I wanted to capture some details for future reference.
- Comey affirms that NYT has been publishing false stories of Trumprussia collusion.
- Comey admits to maliciously leaking his own memos.
Hmm – does this put Comey in legal jeopardy? (UPDATE: Seems more and more like it should. Comey’s formal memos of what happened on his job are government property. Could they be privileged information? Even classified? Then who was Comey to take them out of the office when he was fired; much less, to leak them?)
- Senator Jim Risch dismantles any ‘obstruction’ case against Trump:
Risch: ‘I hope’, this is [Comey’s version of] the President speaking, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go…I hope you can let this go.’
[…]
Comey: “Correct.”
[…]
Risch: “Thank you for that. He did not direct you to let it go.”
Comey: “Not in his words, no.”
Risch: “He did not order you to let it go.”
Comey: “Again, those words are not an order.”
Risch: “He said ‘I hope’. Now, like me you probably did hundreds of cases, maybe thousands of cases charging people with criminal offenses…Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice, for that matter of any other criminal offense, where they said or thought they hoped for an outcome?”
[…]
Comey: “I don’t as I sit here.”
- In other comments, Comey said that he interpreted Trump’s words as a direction, but that is, of course, B.S. Because
- Comey affirms above that he knew it wasn’t a direction, AND
- If Trump had given Comey a direction that Comey felt to be unethical or illegal, then Comey is in legal jeopardy for not having reported it sooner.
- Furthermore, per HotAir, Tom Cotton got Comey to acknowledge that he never threatened to resign over Trump’s behavior, as Comey did in a famous 2004 confrontation in John Ashcroft’s hospital room. Instead, and by his own admission, Comey told Trump “that I would see what we could do.”
This exchange is stunning…ly bad for Comey:
Rubio: Did you object to or inform the WH counsel about Trump’s “I hope” statement?
Comey: “No.”
Rubio: “Why not?”
Comey: “I don’t know.” - We also have Comey and Trump both calling each other liars on certain points, which makes it he-said-he-said.
Ever read Trump’s book? He has been dealing with lawyers day-in, day-out for DECADES. Figuring out how to influence people, without actually committing legal or ethical violations. His sister was a big-time Federal judge. The notion that President Trump would make inappropriate remarks to the likes of Comey, was always shaky.
- Comey reveals that the Obama administration pressured him to downplay Hillary’s scandal. Call it a “matter”, not an “investigation”:
LANKFORD: …the previous attorney general [Loretta Lynch] asking you about the investigation on the Clinton e-mails saying you were asked to not call it an investigation anymore. But call it a matter. You said that confused you. You can give us additional details on that?
COMEY: Well, it concerned me because…the campaigns were talking about interacting with the FBI in the course of our work. The Clinton campaign at the time was using all kinds of euphemisms, security matters, things like that for what was going on.
We were getting to a place where the attorney general and I were both going to testify and talk publicly about it I wanted to know was she going to authorize us to confirm we have an investigation. She said yes, don’t call it that, call it a matter. I said why would I do that? She said, just call it a matter…that concerned me because that language tracked the way the [Clinton] campaign was talking about the FBI’s work and that’s concerning…the attorney general was looking to align the way we talked about our work with the way [the Clinton campaign] was describing that. It was inaccurate. We had an investigation open for the federal bureau of investigation, we had an investigation open at the time. That gave me a queasy feeling.
Where’s the outcry on that? Or, might it be coming? 🙂
UPDATE:
- Alan Dershowitz – hardly a conservative – makes the interesting point that, if Trump ever had ordered Comey to stop an investigation, his actions would be totally constitutional. Worth viewing.
Here’s what I got from it. A President can’t interfere with a judicial process. For example, he can’t tamper with juries or witnesses, end a prosecution (short of doing a presidential pardon), defy a subpoena or destroy evidence. But an FBI investigation is NOT a judicial process. Constitutionally, the FBI Director takes orders from the President. Past presidents have ended investigations they didn’t like. If Congress smells a rat, Congress can impeach the President; but that, too, is a non-judicial process (separate and political).
- These exchanges settle a lot. Flaming skull time!
Senator Burr: Are you confident that no votes cast in the 2016 presidential election were altered?
