FBI Director James Comey fired by Trump

[SueEllenRules!]

Trump Names Wray as FBI Director Pick on Eve of Comey Hearing
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will nominate former Justice Department official Christopher A. Wray as FBI director, a day before the man he fired from that post, James Comey, testifies before the Senate.
Trump called Wray a man of “impeccable credentials” in announcing his choice on Twitter.

• The timing suggests Trump’s interest in trying to turn the page on Comey’s era at the FBI before the former director testifies to a Senate committee on whether Trump pressured him to ease off his investigation of Russian meddling in last year’s election and whether anyone close to Trump colluded in that effort.
• Initial reaction to Trump’s pick included praise from some of the president’s frequent critics, a positive sign of Wray’s potential to win bipartisan support in the Senate and right the FBI’s course after a tumultuous start to Trump’s presidency.
• Matthew Miller, a Justice Department spokesman during the Obama administration, said in a tweet that Wray is “probably the best choice from the WH short list. His record in the Bush DOJ deserves scrutiny, but he’s a serious respectable pick.”
• Former Obama administration ethics adviser Norm Eisen endorsed Trump’s pick, saying on Twitter that Wray is respected in the white-collar bar and did a good job on the Enron case.

DOJ, Christie Background

• Wray led the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2003-2005, according to his biography on the website of King & Spalding, where he’s now a litigation partner.
• He represented New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, an early supporter of Trump’s during the 2016 election, in the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal that erupted in 2014, according to NJ.com.
• While Wray will face close questioning in his Senate confirmation hearing, his background as a Justice Department professional may give him an advantage. Senators of both parties had urged Trump to choose a law enforcement professional rather than a politician when the president was considering choices such as Senator John Cornyn and former Senator Joe Lieberman.
• At Justice, Wray helped lead the department’s efforts to address the wave of corporate fraud scandals, overseeing the Enron Task Force and other major fraud investigations, according to his biography. He received a law degree from Yale in 1992.

Weeks-Long Search

• Trump’s decision ends the nearly month-long search for a successor to Comey, whom Trump fired May 9.
• Trump said May 18, before leaving on his first foreign trip as president, that Lieberman was one of his top choices to lead the bureau.
• Senate Democrats signaled their opposition to Lieberman, and he sent a letter to Trump withdrawing from consideration on May 25, citing the possible appearance of a conflict of interest since he works at the same law firm as Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz.

Trump Names Wray as FBI Director Pick on Eve of Comey Hearing - Bloomberg
https://apple.news/AB5ii6IziQxSv7PfRcX70JQ

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

Is it a coincidence that King & Spalding happens to represent Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft in Moscow, the one from the Christopher Steele dossier, 19.5% of which was supposed to have been a part of Trump's quid-pro-quo agreement with the Russians?

 

[SueEllenRules!]

President Trump on James Comey's Testimony: 'I Wish Him Luck'
Trump was asked about his message for the former FBI Director before Thursday's testimony.

