The Comey firing

 

"President Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey on Tuesday, at the recommendation of senior Justice Department officials who said he had treated Hillary Clinton unfairly and in doing so damaged the credibility of the FBI and the Justice Department.

The startling development comes as Comey was leading a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether associates of Trump may have coordinated with Russia to interfere with the U.S. presidential election last year. It wasn’t immediately clear how Comey’s ouster will affect the Russia probe, but Democrats said they were concerned that his ouster could derail the investigation."  washpost

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For the record I think this was a very foolish thing to do while the FBI is in he midst of several investigations that involve President Trump's equities.  pl         

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/comey-misstated-key-clinton-email-evidence-at-hearing-say-people-close-to-investigation/2017/05/09/074c1c7e-34bd-11e7-b373-418f6849a004_story.html?utm_term=.923e05f85dbc

Comments

[Jack]

Sir

"There is no evidence that the Russians "compromised" the 2016 election, none whatever."

The Democrats are living in a bubble. They keep attributing their electoral losses to external factors without making any effort to understand why they keep losing states. If they spent even half their effort on why voters are electing their opponents maybe they could get ahead. But apparently their delusional belief in their "rightness" is not shared by many voters as they have consistently lost states all through Obama's presidency.

Hillary complaining about everything and everybody for losing to even Trump, except herself and her condescending campaign, epitomizes the Democrats inability to accept responsibility and make significant changes to attract voters. IMO, the Democrats made a big mistake in rigging their primary to knock Sanders out of the nomination. I live in Democrat country and Sanders won my county in the primary. The many who I know who voted for Hillary did so purely because they believed she was a shoo-in, not because they liked her or her track record.

[Dante Alighieri]

If Trump had nothing to fear from his Russian connections he could easily prove it, e.g. by declassifying the Flynn/Kislyak wiretaps. There would have been no need to fire Comey. But if the fact is that Trump personally directed the Flynn calls (the most reasonable assumption) then the firing of Comey falls into place.

[Marko]

I'd prefer to see him pick someone currently in the ranks of the FBI. I could live with Gowdy. Patrick Fitzgerald I'd like. Please not Guiliani , Christie , Grassley, or Clarke. And McCabe needs to go.

[turcopolier]

Dante Alighieri

The problem with your "argument" is that there was nothing illegal, immoral, or unethical about Flynn's telephone talks. And Trump began by telling the world that Flynn was just doing his hob. pl

[Stephanie]

MRW, I did read it before I posted. As I wrote previously, Rosenstein built a case. As the paragraph you quote demonstrates, he made no recommendation as to what Trump and Sessions should do and I'm sure that omission was intentional.

This morning we are hearing that Rosenstein threatened to quit because the White House was attempting to shift the responsibility for an action that has backfired badly to him in exactly the same way you are doing.

In any case, it's beside the point. Even if Rosenstein had recommended a specific course of action - which he did not -- any president is perfectly capable of ignoring such recommendations from subordinates if he doesn't agree with them. This was the president's decision to make.

[alba etie]

Hi Tyler
This is not a Left -Right framing issue . President Trump needs to release his tax returns
immediately and assure all of us he is not profiting from his office . I also am
confident that eventually we will know the full scope of the Russian interference
in our election 2016

[Fred]

Dante,

Comey got fired for screwing up the investigation of Hilary's email server. I believe the deputy AG phrased it as "The Direct was wrong to usurp the Attorney General's authority on July 5, 2016 and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution." That's got nothing to do with Flynn.

[Sam Peralta]

Col. Lang

Apparently it is now becoming de facto "criminal" to speak with the Russian government or accept Russian investment in a business. I wish the MSM would do the same for Saudi Arabia and the Izzies.

This post by Josh Marshall, a Democrat partisan, is a good example of the "Russian conspiracy" derangement that we see in the media and in the DC political circus.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-was-not-normal-russian-foreign-minister-edition

"I wanted to add some context to one of the more surreal moments of this surreal day. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met first with Secretary of State Tillerson and then a short time later with President Trump in the Oval Office.

This is not standard procedure."

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks and at least one Trump enterprise paid a $10 million fine for money laundering Russian organized crime/oligarch money.

[Keith Harbaugh]

Colonel Lang wrote:

From a lifetime of experience I tell you that
tinkering with foreign elections
is a major activity of the US government...

I don’t doubt you in the slightest, but it would seem very useful
if you could provide a reference to a published book
which you believe accurately describes what you just claimed.
Again, this is not to dispute you,
but merely to note the usefulness of published references,
especially in argumentation.

[turcopolier]

KH

I am not a scholar. You know that. I am a time traveler like the wretch, James Clapper. While the dilettantes in INSCOM were politicking with each other I was doing things. if i told you of these things a two person FBI team would be knocking on my door again.you do not want to see two of them together. Take it or leave it. pl

[Valissa]

There are numerous books at Amazon by reputable authors on this topic. If you spent a little time researching on the internet, I'm sure you find a book or web post that is credible enough for you.

To start you off... from an interview on NPR...
Database Tracks History Of U.S. Meddling In Foreign Elections http://www.npr.org/2016/12/22/506625913/database-tracks-history-of-u-s-meddling-in-foreign-elections

[TonyL]

"For the record I think this was a very foolish thing to do while the FBI is in he midst of several
investigations that involve President Trump's equities. pl"

I agreed with Col Lang. Don't you?

[Keith Harbaugh]

Valissa, you miss the point.
There are plenty of books at Amazon,
just as there are plenty of opinions on the Internet.
I, and I believe the general public,
frankly do not have the expertise to judge
which are most credible on the subject Colonel Lang mentioned.
How on earth would I know which books
on the subject of cross-national political meddling
are a pack of lies and which are accurate?

But thanks for the link; does your providing it mean
you vouch for the accuracy of Dov Levin's database?

And as to the importance of the topic,
if one wants to make the argument "everyone does it"
(where "it" is
"trying to influence the policies of other states or nations")
it is important to have a reliable, accurate proof of that assertion.

[turcopolier]

Keith Harbaugh

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol36no3/html/v36i3a05p_0001.htm

"In 1954, at the height of US concern about the threat from international communism, President Eisenhower appointed a panel to make recommendations regarding covert political action as an instrument of foreign policy. The panel, named after its chairman, General Jimmy Doolittle, included the following statement in its report:

It is now clear that we are facing an implacable enemy whose avowed objective is world domination by whatever means and at whatever costs. There are no rules in such a game. Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply. If the US is to survive, longstanding American concepts of "fair play" must be reconsidered. We must develop effective espionage and counterespionage services and must learn to subvert, sabotage and destroy our enemies by more clever, more sophisticated means than those used against us. It may become necessary that the American people be made acquainted with, understand and support this fundamentally repugnant philosophy."

The above essay is from the CIA's house magazine. You need to grow up. The US is no different from any other country in the business of covert political action. YES!! We all do it. pl

[Tyler]

Tony,

No, because there would be no end to "investigations", a word that has been beaten to mean "someone might maybe possibly look at this in the future".

Comey was a creature of DC and deserved his shit canning. Every bit of it.

[Tyler]

AE,

Lol come off of it mate.

[Keith Harbaugh]

An informative comparison of Trump's 2017 firing of FBI Director Comey
to Nixon's 1973 firing of firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox:
Comey & The Saturday Night Massacre
by Patrick Buchanan, 2017-05-15
http://buchanan.org/blog/comey-saturday-night-massacre-127070

Buchanan certainly has first-hand knowledge of the firing of Cox;
he was a "special assistant" to Nixon at the time.
His current column points out the very significant differences between
(the context of) the two firings.