Comey: I’m confident. By the time I left, I had seen no indication of that whatsoever.Senator Burr: Did the President, at any time, ask you to stop the FBI investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 elections?
Comey: Not to my understanding, no.Senator Burr: Did you ever have access to the actual [DNC e-mail] hardware that was hacked? Or did you have to rely on a third party to provide you the data that they had collected?
Comey: In the case of the DNC…we did not have access to the devices themselves. [ed: which means, and as I’ve stated before, the FBI relied on a report by CrowdStrike, a discredited DNC-paid company]Senator Risch: While you were director, the POTUS was not under investigation [at any time], is that a fair statement?
Comey: That’s correct.Senator Collins: I’m trying to understand whether there was any kind of investigation of the President under way.
Comey: No.Senator Rubio: …the president agreed with your statement that it would be great if we could have an investigation…
Comey: Yes, sir. He actually went farther than that. He — he said, “And if some of my satellites did something wrong, it’d be good to find that out.”Lefties: You are not living in reality, if you think Trump is in trouble on this set of issues.
“Ever read Trump’s book? He has been dealing with lawyers day-in, day-out for DECADES. Figuring out how to influence people, without actually committing legal or ethical violations”
Goodness how can you be so naive. I mean Trump is famous for scamming people and settling.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0I52MW20141016
http://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2017/06/08/gop-candidate-for-florida-attorney-general-once-sued-donald-trump-in-federal-fraud-case-112624
“Trump has lost big money in other lawsuits from Floridians who claim he swindled them, including a painter, golf club members and students of his now-defunct Trump University”
Do you actually think Trump is clever and nuanced?!?!? He made his money though his borrowing/leveraging his family, scams and has been sued and played out multiple times.
He is an obscene person who has no filter or ethical guide. That much should be obvious to anyone.
Hahahahaha, mike I knew you would be triggered by this post. Triggered into picking on a side issue; missing or ignoring all the main points.
lil letter mike, like most progressives, is easily distracted by shiny objects. He is distracted by Russians and Vagina.
Also, lil letter mike, like most progressives, doesn’t understand the difference between the words “matter” and “investigation”.
The MSM counts on the easily distracted progressive. lil letter mike proves this each and every time he makes a comment here.
FFS, #1 mike, Do you ever listen to yourself? Quoting links from the Dem Media Complex political hack sites Reuters & Politico. Each proven, by Hillary’s Emails last year, to be unequivocally biased? Trump is a business man & for your sort to think to understand anything about the business world is laughable to the extreme. Nothing you’ve quoted or implied is objectively true. Unless you’re a self-victim who has lost in a business tussle with Trump. You people hate him ONLY because he’s GOP & ran against your pathetic, unindicted felon, Pay to Play CorruptHillary. Your hypocrisy vomits out of your mouths daily. Typical of lunatics who argue points without regard to truth or reality. You’re not even a good spinner. Hillary wouldn’t even give you a job.
This whole Comey testimony was basically a Nothing Burger. I checked Twitter & all the triggered Leftists are confused & stupefied. They’re resorting to trying to defend the FACT that Comey’s admitted leak was illegal. ANYTHING Comey communicates in these matter or communicated in the past is under the purview of the Executive Branch, lead by our President Trump. Fact. All of which should have been apparent even to the most retarded on the Left when there was a question as to whether was even going to allow Comey to testify. He didn’t have to allow it.
(mike) is right in one thing. Trump doesn’t have a filter. He’s just a normal guy. He’s not a swamp thing. He calls it like it is. As to ethics? There is no person in government or business who’s always ethical or honorable. Trump would have had to step on heads to get to his position in life. However; he’s shown nothing, absolutely nothing but honor & the presence of mind to keep his promises to his electorate. Sure he’s had to learn as he goes in several way. It’s why we have ethics monitors saying maybe not a good thing to do this or that. Otherwise, he’s showing nothing but dedication to the country. That means looking out for OUR interests. OUR meaning Left, Right & Middle. He’s not giving away the shop, he’s not trying to tax you to death, he’s dismantling & deconstructing hurtful/harmful policies of the ex-president crybaby & he’s actively opposing radical change. He’s restoring order to the US & he’s driving Liberals crazy.
lil letter mike, like most progressives, questions Trumps ethics while supporting the Robot housing a Vagina. They don’t even see the ethics failure of their position.
