated, revelatory memoir needs to be heard." — AudioFile Magazine

The #1 New York Times Bestseller, now with a new preface!

In his audiobook, A Higher Loyalty, former FBI director James Comey shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader.

Mr. Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama. He previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the U.S. deputy attorney general in the administration of President George W. Bush. From prosecuting the Mafia and Martha Stewart to helping change the Bush administration's policies on torture and electronic surveillance, overseeing the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation as well as ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Comey has been involved in some of the most consequential cases and policies of recent history.

More praise for A Higher Loyalty:

"It was essential that Comey himself narrate this book, not only because his absence would have distracted listeners familiar with his voice but also because only the author could credibly convey the range of raw emotions emanating from the experiences he shares from this most eventful of lives." - Booklist, Starred Review

Ratings and reviews

Comey is boring and obsessed with looking like an unbiased fbi director. his actions created the opportunity for Trump to be in the White House, and he didn't anticipate he was going to be kicked out of his powerful job like a dog. karma got.him the book sends a desperate.message of a guy whose ego was damaged.

Upholding the law and loving ones country has become a thing of the past. Mr Coney renews the American Spirit and makes one proud to be an American. A read for ALL Americans. I gave this book to my 11 and 13 year olds in hopes of inspiring them in becoming GOOD and DECENT HONORABLE FUTURE AMERICANS WHO WILL GAIN THE CORE VALUES AND ETHICAL STANDARDS MY FATHER A NAVY MAN INSTALLED IN ME. "THANK YOU MR COMEY FOR UPHOLDING THE STANDARD BY WHICH ALL AMERICANS SHOULD LIVE BY AND PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO HOLD UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT JOBS ". TO MUCH CORRUPTION ALONG WITH THOSE BACK ROOM DEALS ALONG WITH CYBER AND COMPROMISED INSIDE TRADERS TO OUR COUNTRY ARE BEING ALLOWED TO EXIST IN TODAYS UNITED STATES LOCAL AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS AND THE ONLY WAY WE CAN RESTORE OLD GLORY IS BY TRUE AMERICANS WITH STRONG ETHICS AND VALUES STANDING UP FOR WHAT OUR GRANDPARENTS AND PARENTS BELIEVED IN AND WHAT THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT ON "THE AMERICAN WAY" TRUTH. HONESTY. INTERGRITY VALOR AND PRIDE. #STANDUPFORAMERICA . BECAUSE NO OTHER COUNTRY WANTS US TO BE AS GREAT A NATION AS WE ARE AND WILL DO EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY. TRUE AND I DO MEAN TRUE AMERICANS ( BASED ON BELIEFS AND OLD TRADITIONAL UPBRINGING TO LOVE YOUR COUNTRY AND BE PATRIOTIC NOT SEPF ABSORDED SOCIAL CAPTIVES OF CELBRITY CULTURE ) BUT AMERICANS AND THOSE WHO FULLY BELIEVE IN THE AMERICAN WAY AND SHARE LIKE MINDED IDEALS LIKE MR.COMEY KNOW WHAT THIS BOOK TRULY CONVEYS. THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO DESTROY OUR DEMOCRACY WILL SHARE THE OTHER POINT OF VIEW... BE A REAL AMERICAN!!! TRUE TO THE FLAG AND HER DIVERSE PEOPLE. "Semper fortis" Semper fi" . IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THIS MOTTO MEANS YOU MAY BE APART OF WHAT HAS AND IS BREWING IN THIS MELTING POT KNOWN AS AMERICA. WE DON'T NEED TO SHARE THE SAME POINT OF VIEW BUT WE ALL SHOULD SHARE THE SAME COUNTRY PRIDE FOR OUR COUNTRY AMERICA , AS OTHERS ARE FOR THEIR HOME COUNTRIES... AND THIS STATEMENT IS NOT TO OFFEND ANYONE, BUT I HAVE NEVER PERSONALLY WITNESSED OR HEARD THOSE FROM OTHER COUNTRIES BAD MOUTH THEIR HOME COUNTRY. OR ACT IN A DIGRACEFUL WAY. THEY ALWAYS SHOW PRIDE AND RESPECT FOR THEIR FLAG THEIR ANTHEM AND THEIR COUNTRYMEN. AS WELL AS BRAGG ABOUT HOW GREAT WHERE THEY ARE FROM IS. NOTHING IS WRONG WITH HAVING AMERICAN PRIDE. This is how we make America Great by UPHOLDING the law and having commonn decency. AS WELL AS EQUALITY FOR ALL In a world full of Trumps be a Comey....