• (WASHINGTON) — The White House and its allies are scrambling for ways to offset potential damage from fired FBI Director James Comey’s highly anticipated congressional testimony, an appearance that could expose new details about his discussions with President Donald Trump about the federal investigation into Russia’s election meddling.
• Asked about the testimony, Trump on Tuesday was tight-lipped: “I wish him luck,” he told reporters before a meeting with lawmakers.
• Meanwhile, on Tuesday evening a person familiar with the situation said Comey had told Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he did not want to be left alone with Trump.
• The person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press the comment was made because of concerns Comey had about Trump.
• It was not immediately clear when the conversation occurred. But The New York Times, which first reported the interaction with Sessions, said it came after Trump had asked Comey in February to end an FBI investigation into Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
• Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior declined to comment. He said Sessions “doesn’t believe it’s appropriate to respond to media inquiries on matters that may be related to ongoing investigations.”
• Trump’s White House and its allies are crafting a strategy aimed at undermining Comey’s credibility. Both White House officials and an outside group that backs Trump plan to hammer Comey in the coming days for misstatements he made about Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails during his last appearance on Capitol Hill.
• An ad created by the pro-Trump Great America Alliance — a nonprofit “issues” group that isn’t required to disclose its donors — casts Comey as a “showboat” who was “consumed with election meddling” instead of focusing on combating terrorism. The 30-second spot is slated to run digitally on Wednesday and appear the next day on CNN and Fox News.
• The Republican National Committee has been preparing talking points ahead of the hearing, which will be aired live on multiple TV stations. An RNC research email Monday issued a challenge to the lawmakers who will question Comey. There’s bipartisan agreement, the email says, that Comey “needs to answer a simple question about his conversations with President Trump: If you were so concerned, why didn’t you act on it or notify Congress?”
• Comey’s testimony before the Senate intelligence committee marks his first public comments since he was abruptly ousted by Trump on May 9. Since then, Trump and Comey allies have traded competing narratives about their interactions. The president asserted that Comey told him three times that he was not personally under investigation, while the former director’s associates allege Trump asked Comey if he could back off an investigation into Michael Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser because he misled the White House about his ties to Russia.
• Democrats have accused Trump of firing Comey to upend the FBI’s Russia probe, which focused in large part on whether campaign aides coordinated with Moscow to hack Democratic groups during the election. Days after Comey’s firing, the Justice Department appointed a special counsel, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, to oversee the federal investigation.
• The new revelation about Comey’s uneasiness with Trump brings to mind a posting last month by Comey friend Benjamin Wittes on his Lawfare blog, in which he said Comey “saw it as an ongoing task on his part to protect the rest of the Bureau from improper contacts and interferences from a group of people he did not regard as honorable.”
• Despite the mounting legal questions now shadowing the White House, Trump has needled Comey publicly. In a tweet days after the firing, he appeared to warn Comey that he might have recordings of their private discussions, something the White House has neither confirmed nor denied.
• White House officials appear eager to keep the president away from television and Twitter Thursday, though those efforts rarely succeed. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the president plans to attend an infrastructure summit in the morning, then address the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference at 12:30 p.m.
• “The president’s got a full day on Thursday,” Spicer said.
• The White House had hoped to set up a “war room” stocked with Trump allies and top-flight lawyers to combat questions about the FBI and congressional investigations into possible ties between the campaign and Russia. However, that effort has largely stalled, both because of a lack of decision-making in the West Wing and concerns among some potential recruits about joining a White House under the cloud of investigation.
• “If there isn’t a strategy, a coherent, effective one, this is really going to put us all behind the eight ball. We need to start fighting back. And so far, I don’t see a lot of fight,” said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign aide.
• Still, Trump supporters say they are willing to step in to help the White House deflect any accusations from Comey.
• “If we feel he crosses a line, we’ll fire back,” said Ed Rollins, chief strategist of Great America PAC, the political arm of the group airing the Comey ad.
• Rollins and others with Great America say they plan to stand up for Trump in cable appearances Thursday.
• He said the White House has “improved” its communications with surrogates, starting with the president’s recent trip abroad, and frequently holds call-ins to discuss what story lines they’d like to push.
• “I assume they’ll do the same thing with this,” Rollins said of the Comey hearing. However, he added, he had not heard from the White House about the Comey hearing as of midday Tuesday.

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.time...-trump-james-comey-testimony-luck/?source=dam

 

[SueEllenRules!]

Comey lays out the case that Trump obstructed justice
Former FBI director James B. Comey on Thursday essentially laid out an obstruction of justice case against President Trump and suggested senior leaders in the bureau might have actually contemplated the matter before Trump removed him as director.

