We’re writing because we’re concerned.Over the years you’ve done some truly disappointing things and have managed to come out looking pretty clean. Even after you helped to create and authorize Bush’s massive, illegal domestic surveillance program, even after you approved torture techniques like waterboarding, you moved effortlessly from the DOJ to hedge fund boards and now to the FBI.

We’re afraid that after all these years unchecked, you’ve lost sight of what’s good for American Democracy. Director Comey, you’re off the rails and now you’re trying to take us with you.

We know that Apple v. FBI was about more than just one iPhone in San Bernadino.

It was your latest of many attempts to circumvent the constitution in the name of national security. Forcing Apple to build a universal backdoor into the iPhone iOS would have set a precedent that put all of us in danger. Encryption protects our hospitals, airports, and power plants. Your obsession with other people’s secrets could have seriously harmed our national security.

We’re not the only people who are concerned for you. Current and former NSA directors have spoken out against you. NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers has called the FBI’s campaign against encryption a “waste of time.” Rogers believes that end-to-end encryption is foundational to this country’s future.

When even the NSA thinks you’re spying too hard, it’s time to resign.

You’ve been pursuing this destructive path for a long time. As Deputy Attorney General under President Bush, you helped invent the illegal mass surveillance of all Americans, in part by forcing the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to rubber stamp a dramatically expanded (and illegal) reading of surveillance law, creating and subsequently upholding the NSA’s warrantless eavesdropping program.

Perhaps the most upsetting part of it all is that while the FBI under your leadership has committed itself to dangerous and illegal activities, you have refrained from doing a critical part of your job: investigating crimes committed by the politically powerful. Instead of prosecuting banks, you literally work for them. You haven't even read the infamous torture report, which details flagrantly illegal activity by the government and even the FBI.

Why haven’t you investigated torture? Perhaps because you authorized “enhanced interrogation techniques” like waterboarding, or maybe because you personally pushed forward a case in which an American citizen was imprisoned and and tortured on American soil for years without a trial.

We’ve written to you today because enough is enough.

You’re hurting your own reputation, but you’re also hurting us. You’ve lost sight of what’s important, and what so many people love and value about America. If you continue as FBI Director, we believe you will do irrevocable harm to our country. We implore you to resign.