I hope to never see Comey’s mug ever again. But if I do, I hope he appears without that godawful eyeliner. He’s an embarrassment. He was an embarrassment to both parties until the Dem Media decided that he was their (current) last hope to tank Trump. He attacked the Dems last year, they wanted him fired, he’s rumored to have insulted Trump in private & he is a big flowery showboat, as V has exhibited so nicely. He was NEVER, NOT going to be fired. By someone.
“He’s just a normal guy. He’s not a swamp thing. He calls it like it is”
No. He calls it like a babbling fool. “Global warming is a Chinese hoax.” “Obama was born in Kenya” “London mayor said don’t be alarmed” those are not normal thoughts that normal people have.
“mike I knew you would be triggered by this post.”
So you intentionally wrote something really stupid and you were only pretending ro be a naive fool?
That’s weird.
Nicely played?
He describes the climate alarmists as a Chinese hoax because the Chinese are communists & the upper echelons of the now-debunked Climate Hysteria elite are ex-real-life communists who’ve publicly stated their movements is to tank capitalism. That’s a fact. He questioned Obongo Obama’s low birth & sorted out in classic campaign mud that he was possibly born in Kenya & shipped to Honolulu, the Birthers being given life by your precious CorruptHillary. That is a fact.
Otherwise, all you’ve got to offer are insults to our president because you’re either a little urbanite in a small expensive apartment eating ramen saving coins to buy a beer, a child having first thoughts (which would explain your density), a subservient gay taking out your frustrations of a bad relationship on others or a student majoring in something that will never pay the bills. I know I’ve gotten one of these right. Either way, you don’t make a good argument for your ideology & being an ideologue would be a step up, in your case.
You don’t understand the subset of people that live in the greater NY area, be they Dem or GOP. He’s just like them. It’s like standing in Madison Sq Garden & bleating in a blowhorn that they’re all jerks. You just don’t get it & your responses are 3rd rate, missing points entirely & missing the target completely.
But what would we do without opposition, as long as it’s in its place. After all, it’s not the Right that’s dead set on Saul Alinsky Karl Marx Entitlement opposition. We know it’ll die here as it’s died everywhere else. Except that we are shutting down the Climate Hoax so there’ll be NO Plan B jobs for the Commies. That’s gotten you exceptionally bitter nowadays. I’ve noticed.
It’s not too late to be a better person.
I wish we had better opposition. Sigh.
lil letter mike’s favorite tingly man, Chris Mathews, has declared there is no Russian/Trump collision. Poor lil letter mike. He has no more Russia just Vagina.
No – I intentionally wrote something really truthful, knowing that you-and-others would be unable to handle it, would give silly responses.
And now I have a special update for y’all. The one beginning “Flaming skull time!” 😉
Little letter mike and the rest of the resistance seem to have a special constitution for Donald Trump. This is one where he can’t change foreign or domestic policy. He cannot expect the people who work for him to be loyal and cannot express a hope. Okay I got this, our votes only count when we vote your way. If you imagine that cancelling out the votes of millions of people will end well, good luck with that.
“No – I intentionally wrote something really truthful”
Ummmm…
Except you didn’t. You wrote something fully and provably inaccurate.
I have shown you the truth but you hide from it. Why? Is it pride or ego that compel you?
the new York claims the cloud just got much darker for trump after comey’s testimony.
Project much, mike?
Hi ILoveCapitalism,
“No – I intentionally wrote something really truthful, knowing that you-and-others would be unable to handle it, would give silly responses.”
Out of curiosity, what do you make of this… something you did not talk about:
“The President signaled the end of the briefing by thanking the group and telling them all that he wanted to speak to me alone. I stayed in my chair….
When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the President began by saying, “I want to talk about Mike Flynn.” …
The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, “He is a good guy and has been through a lot.” He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” I replied only that “he is a good guy.” …”
I don’t think that passes the smell test on any level. If Obama had done something similar–and perhaps he did!–most conservative voices on this site would agree and would not be defending the President with these rationalizations–they would be seeing bad actors behaving badly, or at least express an healthy dose of skepticism of the President’s defence (which involves simultaneously praising the thing he likes in Comey’s testimony as being accurate, whilst pouring buckets of scorn on what he doesn’t like, calling those things lies). I guess I don’t get the steadfast refusal to see anything untoward about what is happening here. We would be rightly saying that “he is trying to have his cake and eat it too.” But we are not, when it is a “Republican” President. I don’t see any difference in style or substance between your approach and those commentors who support it and the approach of some librul defending his or her piece of turf with the help of their librul commenters.
