Yes, James Comey was in Iowa over the weekend

Jason Noble
The Des Moines Register

Former FBI Director James Comey was in Iowa this weekend.

FILE - In this June 8, 2017 file photo, former FBI director James Comey speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Internal employee surveys show that fired Comey was highly respected and trusted within the bureau during his nearly four-year tenure.

An anonymous Twitter account believed to be used by Comey – who was fired by President Donald Trump earlier this year amid the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election – published three tweets over the weekend alluding to a visit to Iowa.

 

 

The third of those, you’ll notice, includes a photo of a man standing in the middle of a country road.  He’s turned away from the camera, but sure looks like Comey.

Minutes after the tweet was posted, Benjamin Wittes, a legal analyst who’s known to be a friend of Comey, tweeted confirmation that the account does indeed belong to the former director and, by extension, that he was indeed in Iowa this week.

So we’ve established he was here. But why?

Well, Comey is married to Patrice Failor, an Iowa native whose brother is Ed Failor Jr., a top staffer for the Republican caucus in the Iowa Senate.

Ed Failor's Facebook page happens to note that his father, Ed Failor Sr., celebrated his 90th birthday over the weekend, just the kind of family celebration an out-of-state daughter and son-in-law would come back for.

The Des Moines Register learned that celebration included a birthday dinner at 801 Chophouse in downtown Des Moines, the venerable steakhouse long popular among visiting politicos

801 general manager Damon Murphy confirmed to the Register that Comey attended the Failor party at the restaurant on Saturday.

"They enjoyed themselves in a semi-private room, just a quick little dinner, in and out," Murphy said. 

Ed Failor Jr. declined to confirm that Comey was in the state — but he didn’t deny it either.

In his tweets, Comey seems to hint at a new public role for himself after several months out of the spotlight after his high-profile firing.

“Gotta get back to writing” he said in the final Iowa tweet. “Will try to tweet in useful ways.”