Before listening to this book, I had little knowledge of James Comey beyond what had been printed and reported through various and sundry media outlets of every stripe. I'd heard him called partisan to the core, an inside man, a member of the Deep State, a Democrat in Republican clothing, a neoliberal, a neoconservative, a traitor, and a criminal. I had no real knowledge of the man, but I had a lot of information, leading me to mixed feelings on the subject of him and his actions. When I first heard about this book, I purchased it partly through a fascination with the events since November of 2016, when so many found the world suddenly out of step with expectations. I'm not sure what I expected from this book when I decided to purchase it, whether it be a scathing attack on the administration, or a clear defense of his actions during the two years leading up to the election and his subsequent brief time in office following. After listening to this, in the man's own voice, I cannot help but think of the immeasurable, indescribable loss that we in this country have suffered. James Comey is not a perfect man. He admits this, time and again, as only a man with the humility to look back on his mistakes and take an honest accounting can. He openly admits to having made serious mistakes and unforced errors, to have followed his best intentions to places that were best left alone, and that his judgment is by no means flawless. But more than that, he humanizes himself through this work, taking him from a towering figure who for some months dominated the evening news, and letting us see him in full four dimensions in this part memoir, part explanation of what he did and why. We saw him from his early days in the office of then US District Attorney Rudy Giuliani, and follow his professional career through the end of his public life, where we start to see the reason behind the title of the book take shape. It cannot be stated enough that the man has a loyalty not to a person, but the ideals of justice, fairness, and rectitude, and again, I cannot help but feel the incredible loss of such a figure. James Comey is not a perfect man. He may well have played a spoiling factor for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, and he goes as far to admit it. However, through the course of the book, we find a man who is and remains staunchly devoted to the ideals of America, a land of freedom, opportunity, justice, and equality under the law. He worked through his professional career to make a world in which everyone could reap the benefits of a system of Justice that worked the same on all levels, no matter your income, skin color, religion or ethnicity. He made some mistakes on the way. He didn't make it to his goal, much less the end of his term as FBI Director. But in the end, I cannot help but feel the world needs more James Comey's in it, and more importantly, we need more of them in places of power. I fully recommend that anyone and everyone purchase and listen this extraordinary book with an open mind, ready to listen and learn. I will defend to the death the opinion that this was a necessary text, a look into one of the more controversial figures in American politics at the moment, without the spin and bloviation that comes from most media outlets. Thank you for an excellent read Mr. Comey, and thank you for your service. America herself is lesser now that you no longer help steer the ship.

About the author

On September 4, 2013, James B. Comey was sworn in as the seventh Director of the FBI.

A Yonkers, New York native, Jim Comey attended the College of William and Mary and the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, Comey returned to New York and joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. There, he took on numerous crimes, most notably Organized Crime in the case of the United States v. John Gambino, et al. Afterwards, Comey became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he prosecuted the high-profile case that followed the 1996 terrorist attack on the U.S. military’s Khobar Towers in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Comey returned to New York after 9/11 to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. At the end of 2003, he was tapped to be the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice (DOJ) under then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and moved to the Washington, D.C. area.

Comey left DOJ in 2005 to serve as General Counsel and Senior Vice President at Defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Five years later, he joined Bridgewater Associates, a Connecticut-based investment fund, as its General Counsel. In early 2013, Comey became a Lecturer in Law, a Senior Research Scholar, and Hertog Fellow in National Security Law at Columbia Law School.