Attempted legal coups d'etat are destroying the political fabric of this country. The Democrats started this horrible trend, at least in the modern era. They impeached Nixon, and we saw a trial conducted on television...with the country divided largely along party lines. Ford had the vision to prevent the nation from being torn apart by a protracted legal battle - literally a civil war fought in the courts. The Democrats then tried to pull the same maneuver with Reagan and the Contra affair, but gained little traction. Since then, it has become standard practice. Every President without fail has been subject to a partisan attempt to criminalize and de-legitimize his administration. Now the practice has become so extreme, that it begins even before a candidate is elected. Trump has escaped (so far) only by virtue of the fact he has never held a government post. Comey, a registered Republican, deserves the Gerald Ford Memorial Medal for rising above partisan politics, and preventing what would have been a legal and political civil war. If the GOP had gotten what it wanted, you would see every Democrat in the country go on a red alert war standing. There would be unending legal challenges to every GOP election, and every GOP attempted legislative proposal would be DOA. The country is too evenly divided for one party to override the other party. Either through use of force, or through legal maneuvering. Let the country be governed by the ballot box, not the jury box. Legal coups d'etat will not be accepted by EITHER party. Republicans would not accept them, no more than they would accept a military coup d'etat.