• Comey did not explicitly draw any legal conclusions. Whether justice was obstructed, he said, was a question for recently appointed special counsel Robert Mueller. But he said Trump’s request to terminate the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn left him “stunned,” and senior FBI officials considered it to be of “investigative interest.”
• Of particular concern, Comey said, was that Trump asked other officials to leave him alone with his FBI director in the Oval Office before saying of Flynn: “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
• “Why did he kick everybody out of the Oval Office?” Comey said. “That, to me as an investigator, is a very significant fact.”
• Legal analysts have said previously that there was reason to believe Trump might have obstructed justice — both in asking him to shut down the probe into Flynn and then, later, in firing Comey. Comey’s testimony, they said Thursday, clarified and bolstered the case.
• Comey testified that he was skeptical of Trump almost from the outset, and he decided to document their interactions because he was “concerned [Trump] might lie about the nature of our meeting.”
• His concerns were realized almost immediately. In a meeting just after Trump took office, Comey said, Trump brought up his job as FBI director and asked for loyalty. Comey said he felt Trump was “looking to get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job.” The FBI director is generally appointed to a 10-year term to avoid political influence.
• The next month, after a counterterrorism briefing, Comey testified that Trump asked him to stay for a one-on-one conversation. He said both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser Jared Kushner lingered behind — in Comey’s view, because they were leery of what might happen next.
• When they left, Comey said, Trump said he hoped Comey would shut down an investigation of Flynn. At the time, Comey said, Flynn was “in legal jeopardy,” as agents were investigating him for his contacts with Russians and “whether there were false statements made to government investigators.”
• Comey said — as he did in written testimony — that the president had not asked him to shut down the broader probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election. But he said the request on Flynn was nonetheless “very disturbing” and other officials in the bureau were “as shocked and troubled by it as I was.”
• Comey allowed, under questioning from Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho), that Comey did not outright give him an order.
• “He did not direct you to let it go?” Risch asked.
• “Not in his words, no,” Comey said.
• But Comey later said he took the president’s assertion as akin to a command.
• “I took it as a direction,” Comey said. “This is the president of the United States, with me alone, saying ‘I hope this.’”
• Comey also noted that he was fired — by the president’s own account — because of the Russia investigation.
• Cornell Law Professor Jens David Ohlin said that he understood “why the Republicans would want to focus on ‘hope’ versus ‘direct,’ but I don’t think it makes any difference.”
• “Trump made his wishes clear and fired Comey when his wishes weren’t respected,” Ohlin said. “It doesn’t matter whether it was an order or not. What matters is the action that Trump took when it became clear that Comey was continuing the investigation.”
• While Mueller could ultimately conclude Trump obstructed justice, previous Justice Department legal opinions say he could not indict or charge a sitting president. Congress, though, could impeach the president — which makes Comey’s testimony before legislators all the more important.
• Barak Cohen, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice at Perkins Coie, said he believed Comey was “walking a fine line,” both “trying to convey how he interpreted the President, but also admitting that there might have been other ways to interpret what the President said.”
• But Comey’s assessment of the situation, he said, was critically important.
• “He was there, he heard the President’s tone and saw his body language — things that shape whatever the President was trying to express,” Cohen said. “That’s why direct evidence of someone who witnesses an alleged crime is so important.”

Comey lays out the case that Trump obstructed justice - The Washington Post
https://apple.news/AH6podJBpTRqGvMdC0Fp_gQ

 

[SueEllenRules!]

Ryan defends Trump on Comey: ‘The president’s new at this’
Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday defended President Donald Trump’s communications with ex-FBI director James Comey, saying Trump wasn’t “steeped in the long-running protocols” of how to interact with law enforcement.

• “The president’s new at this,” Ryan said at a news conference. “He’s new at government.”
• The Wisconsin Republican also expressed sympathy for Trump's frustration with the Russia investigation, noting that Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump was not the subject of the probe. “I think the American people now know why he was frustrated.”


Ryan defends Trump on Comey: ‘The president’s new at this’ - POLITICO
https://apple.news/ABArYKH1ZQySv_oVAE42VIw

 

[SueEllenRules!]

Comey blasts White House for ‘lies, plain and simple’
The fired FBI director accuses Trump and his aides of defaming him, but says the president did not directly ask him to stop the Russia probe.

