Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey

[Ryan Ruck]

Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey

May 9, 2017

President Donald Trump abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey Tuesday, ousting the nation’s top law enforcement official in the midst of an investigation into whether Trump’s campaign had ties to Russia’s election meddling.

In a letter to Comey, Trump said the firing was necessary to restore “public trust and confidence” in the FBI. Comey has come under intense scrutiny in recent months for his role in an investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s email practices, including a pair of letters he sent to Congress on the matter in the closing days of last year’s election.



Trump made no mention of Comey’s role in the Clinton investigation. But the president did assert that Comey informed him “on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation.”

The White House said the search for a new FBI director was beginning immediately.

Tuesday’s stunning announcement came shortly after the FBI corrected a sentence in Comey’s sworn testimony on Capitol Hill last week. Comey told lawmakers that Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, had sent “hundreds and thousands” of emails to her husband’s laptop, including some with classified information.

On Tuesday, the FBI said in a two-page letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that only “a small number” of the thousands of emails found on the laptop had been forwarded there while most had simply been backed up from electronic devices. Most of the email chains on the laptop containing classified information were not the result of forwarding, the FBI said.

Comey, 56, was nominated by President Barack Obama for the FBI post in 2013 to a 10-year term. Praised for his independence and integrity, Comey has spent three decades in law enforcement and has been no stranger to controversy.

Before the past months’ controversies, Comey was perhaps best known for a remarkable 2004 standoff with top officials in the George W. Bush administration over a federal domestic surveillance program.

As the deputy attorney general, Comey rushed to the hospital bed of Attorney General John Ashcroft to physically stop White House officials in their bid to get his ailing boss to reauthorize a secret no-warrant wiretapping program.

Comey described the incident in 2007 testimony to Congress, explaining that he believed the spy program put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was legally questionable.

When he learned that Andrew Card, the president’s chief of staff, and Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel, were heading to Ashcroft’s hospital room despite Ashcroft’s wife’s instructions that there be no visitors, Comey told Congress, Comey beat them there and watched as Ashcroft turned them away.

“That night was probably the most difficult night of my professional life,” Comey said.

Good... A whole lot of house that should have been cleaned out a long time ago, to include Comey.

[Ryan Ruck]

I heard Glenn Beck covering this this morning...

I know we all know liberals are a bunch of mindless drones but, this really proves it.

Video: Colbert’s Audience Roars With Cheers Upon Hearing That Comey Was Fired

May 10, 2017

Via the Free Beacon, this is funnier when you realize that the liberals who stand in line for tickets to this show doubtless see themselves as better informed and more politically savvy than the average benighted American. How could they not be? They watch Colbert.

Tonight! Stephen reacts to the day's big surprise: the firing of James Comey by President Trump. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/axuUmFLtSd

— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) May 10, 2017

He does his best to play off the reaction, joking that there must be a lot of Trump fans in the crowd. Not true. It’s just that low-information Democrats have spent the past seven months being told that Comey cost them the election and reacted accordingly upon learning of his misfortune. The point of these late-night shows is to immolate the left’s villain du jour, after all; Colbert mentioned a recurring villain du jour, so they responded in the way they’ve been trained. It’s a Two Minutes Hate with laugh lines. The problem in this case is that Comey is now suddenly a martyr to anti-Trumpers, not a villain: The president firing the guy who’s investigating whether some of his campaign staffers had ties to Russian intelligence is … problematic. Colbert understood that. The dimmer bulbs who adore him needed a minute to piece it together.

The word from the White House today about the strange timing of firing Comey is that they had to wait for deputy AG Rod Rosenstein to be confirmed. Trump couldn’t fire Comey himself or it would look like he was trying to derail the Russia probe; Jeff Sessions couldn’t do it either since he’d already kinda sorta recused himself from all Russia-related matters. Rosenstein, a longtime prosecutor with bipartisan cred who joined the DOJ just two weeks ago, would be enlisted to make the case that Comey had badly damaged the FBI’s credibility with his Hillary outbursts last year and simply had to go. The behind-the-scenes reporting, though, suggests that there were other things on Trump’s mind besides Comey’s credibility. Which makes sense, since Trump’s only problem with Comey’s handling of the Hillary matter until now was that he didn’t indict her last summer:

[Trump] had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by his inability to control the mushrooming narrative around Russia. He repeatedly asked aides why the Russia investigation wouldn’t disappear and demanded they speak out for him. He would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe, one adviser said…

Trump had grown angry with the Russia investigation — particularly Comey admitting in front of the Senate that the FBI was investigating his campaign — and that the FBI director wouldn’t support his claims that President Barack Obama had tapped his phones in Trump Tower…

Trump, as one White House official noted, believed Comey was too soft on Clinton — not too unfair, as Rosenstein’s letter Tuesday indicated.

