Appealing to authority (you mean respecting authority or deferring as I said?) is not a logical fallacy. Maybe I’m misunderstanding your comment. We appeal to those with greater knowledge than us all the time. And “nothing is a foregone conclusion” is not a logical fallacy either. I’m not equivocating. I’m not using ambiguous language to conceal the truth and/or avoid committing myself. And red herring? I’m not saying anything to be intentionally misleading or distracting. I’m dealing with the facts as stated. I’m having a hard time following your logic with these terms.

“Anyone who can’t think of a motive for a government official to abuse his power is being intentionally naïve.”

I can think of many reasons why a government official would abuse their power. But they’re all hypothetical. We aren’t dealing with hypothetical, nor are we dealing with generalizations. We’re dealing with the actual director of the FBI, who by all accounts, far and wide, left and right, is an honest and upstanding person. What reason would this particular government official have to not follow the law, i.e. abuse his power? What’s the gain for him were he to do so?

At some point you, me, everybody has to make their own judgment. I don’t know how many other ways I can say this, but I’m not a Hilary Clinton fan. She’s sneaky, dishonest, arrogant, and careless. I’m not even a Democrat. I’m very untrusting of politicians and government as a whole right now. Our system is a total mess. The whole world can see it. More and more people everyday are looking to Jill Stein and Gary Johnson because they just can’t bring themselves, staying true to their conscience, to vote for either Trump or Hilary, for hundreds of reasons that everybody knows.

But in my humble opinion, James Comey is an upstanding, honest, truthful person. I’ve watched over five hours of him speaking, and in no way whatsoever do I see him as a person who would abuse his power or try not to do his very best, his very impartial best, to adhere to the law in all it’s nuance. This is my judgment. His complete explanation of what happened, what he and his team did, and how they came to the conclusion not to recommend indictment makes sense if you look at it objectively. But people don’t want objectivity. They want information that proves their side. Confirmation bias rules. They want the facts to mold to their viewpoint other than letting their viewpoint be informed by the facts.

I am very cynical of government. I think most politicians are in it for reasons other than what’s in the best interest of the average American. James Comey makes me believe that there are people in government who are looking out for you and me, and I find comfort in that. This has absolutely nothing to do with Hilary Clinton and everything to do with faith in the system and those very few in power who work with honesty and integrity, however fractured that system is.