• Fired FBI Director James Comey used a blockbuster appearance before the Senate on Thursday to accuse the Trump administration of slandering him with its explanations of his abrupt dismissal, but also said he did not believe President Donald Trump or his aides asked him to stop the broad probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
• Comey suggested his surprise at his firing turned to anger as Trump and his aides offered a series of evolving reasons for the ouster.
• “He had repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and he hoped I would stay,” Comey said at the outset of his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, relaying a series of conversations with the president. “He told me repeatedly he had talked to lots of people about me including our current attorney general and had learned I was doing a great job and was extremely well-liked by the FBI.”
• “It confused me when I saw the president on TV saying he actually fired me because of the Russian investigation,” he said. “I was also confused by the initial explanation offered publicly that I was fired because of decisions I’d made during the election… That didn’t make any sense to me.”
• Comey eventually accused the White House of flatly lying when it said the FBI workforce was widely dissatisfied with his performance.
• “The administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI, by saying the organization was poorly led,” the ex-FBI chief said. “Those were lies, plain and simple.”
• The direct accusation was an extraordinary moment in the Russia scandal that has engulfed Trump’s presidency. Comey has been a central player in the ongoing controversy, and Trump’s decision to oust him led to a series of damaging media reports that allege the president pressured not only Comey but other top officials to intervene in the probe examining possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials.
• Comey’s testimony marks his first public remarks since his abrupt firing on May 9.
• On Thursday, Comey declined to say whether he believes Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation into his campaign associates’ ties to Russia when Trump allegedly told Comey “I hope you can let this go,” regarding the FBI’s ongoing probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey also alleges that Trump asked him what he could do to “lift this cloud” of the larger Russia investigation.
• Comey suggested the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller would probe the question of obstruction further.
• “I don’t think it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct,” he said, adding, “The special counsel will work …to try and understand what the intention was there.”
• Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr directly asked Comey, “Did any individual working for this administration, including the Justice Department, ask you to stop the Russian investigation?”
• Comey replied “no,” but he also said he took Trump’s pressure-filled words on the Russia probe as “a direction.”
• In explaining why he didn’t immediately tell other top law enforcement officials about his conversations with Trump about Flynn, Comey said, “We don't want the agents and analysts working on this to know the president of the United States has asked, and when it comes from the president, I took it as a direction, to get rid of this investigation because we're not going to follow that request.”
• Comey also addressed Trump’s tweet in which he wrote on May 12, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
• “Look, I've seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey said. “I hope there are and I’ll consent to the release of them…..The president surely knows if he taped me and if he did my feelings aren’t hurt. Release all the tapes.”
• In early testimony, Comey declined to comment on a salacious dossier, compiled by a former British intelligence official, saying he’d save his remarks on that for a closed meeting with the committee later. He also elaborated on his written statement suggesting he believed Trump had tried to develop a patronage relationship with him.
• The statue of justice is blindfolded, he said, adding “You’re not supposed to be peeking out to see if your patron is pleased.”
• Describing one Oval Office meeting with the president on Feb. 14, Comey said he believed Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner realized the president was being inappropriate and lingered even though Trump had asked them to leave the room.
• Asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) why he didn’t stop Trump and tell him his requests regarding Flynn were inappropriate, Comey said it was a “good question.”
• Republican senators suggested that Comey might be exaggerating the significance of Trump’s comments.
• Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma noted that Trump only raised the Flynn issue once.
• "If this seems to be something the president’s trying to get you to drop it, this seems like a pretty light touch to drop it," he said. He also noted that Trump had made no secret of his displeasure with the president repeatedly taking to Twitter to express his displeasure with the broader probe.
• “Quite frankly, the president has informed around 6 billion people that he's not real fond of this investigation,” Lankford said.
• Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida took issue with Comey’s assertion that Trump’s statement that he hoped the Flynn matter would be let go of was an implicit directive that should be kept from the agents working on the investigation. He observed that at a press conference Trump publicly declared Flynn as good man who’d been unfairly maligned.
• “I imagine your FBI agents knew that,” Rubio said. “The president’s wishes were known the next day.”
• But Comey said the statement delivered to him in the Oval Office was far more ominous than a public expression of discontent with the investigation.
• “There's a big difference in kicking superior officers out of the Oval Office, looking the FBI director in the eye and saying, ‘I hope you let this go,’” the former FBI chief said. “I think if agents as good as they are heard the president of the United States did that, there's a real risk of a chilling effect on their work. That's why we kept it so tight.”
