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He hasn't yet.
He has tried to lay the groundwork for just that though.
Fully consistent with someone who owes something to the Russians, or knows he is compromised.
Trump has not criticized Putin, EVER, and has only praised him.
good question. not sure if they become declassified after he was fired and became a private citizen. either way move.
He hasn't yet.
He has tried to lay the groundwork for just that though.
Fully consistent with someone who owes something to the Russians, or knows he is compromised.
Trump has not criticized Putin, EVER, and has only praised him.
He hoped it would prompt the appointment of a special council, i.e. bigger, darker cloud
Never pegged you as a tinfoiler
Trump and DarrinS Putin's biggest critics.
- James ComeyLordy, I hope there are tapes.
1) Comey is pretty sure Trump inappropriately interfered in the investigation — but he didn't ask the FBI to drop it entirely
The way Comey understood his conversations with the president, Trump asked Comey for three things:
1.His loyalty while appearing to threaten his job security
2.To “lift the cloud” of any perception the president was under investigation
3.To drop the FBI's investigation into Trump's fired national security adviser Michael Flynn. (The FBI is looking into Flynn's undisclosed work with foreign governments as well as his conversations with Russian officials.)
“The ask was to get it out that I, the president, am not personally under investigation,” Comey said.
But, Comey testified, Trump did NOT ask him to drop the FBI's broader investigation into Russia meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump's campaign had any part of it.
2) Comey thinks the president is a liar
Comey knocked the Trump administration in an opening statement at the hearing. Comey said the Trump administration "chose to defame" him and the FBI after he was fired. (Reuters)
The way Comey tells it, the first time he met Trump — to brief him on all things Russia shortly before Trump's inauguration — Comey got the heebie-jeebies, for a whole bunch of small reasons but nothing in particular.
“I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting,” Comey said, as to why he left Trump Tower, hopped in an FBI car, opened a laptop and started writing down every detail he could recall about his first meeting with the president. “It led me to believe that I gotta write it down, and I gotta write it down in a detailed way. … I knew that there might come a day where I might need a record of what happened, not just to defend myself and FBI and the integrity of our situation, and the independence of our function.”
Comey also said the president lied about why he fired him:
“The administration then chose to defame me — and, more importantly — the FBI by saying the organization was in disarray and that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple.”
3) The way Trump handled Comey's firing is what prompted Comey to speak out
First, Comey found out he was fired just four years into his 10-year tenure by watching TV.
Second, Comey said he was confused about why he was fired given the president changed his narrative several times about the firing, ultimately settling on “that Russia thing.” Then, Comey read in the press that the president told Russians Comey was a “nut job.”
Then, Trump tweeted this:
Up until then, Comey and senior leaders in the FBI had decided to “keep … in a box” everything they had learned about the president's inappropriate questions about the investigation.
But after Trump's tweet, Comey couldn't stay silent. He decided to act in an extraordinary way: by directing a leak of his conversations with the president: “I woke up in the middle of the night Monday … that there might be corroboration for our conversation, there might be a tape,” Comey testified. “And my judgment was that I needed to get that out in the public square. So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of (my memos) with a reporter.”
“Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey said at another point.
Comey walks at his home in McLean, Va., on May 10, 2017, a day after being fired by President Trump.Former FBI director James Comey: A look at his career
Slideshow by USA Today
4) Democrats are pretty sure Comey's firing is an unanswered key to all this
“I believe the timing of your firing stinks,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Comey's firing “ultimately shocking.”
“As director of the FBI, Comey was ultimately responsible for conducting the investigation, which might explain why you're sitting down as a private citizen,” Warner said.
Comey also said he thinks his firing was tied to the president's frustrations with how Comey was handling the Russia investigation — given the president said as much:
“I take the president at his word that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” Comey said. “Something about the way I was conducting, it created pressure, and he wanted me to leave.”
5) Republicans aren't really trying to defend the president
As close as they got was trying to show that maybe Trump didn't legally obstruct justice:
“He said: 'I hope' (when he asked you to drop the Flynn investigation)," said Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), a Trump ally. "You don't know of anyone that's ever been charged for hoping something?"
Comey said he didn't.
But Republicans are critical of why Comey didn't speak up sooner.
