Some supposed “limited government” conservatives have become so infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) that their seeming opposition to state malfeasance takes a backseat to their animosity for former President Donald Trump. Some high-profile right-leaning figures have allowed their obsession with the Orange Man What Is Bad™ to become so pronounced that they are willing to side with corrupt government officials as long as it means attacking the former occupant of the White House.

Let’s take Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, for example. He posted a tweet on Tuesday taking issue with the fact that some were posting a video clip from a 2017 interview in which he argued that former FBI Director James Comey was more trustworthy than Trump.

This comes just after Special Counsel John Durham released a report detailing the findings of his investigation into the origin of the Russia collusion probe. Durham’s investigation found that the FBI relied on unverified information coming from Trump’s political opponents to look into false allegations that he was colluding with the Kremlin to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

During the interview with ABC News, Goldberg said:

“The fact that the Trump White House couldn’t give anybody to come on here and talk about terrorism is a sign of the disarray that they’re in. Anyway, their actual attack mode, I think all it does is please the people who are already in Donald Trump’s column. And if it’s a contest between James Comey’s credibility and Donald Trump’s credibility, I think Comey’s brand wins that 10 out of 10 times.”

"If it's a contest between James Comey's credibility and Donald Trump's credibility, Comey wins "10 out of 10 times" – Jonah Goldberg pic.twitter.com/NK0fPZW4TE

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) May 16, 2023

On Twitter, Goldberg wrote:

A whole bunch of tiresome pests are going nuts over a clip of me in — 2017! — saying I’ll take Comey’s word over Trump’s 10 time out of 10. I agree that Comey looks much worse now then back then. But I think I was  justified in saying it then, given what was known, and given that the issue was Trump’s credibility versus Comey’s.

And, frankly, Trump is still more dishonest than Comey — even if you consider Comey a deeply dishonest person, which I pretty much do.

He continued, attacking Trump’s character, arguing that he “invited virtually all of his legal, political and financial problems on himself.”

A whole bunch of tiresome pests are going nuts over a clip of me in — 2017! — saying I'll take Comey's word over Trump's 10 time out of 10. I agree that Comey looks much worse now then back then. But I think I was justified in saying it then, given what was known, and given…

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) May 16, 2023

Regardless of what one thinks of Trump’s flawed character, the notion that Comey is somehow more trustworthy is laughable considering his conduct as FBI director in the leadup to the 2016 election. During this period, Comey, who is a well-known sufferer of TDS, used his position to pursue a politically-motivated attack against Trump.

It was revealed last year that he and his underlings at the FBI knew that the Russia hoax was a massive falsehood but still spun a deceptive narrative during testimony before a congressional committee. A March 8, 2017 memo showed talking points created for the former FBI director by former agent Lisa Page. A RealClearInvestigations report stated that Comey’s meeting with the committee was “riddled with half-truths, outright falsehoods, and critical omissions.”

For instance, the memo advised the FBI director to claim the allegations that Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign head, and Carter Page, another Trump adviser, were collaborating with the Kremlin came from a credible confidential Russian source. In reality, the FBI was already aware that the actual source was Russian national Igor Danchenko, who had merely engaged in unsubstantiated gossip about the two advisers.

In another instance, Comey admitted to sending FBI agents to trick Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Adviser, into lying so they could trip him up. RedState’s Nick Arama reported at the time that on a recording, Comey said, “I sent them,” and described how he subverted the usual process to target Flynn. He was recorded saying that this subterfuge was “something I probably wouldn’t have done or gotten away with in a more organized administration.” In essence, Comey used the FBI to target Flynn and ruin his life because he had the temerity to align himself with Trump.

In one of his more notorious moments, the former FBI director publicly cleared Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing in the email scandal shortly before the election in 2016. Despite the fact that many who committed similar offenses were punished, Comey saw fit to ensure Clinton would not be held accountable for storing classified information on a private server.

Yet, despite Comey presiding over one of the most torrid episodes of corruption in the Bureau’s history, folks like Goldberg think Trump is somehow worse. I’ve had my criticisms of the former president. But, as far as we know, he did not leverage the power of the state to attack political opponents. What the former FBI director and others in the federal government did was the type of wrongdoing that so-called conservatives should loathe far more than a crass politician. Unfortunately, TDS has caused many to lose sight of this reality.