• While Comey dismissed several anonymously sourced news accounts about the Russian affair as inaccurate, he confirmed Thursday that he was the source behind one particular account: a May 16 New York Times report that indicated he had kept memos documenting his conversations with the president, including the alleged request to let the Flynn matter “go.”
• Comey said that—after Trump said on Twitter there might be tapes of Oval Office conversations—he asked a Columbia law professor to give the information to a journalist, with the idea that such a disclosure could lead to a special prosecutor.
• “My judgment was, I need to get that out into the public square. I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons,” Comey said. “I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
• Comey said he no longer has the memos he wrote about his conversations with the president. “I don’t have any of them anymore. I gave them to the special counsel,” the ex-FBI director said.
• Another previously undisclosed fact that emerged during the early testimony was that it was not the FBI but acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente who decided not to publicly declare that Trump was not under investigation when the agency confirmed the broader inquiry publicly in March.
• Comey said Boente was concerned that indicating that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were not under investigation would lead to demands for similar assurances about other individuals.
• Even before the hearing began, Trump’s allies started the process of countering Comey’s testimony, taking issue with some of the ex-FBI director’s most damaging claims: that the president sought a pledge of loyalty and that he tried to derail the investigation into dismissed Flynn.
• “The president disputes ever asking for James Comey’s loyalty, and he disputes that he ever in any way asked Comey to let go the case against Flynn,” a person familiar with Trump’s legal team said Thursday morning. The statement tracked closely with previous denials issued by the president in TV interviews.
• Comey’s appearance came a day after a panel of top intelligence and law enforcement officials appearing before the same committee infuriated senators of both parties by refusing to answers questions about their interactions with the president.
• Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers said they had not felt pressured to do anything illegal or improper, but they rebuffed efforts to get them to discuss conversations in which Trump allegedly asked them to try to rein in or shut down the FBI investigation.
• Many observers compared the build-up to Thursday’s testimony to some of the most attention-grabbing Congressional hearings in recent decades, including Lt. Col. Oliver North’s appearance during the Iran-Contra saga, Anita Hill’s showdown with Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, and a series of hearings probing the Watergate affair that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
• Hours ahead of time, lines wrapped around the block of the Senate office building where Comey was set to appear – those at the front of the line said they arrived at 4:15 a.m. Bars in the area opened early and offered Comey-themed specials, while all three major networks prepared to take the hearing live. Among the most nerve-wracking questions was whether Trump would live-tweet his reaction to Comey’s appearance.
• Reserved seats for the high-profile hearing became one of Washington’s toughest tickets. Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, a Comey ally who was initially asked by Trump to stay on but fired in March, scored a spot a couple rows behind the ex-FBI director. A former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Bharara attended as his guest. A smattering of House members from both parties also had spots set asides, as did staffers working on a parallel Russia-focused investigation in the House.
• Some of the anticipation, though, was drained by the release on Wednesday of Comey’s seven-page prepared statement. In it, the former FBI chief laid out in considerable detail some of his direct interactions with Trump, which stretched from an intelligence briefing delivered at Trump Tower two weeks before the inauguration through a phone call on April 11 – the last time Comey says he ever heard from the president.
• Comey’s prepared statement confirmed many of the press reports in recent weeks revealing that the FBI director believed Trump had made inappropriate and unwise requests, such as an entreaty to drop the investigation into Flynn and repeated efforts to get the FBI to make a statement absolving Trump of any possible misconduct related to Russia.
• The ex-FBI director also detailed what he viewed as an awkward effort by Trump to extract from him a loyalty oath during an early one-on-one dinner at the White House and later requests that the FBI “lift the cloud” that the Russia probe was casting over his administration’s work.
• Trump’s private attorney, Marc Kasowitz, seized on a single aspect of the prepared testimony, noting that Comey confirmed Trump’s assertion that the FBI assured him on three different occasions that he was not personally the focus of any FBI investigation.
• “The President is pleased that Mr. Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the President was not under investigation in any Russian probe," Kasowitz said. "The President feels completely and totally vindicated. He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda.”
• Kasowitz’s statement did not address the variety of ways in which Comey’s account directly contradicted Trump’s public assertions, including claims that he never asked Comey for his loyalty and that he never urged the FBI to end the probe into Flynn. Perhaps most damaging to the president was that Comey’s narrative appeared to confirm the role of the Russia investigation in Trump’s profound and growing dissatisfaction with the FBI chief, underscoring the notion that Comey’s dismissal was intended to impact the handling of the Russia probe.