Sources also told the Journal that it’s the Russia probe that’s bugging Trump:

Frustration was growing among top associates of the president that Mr. Comey, in a series of appearances before a Senate panel, wouldn’t publicly tamp down questions about possible collusion with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race. A person with knowledge of recent conversations said they wanted Mr. Comey to “say those three little words: ‘There’s no ties.’”

The Times reported last night that the White House and DOJ had been chatting about firing Comey for the past week and that “Mr. Sessions had been charged with coming up with reasons to fire him.” If Trump felt Comey needed to go because he had lost the public’s confidence, why did Sessions need to “come up” with reasons to can him? That’s the reason, supposedly. And if this is all about Hillary and Comey’s mishandling of that matter, why was Sarah Huckabee Sanders out there for the White House last night calling for an end to the Russia probe and telling everyone to “move on”? If you want to reassure people that firing Comey isn’t about obstructing the investigation, the message should have been the opposite — “the FBI will continue its work,” “we want to get to the bottom of Russian influence as much as anyone,” etc. They went out of their way to make the firing look shadier than it needed to look.

If they wanted a politics-free dismissal of Comey, they should have waited until the Russia probe was concluded. Having Rosenstein drop the axe won’t remove suspicions of foul play. Now they’re going to get blowback, and not just from Colbert or Chuck Schumer or John McCain. For instance, it’s hard to believe that this story appearing on CNN last night was a coincidence given the timing. Comey allies are going to start leaking to embarrass Trump. As for Rosenstein, whose reputation as a by-the-book lawman is now in question (if he and Sessions had been carefully deliberating about Comey, why was his memo dated yesterday?), read this interesting Twitter thread from a former DOJ staffer who’s worked with him in the past. Rosenstein’s desire to rehabilitate the DOJ’s and FBI’s reputations may be more sincere than Trump would prefer: This guy thinks Rosenstein may end up supporting a special prosecutor in the Russia matter, which is going to make things … awkward with the White House.

[vector7]

Deep State
FBI Refuses To Hand Over "Comey Memos" To Congress


by Tyler Durden
May 26, 2017 5:12 AM

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said today that the FBI had decided to withhold documents, including memos, notes, summaries, and recordings, requested by his committee in regards to the ongoing Russia probe. This was revealed in a letter sent by Chaffetz to the FBI responding to the agency’s decision to withhold documents requested by the Committee on May 16, 2017.

The FBI's denial to cooperate is presented below:

According to a statement by the Oversight Committee, "Chaffetz requested memos, notes, summaries, and recordings to assist in the Committee’s investigation of the FBI’s independence, and which are outside the scope of the Special Counsel’s investigation."

The documents are due June 8, 2017, but that may not happen as it appears the FBI is suddenly unwilling to cooperate.

As Chaffetz elaborates, after a New York Times report that former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Corney memorialized the content of phone calls and meetings with the President in a series of memoranda, he requested those memoranda and any related notes, summaries, and recordings. The FBI is withholding those documents, citing to the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Prosecutor. According to a letter from your staff: "In light of this development and other considerations [the Bureau] is undertaking appropriate consultation to ensure all relevant interest implicated by your request are properly evaluated.
The letter states:

“The Committee has its own, Constitutionally-based prerogative to conduct investigations. But the Committee in no way wants to impede or interfere with the Special Counsel’s ability to conduct his investigation. In fact, the Committee’s investigation will complement the work of the Special Counsel. Whereas the Special Counsel is conducting a criminal or counterintelligence investigation that will occur largely behind closed doors, the Committee’s work will shed light on matters of high public interest, regardless of whether there is evidence of criminal conduct.

“The focus of the Committee’s investigation is the independence of the FBI, including conversations between the President and Comey and the process by which Comey was removed from his role as director. The records being withheld are central to those questions, even more so in light of Comey’s decision not to testify before the Committee at this time.”

“I am seeking to better understand Comey’s communications with the White House and Attorney General in such a way that does not implicate the Special Counsel’s work.”

As Chaffetz concludes, "Congress and the American public have a right and a duty to examine this issue independently of the Special Counsel's investigation. I trust and hope you understand this and make the right decision-to produce these documents to the Committee immediately and on a voluntary basis."
The American public is certainly looking forward to the FBI's release of the full content of the Comey's memos, not only those relating to his meetings with Trump, but just as importantly, with Loretta Lynch, as well as Barack Obama and/or Hillary Clinton.

Full text of Chairman Chaffetz letter can be viewed here.
Full text of FBI letter can be viewed here.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...ntel-committee