“The president never should have cleared the room,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) of a key Oval Office private meeting between Comey and Trump. “And he never should have asked you to let (the investigation into Flynn) go.
“But I remain puzzled by your response. Your response was: 'I agree that Michael Flynn was a good guy.' You could have said: 'Mr. President, this meeting is inappropriate, this response could compromise the investigation.'”
Comey testified that he was “stunned” the president was asking him to do something about the investigation and, in retrospect, he probably should have been more firm with Trump. But he just wanted to say something — anything — to end the “awkward” conversations.
6) No side comes off well in Comey's telling of events
To hear Comey tell it, when Republicans are in charge and the FBI was investigating Republicans, he was pressured by Republicans to shape his investigation.
And when Democrats were in charge and he was investigating Democrats, he was pressured by Democrats to shape his investigation. This is new — and significant. It suggests that no side was immune to meddling in the FBI's independent investigations.
Comey testified that when he was investigating Hillary Clinton's emails during the 2016 presidential campaign, then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch (a President Barack Obama appointee) “directed me not to call it an investigation but instead to call it a matter.”
That, plus Lynch's private tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton ahead of the FBI's impending decision on whether Clinton may have criminally mishandled classified information, raised Comey's ethics radar and persuaded him to announce the FBI's findings ahead of schedule.
“That was one of the bricks in the load that led me to conclude: I have to step away from the department if we're to close this case credibly,” Comey said.
---Amber Phillips
you.
Seriously, off, you asshatted dumbass.
This is far too serious to play politics with, and you and I both know the only ing reason you want to play this down is that the dude involved is Republican.
so basically, Comey's feelz
When you are alone in an office with a pathological liar that has asked the rest of the room to leave.
Genius.
Boom!
Where are those Trump tapes... What a joke.
So, was that everything you'd hoped it would be? Or, are you disappointed?
I still can't get over the bizarre rambling of McCain.
So, do you think Putin will release the golden shower tapes?
i havent had the time to watch the full thing yet, will check out a transcript when i find one later, but did they ask him about the alleged funding requests?
The director of the FBI, fired because he wouldn't pledge personal fealty to Kind Donald the Unready in order make an investigation go way.
His opinions and recollection are vastly more credible than that of Donald "Fraud University" Trump, and form the basis of reasonable cause for a special investigator to see what other specific actions may have been undertaken to obstruct justice.
Regardless of what you think about potential collusion, it is the corrupt cover up that will doom the administration.
Last edited by RandomGuy; 06-08-2017 at 01:32 PM. Reason: civility. must be...
Pretty badass, imo.
Comey played Trump. Even knowing his job would be lost.
The intergrity of the investigation is not lost with Mueller.
McCain needs to quit.
This is a political show to illustrate a wanna-be dictator failed.
I didn't hear any questions about that. But, some of the senators were so boring, that I might have missed it.
(shrugs)
Which statement do you think more likely:
Donald "Fraud University" Trump has never utilized pros utes in his entire life.
Donald "Fraud University" Trump has utilized pros utes.
Simple question. I await your lame attempt to evade it.
Pick one or the other.
Bingo.
Brilliant move.
Trump's lawyer is full of . Comey pulled a very smart move.
"Leak of privileged info...." Bull. Comey protected himself.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...stimony-239295
And nope, they didn't.
Democrats were too busy trying to get Comey to say Trump committed Obstruction and Republicans decided to spend their time on little old Hillary and her emails.
Mccain might have had a stroke or hit with onset dementia on the spot.
How was it a bit check move? He said he did it after trump said he had tapes of their convos, it makes sense he would want to be out in front of that
Nah, what he means is that by Comey doing this and triggering a special counsel investigator this hampers Trump down the road.
Is all about licking Trump's balls for TSA.
This was a step too far.
DarrinS, you have my apologies for this. It was too harsh, and really uncalled for.
I did find your comment deeply insulting, but this was not the response that should have been offered.
I think you have some deeply flawed thinking, but I think you are a decent person. I do believe that, and your words here, even when you disagree with me, do show that.
Sorry.
if i defied the illegal orders of a president this morally corrupt id definitely leave some collateral with a friend in case i got offed.
"what this thing needs is more cow bell"
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