Comey blasts White House for ‘lies, plain and simple’ - POLITICO
https://apple.news/AlJBVbbYpS_ijaHwuRZAqzQ

 

[SueEllenRules!]

Graham: Trump's contact with Comey isn't obstruction of justice
Congress
President Donald Trump’s interactions with former FBI Director James Comey do not rise to the level of obstruction of justice, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday morning, and the actions of Comey and special prosecutor Robert Mueller prove it.

• Comey, who was abruptly fired by Trump last month, is set to testify Thursday before the Senate Intelligence committee about his interactions with the president and whether or not the president sought to interfere with ongoing FBI investigations. In his opening statement, a copy of which was released last night, the former director is expected to testify that Trump asked for a pledge of loyalty and also pushed Comey to end the bureau’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
• While some have suggested that Trump’s inquisitions about Flynn and the bureau’s larger Russia investigation constitute, Graham (R-S.C.), a former military lawyer and judge, said the sheer fact that Comey is being allowed to testify indicates that Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor appointed to lead an independent Russia investigation, does not believe the president obstructed justice.
• “Unless Mueller is a complete idiot, which he is not, he's concluded there's no obstruction of justice case because if he had concluded otherwise, Comey wouldn't be testifying,” Graham told “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday. “You wouldn't let your chief and only witness go through this process if you really believed you had a case to prosecute.”
• “Nobody in their right mind who believed they had a case would take their star witness would allow them to go before the nation and 20 senators,” he continued. “You just don’t do it that way. So he’s concluded, I think rightly, there’s no obstruction of justice. To think otherwise, really, is silly.”
• Comey’s actions as FBI director, too, are indicative that he did not see the president’s questioning as obstructive, Graham said. If the FBI director truly believed that a crime had been committed, he would have reported it to the Department of Justice, pursued charges or resigned, the senator said. That Comey did not do any of those things is further evidence that the former FBI director did not see the president’s actions as criminal.
• But while the president’s actions fall short of a criminal case in Graham’s estimation, the senator made clear that they were far from appropriate. One of the president’s more willing GOP critics, especially on issues related to Russia, Graham told the panel of CBS hosts that “Trump can’t collude with his own government, so I doubt if he’s colluding with the Russians.”
• “Half of what Trump does is not okay. If you’re trying to convict him for being a bull in a China shop, crude and rude, you’d win,” he said. “A lot of this stuff troubles me, but it’s not a crime… The story described by Comey is disturbing. It was inappropriate by the president to put him in this situation.” 


Graham: Trump's contact with Comey isn't obstruction of justice - POLITICO
https://apple.news/Ay3yXl23lS_W_s6hTVaTJyQ

 

[SueEllenRules!]

Even if you believe Trump's contact with the FBI Director doesn't constitute obstruction of justice, wouldn't firing him to stop the Russia investigation be exactly that? And Trump eventually admitted that was the reason (after submitting two or three fairytale excuses).

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Even if you believe Trump's contact with the FBI Director doesn't constitute obstruction of justice, wouldn't firing him to stop the Russia investigation be exactly that? And Trump eventually admitted that was the reason (after submitting two or three fairytale excuses).

Obstruction of justice is whatever the majority party in Washington says it is.

So it doesn't matter that Trump has openly admitted he fired Comey to obstruct justice.

It won't matter if Trump were to openly admit to colluding with Russia and their hacking the voting machines in Trump's favor -- and even in favor of other Republicans.

It gave the Republican party a three pronged control over the U.S. government for the first time in 90 years, taking the "Democrat" out of democracy potentially permanently.

Why would the Republicans then investigate, impeach or prosecute themselves???

 

[Frank Underwood]

Obstruction of justice is whatever the majority party in Washington says it is.

So it doesn't matter that Trump has openly admitted he fired Comey to obstruct justice.

It won't matter if Trump were to openly admit to colluding with Russia and their hacking the voting machines in Trump's favor -- and even in favor of other Republicans.

It gave the Republican party a three pronged control over the U.S. government for the first time in 90 years, taking the "Democrat" out of democracy potentially permanently.

Why would the Republicans then investigate, impeach or prosecute themselves???

That's just it. The party in power will never police themselves because they have no incentive to.

However, I thought investigations proved that the voting machines hadn't been hacked. Is that still a possibility? Why would intelligence agencies hide that, yet confirm Russia was behind the email leaks?

As bleak as things look now, I'm not convinced that our democracy will be dead forever. As long as principled populists run against the GOP and corporate Democrats, we have a shot at taking back our democracy in 2018.

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

Yesterday's much-anticipated testimony from the former FBI director included genuine bombshells—which some may have missed.

