The May 11 NYT article explicitly says "Comey told associates". There's no mention of memos anywhere. Comey may have leaked this story, but not his memos until May 16.
The May 11 NYT article explicitly says "Comey told associates". There's no mention of memos anywhere. Comey may have leaked this story, but not his memos until May 16.
Find me where the word "memo" is used in the May 11 article. I'll wait.
The January dinner in the May 11th story was also one of his memos. Doesn't really matter that the story doesn't say memos, it proves Comey was leaking before the Trump tweet.
The January dinner in the May 11th story was also one of his memos. Doesn't really matter that the story doesn't say memos, it proves Comey was leaking before the Trump tweet.
Thank you for confirming, on three separate occasions, that the word memo never appears in that article.
Cuckservatives admitting the truth but remaining in denial! Sad!
Comey said he leaked them because Trump said he had tapes---the tweet. The NYT was quoting Comey's memos the day before the Trump tweet. Not sure how or why you consider Comey lying during testimony brilliant.
1) Sleazy, lying real estate developer billionaire guy with a sense of en lement a mile wide and 30 year history of adultery and objectifying women used pros utes and was dumb enough to get filmed doing it by people that do this kind of for a living.
Is not nearly as far of a stretch as:
2) Secret cabal of unknown size and origin made several airliners full of people disappear, then faked the collapse of skyscrapers using physically impossible methods with no one ever finding out the truth.
3) Moon landing was faked by a secret conspiracy involving hundreds of thousands of people, none of whom have ever come forward to give up their secret part in faking mountains of evidence.
These are not equivalently crazy things.
The number of assumptions needed to believe the first are:
Donald Trump used the services of pros utes in Russia.
Donald Trump was filmed doing this by people who do this all the time.
Is Donald Trump the kind of person who does this ?
Is Donald Trump dumb enough to not realize he might be filmed doing it?
1) Sleazy, lying real estate developer billionaire guy with a sense of en lement a mile wide and 30 year history of adultery and objectifying women used pros utes and was dumb enough to get filmed doing it by people that do this kind of for a living.
Is not nearly as far of a stretch as:
2) Secret cabal of unknown size and origin made several airliners full of people disappear, then faked the collapse of skyscrapers using physically impossible methods with no one ever finding out the truth.
3) Moon landing was faked by a secret conspiracy involving hundreds of thousands of people, none of whom have ever come forward to give up their secret part in faking mountains of evidence.
These are not equivalently crazy things.
The number of assumptions needed to believe the first are:
Donald Trump used the services of pros utes in Russia.
Donald Trump was filmed doing this by people who do this all the time.
Is Donald Trump the kind of person who does this ?
Is Donald Trump dumb enough to not realize he might be filmed doing it?
It's not clear the special counsel had authority to investigate the president personally. He does now.
Hiding in plain sight in former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee is a potentially major new avenue for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia-related crimes: the possibility that President Donald Trump committed a federal crime by lying to Comey about his connections to Russia and activities on his 2013 visit there.
It’s a crime to lie to a representative of the federal government. Thus, Mueller can now investigate the possibility of a criminal charge against Trump if he had any connection to Russia.
And Trump’s denial, as reported by Comey, will also enable Mueller to do what the Federal Bureau of Investigation apparently has not done: investigate the questionable dossier claims that Trump was compromised by Russian intelligence on the basis of sexual escapades in Moscow.
The key to this analysis is one completely new piece of information in Comey’s testimony. According to Comey, Trump told him on March 30 that Trump said “he had nothing to do with Russia” and “had not been involved with hookers in Russia.” These were responses to claims raised in a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele at the behest of Trump political opponents -- claims that have not been substantiated.
This insistence by Trump is noteworthy, especially because Comey had already told Trump more than three months previously that the FBI had not opened a counterintelligence investigation of him on the basis of the dossier.
Trump may simply have wanted to make sure that Comey didn’t believe the allegations. Or he may have wanted to emphasize his repeated request that Comey somehow announce that Trump wasn’t under FBI investigation.
Regardless, Trump potentially put himself in legal jeopardy by making the statement unbidden by Comey. Under 18 U.S. Code Section 1001, it’s a federal crime to make “any materially false, fic ious, or fraudulent statement or representation” regarding “any matter within the jurisdiction” of the U.S. government.
What’s more, the denials to Comey are also now connected to Trump’s efforts to convince Comey to drop the investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn -- another topic that belongs within the ambit of Mueller’s inquiry.
Good, sound investigative practice would now quite reasonably focus on whether Trump’s statements were false. That’s because false statements to Comey in this context would count as a crime.
In contrast, Trump’s public statements denying any connection to Russia and disparaging the sexual allegations aren’t criminal even if they are untrue. It’s perfectly legal to lie to the public. Indeed, a president or presidential candidate’s false statements to the electorate are probably protected by the First Amendment. (God help us.)
In contrast, a statement that amounts to a denial of potentially wrongful conduct made to the nation’s chief law enforcement official, who was overseeing an investigation of related matters, would certainly count as a Section 1001 violation.
1) Sleazy, lying real estate developer billionaire guy with a sense of en lement a mile wide and 30 year history of adultery and objectifying women used pros utes and was dumb enough to get filmed doing it by people that do this kind of for a living.
Is not nearly as far of a stretch as:
2) Secret cabal of unknown size and origin made several airliners full of people disappear, then faked the collapse of skyscrapers using physically impossible methods with no one ever finding out the truth.
3) Moon landing was faked by a secret conspiracy involving hundreds of thousands of people, none of whom have ever come forward to give up their secret part in faking mountains of evidence.
These are not equivalently crazy things.
The number of assumptions needed to believe the first are:
Donald Trump used the services of pros utes in Russia.
Donald Trump was filmed doing this by people who do this all the time.
Is Donald Trump the kind of person who does this ?
Is Donald Trump dumb enough to not realize he might be filmed doing it?
Ok. I'll play along.
So, Trump beat out a field of 16 in the GOP primary and then pretty much campaigned non-stop in the general, all so he could stop some weird Russian pros ute video from coming out?
Now, onto the collusion thing. How do you think that went down? It was a phishing email that requires the recipient to be a complete dumbass, i.e. there's no guarantee it will work. Did Trump tell the Russians to target Pedesta, because he's a moron?
So, Trump beat out a field of 16 in the GOP primary and then pretty much campaigned non-stop in the general, all so he could stop some weird Russian pros ute video from coming out?
Nope.
Characteristic of Russian long-game is they get their hooks into whoever they can, however they can in hopes that something pans out. The pattern of involvement with various people close to Trump fits that known modus operendi rather closely.