I agree with Cas.
Haha. Cas and CCP are discovering that a nothing burger isn’t very satisfying. Even CNN has confirmed this whole thing is a witch hunt.
Most likely, the MSM is beating this to death and drumming up the “resistance” at the behest of the DNC in order to fill their depleted coffers.
I find it interesting that CCP and Cas find so much hope in the word “hope”. Sad and pathetic.
Hi TnnsNe1,
“I find it interesting that CCP and Cas find so much hope in the word “hope”.”
I hope you find these cases helpful, TnnsNe1.
Spoiler Alert: They don’t support your claim…
It doesn’t mean that President Trump is guilty of obstructing the course of justice, but iI think it is silly to claim that this is a “nothing burger.” I repeat, TnnsNe1–if this had been President Obama, you wouldn’t be defending him …
Cas supported the lying Mrs. Clinton and now you want to talk ethics?
Your second “hope” case supports the position that Mrs. Clinton should have been indicated. Oops.
Cas – I feel like you’re behind the curve, sorry.
Comey has dealt with 3 Presidents and has told many a dramatic tale about his own heroic willingness to stand up to them – threatening resignation, lodging complaints, etc. Yet, he did nothing of the kind with Trump. (Until far later – AFTER Comey lost his job and decided to get even.)
Also, I do hope you saw these parts of Comey’s testimony:
You have to take it all in. Taking it all in (context), what do I make of this bit you quoted?
As Freud famously said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. I make of it, the following. To me – and assuming Comey’s account is even accurate, which it might not be – it seems like Trump is praising Flynn and expressing a generalized hope that Flynn will come out OK, and Comey is agreeing with him, albeit non-comittally. That’s what I make of it.
I can’t speak for “most conservative voices on this site”, only myself.
If Obama had done something similar, I would have taken it as a red flag for further investigation – and, upon nothing turning up, I would admit that nothing had turned up and that we had better talk about other things, or nail Obama for his awful policies. Yup. I went there. It’s exactly what I would do.
I never supported Trump and, when he does something that I find wrong, I criticize him. The difference would be that I try pretty hard to live in a world of facts, or of standards evenly applied. Many lefties don’t even try.
To be clear: I don’t fault lefties for questioning Trump. Not at all. What I fault lefties for is, refusing to admit that he might be right on some things, or refusing to believe any answers – no matter how real and genuine those answers are – that dis-confirm lefties’ own prejudices against him.
HiILoveCapitalism,
I don’t think you are “most commenters” on this site. We have our disagreements (I look forward to getting back to the fascism argument we had at some point in the future–I have been thinking about that for a couple of years… :)), but I don’t think you are a tool of the right. I don’t really get the conspiracy thing that you are working on though–I guess the cloak of semi-secrecy you weave about what you think is going on is unclear at the moment, but I will be interested in where it is going.
As for your view of context on Flynn: Well, we know that Comey did not think that. He saw the “hope” issue as a direction–and that is totally understandable given the President clearing the room before raising the issue. You do not look at this bit of context–why?
How much time do you think is enough time for an investigation, ILoveCapitalism, to run its course? Whitewater went on forever and morphed into the Lewinsky Scandal. And even though you fault Comey for being a prima donna (probably deserved by the way) it doesn’t mean that what he says is inaccurate or that he is wrong to judge President Trump to be a liar.
And I am guessing Comey thinks this in part, because the President says that he supports the investigation, and then fires the person in charge. That does not look like someone who supports the investigation.
And TnnsNe1
“RISCH: He said, “I hope.” Now, like me, you probably did hundreds of cases, maybe thousands of cases charging people with criminal offenses. And, of course, you have knowledge of the thousands of cases out there that — where people have been charged.
Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or, for that matter, any other criminal offense, where this — they said, or thought, they hoped for an outcome?
COMEY: I don’t know well enough to answer. And the reason I keep saying his words is I took it as a direction.”
Well, we know–yes, there are, and that is a problem for your claims, given you think Rich hit it out of the park ….