Team Trump's present gloating about their alleged "vindication" will be short-lived, the big reveals are yet to come:

http://observer.com/2017/06/james-comey-hearing-takeaways/

 

[KayLloyd]

Ryan defends Trump on Comey: ‘The president’s new at this’
Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday defended President Donald Trump’s communications with ex-FBI director James Comey, saying Trump wasn’t “steeped in the long-running protocols” of how to interact with law enforcement.

• “The president’s new at this,” Ryan said at a news conference. “He’s new at government.”
• The Wisconsin Republican also expressed sympathy for Trump's frustration with the Russia investigation, noting that Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump was not the subject of the probe. “I think the American people now know why he was frustrated.”


Ryan defends Trump on Comey: ‘The president’s new at this’ - POLITICO
https://apple.news/ABArYKH1ZQySv_oVAE42VIw

Umm yeah, J. Edgar Comey's admission of a federal employee code breaking leak to his pal and that Loretta Lynch directed him to call the investigation into Hillbilly's emails a "matter", and his exposure of the media as the propagandists that they are, has pulled back the curtain on the Clinton puppeteers and opened the door to major legal trouble for Comey and Lynch, probably even Holder.

 

[Toni]

Hilarious to think of him firing anybody.

Well, I can see him firing Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons (love that piccy!).

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Meanwhile, on another indignant planet:

Umm yeah, J. Edgar Comey's admission of a federal employee code breaking leak to his pal and that Loretta Lynch directed him to call the investigation into Hillbilly's emails a "matter", and his exposure of the media as the propagandists that they are, has pulled back the curtain on the Clinton puppeteers and opened the door to major legal trouble for Comey and Lynch, probably even Holder.

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

Umm yeah, J. Edgar Comey's admission of a federal employee code breaking leak to his pal and that Loretta Lynch directed him to call the investigation into Hillbilly's emails a "matter", and his exposure of the media as the propagandists that they are, has pulled back the curtain on the Clinton puppeteers and opened the door to major legal trouble for Comey and Lynch, probably even Holder.

Even the obedient cult followers parroting hollow talking points like yourself will need to lay off the covfefe at some point.

 

[Frank Underwood]

It's funny thinking back to 2008. Despite having been a Senator for almost four years, conservatives attacked Obama over his apparent lack of experience. Many even said that the job of President doesn't lend itself to on the job training. Yet Paul Ryan's excusing Trump's incompetence by saying "he's new at governing" and not “steeped in the long-running protocols.” On top of that, it's simply an incredibly weak defense.

As for the investigation, it seems the "big reveals" are always yet to come. What we've learned so far is that Russia hacked DNC emails, spread fake propaganda, and hacked voter registration files. Nothing on voting machines, though, unless I'm still missing something. And Trump was clearly trying to discredit Comey and the FBI over the Russia investigation. The evidence makes Trump look complicit in Russia's meddling, but it would be nice to have a smoking gun. Comey's testimony isn't vindication for Trump. However, as long as "damaging classified information" regarding Trump and his team remains classified, they will claim victory.

Now if we could just get an investigation into the war criminals behind Iraq and the people who crashed the economy in 2008.

 

[Gabriel Maxwell]

The orange traitor just made the whole Comey mess even worse with his NBC interview:

The money quote from the Idiot-in-Chief:

“In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.’”

I didn't get to post this last week and sure enough there have been tens of ridiculous tweets since. But I'll nevertheless go back to this one now:

“What’s going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks - with @NBCNews being the worst ... When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!”

Of all the 4000+ baseless claims and lies he has made and said since January 2017, I found this one to be particularly ludicrous, a clear sign this guy is going further off the deep end and beginning to crack as the walls are closing in on him.

The infamous Lester Holt interview (linked in this thread) which took place 2 days after James Comey was fired will live on to be one of the signature train-wreck moments of this travesty of a presidency when the moron-in-chief actually confessed to a felony on national television. You had the Lester Holt impersonator on SNL that week saying "Is that it? Did we get him? Is it over now?"

And well over a year after that took place, Trump comes along with this easily provable lie that NBC had somehow faked this interview and not only that, but he suggests they had already been caught over it and as a result suffered consequences.

Trump has always lied. But his lies are now accelerating and becoming more transparent. Has he finally realized he's toast?