JUST IN: Comey May Have Lied To Congress…

Sarah PALIN ^ | June 9, 2017 | Lawrence Richard

[McGruff]

Former FBI Director James Comey may have lied under oath during his congressional hearing yesterday.

In the hearing, Comey explained that he had a friend reveal the contents of a memo (detailed notes of his private conversation with Trump) because of comments Trump posted to Twitter on May 12.

The problem is that the New York Times (the source to which Comey leaked his memo) published an article with information suspiciously accurate to his memo on May 11.

[virgil]

This means he didn’t leak the memo because of Trump’s tweet.

[originalbuckeye]

Didn’t Scooter Libby try that? Oh wait, he was a Republican and everybody knows Republicans are never innocent of charges created by Democrats.

[Cboldt]

I think he leaked at least twice. His epiphany leak was of the "Flynn order" conversation, and may have been, as he says, on May 15. But before that he leaked the contents of the loyalty request memo, see May 11 NYT article.

Either way, whether or not Comey's testimony on the timing of and reason for leaking amounts to a lie goes primarily to his credibility. Whether he is misleading on purpose, or is misleading because he has a problem with question comprehension and being responsive, doesn't matter. His answers aren't credible.

The bottom line on this is what he admitted. He admitted leaking confidential "government property" communications with the purpose of undermining Trump. His bottom line justification that Trump may have obstructed justice doesn't hold water. He admits that Trump has the authority to order the stopping of any FBI investigation that he wants to - and he also admits that given what he took as a direct order, he willfully disobeyed without informing the man who gave him the order.

Label that character flaw however you want. I'd call it disloyal at least, and there are plenty of very harsh terms for that sort of behavior.

[NEWwoman]

Comey sent Martha Stewart to prison for lying to the FBI.

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-James-Comey-send-Martha-Stewart-to-federal-prison

Hmmmm

[Cboldt]

-- It may be true that the NYT had the Comey memo on May 11, but you need evidence before you make these allegations. --

Comey had more than one memo, and the contents of one of the memos (not the "drop Flynn investigation" order memo) was published on May 11.

Comey leaked before the "tape hope" tweet. You might argue over what he leaked before, but no question he leaked before.

[Kharis13]

Curtains Comey is quite a piece of work. It’ll be interesting to see him spin this.

[shanover]

The Obama DOJ (lite) will never prosecute (That’s what the Trump DOJ basically is with Obama holdovers and AG asleep at his desk) I hope I am sadly mistaken and eat my words.

[SSS Two]

Who else could claim to know what was said besides Comey ?

Only Comey would know. But that doesn't address whether the leak of the memo occurred before May 12 or not. It is perfectly plausible that the timeline is as follows:

May 11. NYT writes article about January dnner with DJT. Source is interview with Comey himself.

May 12. DJT writes the "tapes" tweet.

May 16. NYT writes article about February meeting between DJT and Comey. Source is the leaked Comey memo, but the Comey memo wasn't leaked until after the "tapes" tweet.

People are getting the May 11 NYT article and the May 16 NYT article confused. They are about different events. The May 11 article dealt with the January dinner with Trump. The leaked memo detailed the February meeting with Trump. The May 11 article did not cover material found in the leaked memo.

[SSS Two]

Comey had more than one memo, and the contents of one of the memos (not the "drop Flynn investigation" order memo) was published on May 11.

Is it possible ... just possible ... that the NYT did not have any memo for the May 11 article and that the source was an interview with Comey himself?

[chuckee]

Ironic that Trump was trying to get Comey to have the FBI open an investigation into intelligence and investigatory leaks a few months ago and Comey turned him down apparently because he was too busy leaking from the FBI.So Comey and the upper echelon of the FBI are sitting around a conference table trying to determine the best time to leak the memo Comey prepared of his private meeting with Trump while Trump at the same time is asking him to investigate leaks. Does not get more Monty Python than that. Very rarely is one successful in getting the fox to investigate leaks in the henhouse

[Cboldt]

-- Is it possible ... just possible ... that the NYT did not have any memo for the May 11 article and that the source was an interview with Comey himself? --

It's possible that the NYT never had "physical possession" of the memo, just what was read to them, orally delivered.

They could have an e-mail, digitally delivered. The mail could be an exact copy of Comey's memo with complete headers, or excepts. Comey's name could me "masked" from an email, so NYT would have to trust its source.

I wouldn't say the physical possibilities are endless. But no matter how you slice it, Comey leaked directly or indirectly to the NYT, before the May 12 tweet.

[easternsky]

Sounds like He was having a rough night sleeping, things were coming down on his head, so decided to make some memos up.

[elhombrelibre]

He could contract it out to putin.

[elhombrelibre]

Who said the memo he wrote was classified at any level?

[SSS Two]

Comey leaked directly or indirectly to the NYT, before the May 12 tweet.

We can find agreement on this point. Comey leaked directly or indirectly to the NYT before the May 12 tweet. But there is no evidence that any memo was the basis of the May 11 NYT article. None. And if the NYT did not receive a memo (directly or indirectly) and instead relied on interviews for the May 11 article, then Comey may have been truthful when he said the memo leak was in response to President Trump's "tapes" tweet.

[Diogenesis]

President Trump determines what is classified or not.

And there is Comey’s signed NDA.

So, who said it was NOT classified? Reality Winner?

[Diogenesis]

No one else but Pres. Trump and Comey-the-DNC-leaker
were in the room.

So where did the info come from EXCEPT
from Comey-the-DNC-leaker.

[Cboldt]

I don't disagree with your remarks, except I think the distinction between "interview" and "memo" is thin gruel.

I don't know if it is on this thread, if not search my recent posts - I noted that since Comey probably leaked more than once, it is possible that the May 15 leak was prompted or emboldened by Trump's "have tapes" tweet. I think the point is entirely irrelevant, because the underlying "offense" happened, and the Comey admitted being the leaker. The bottom line reason why, to damage the US president by having special counsel against him" shows bad motive, but is just a political question. "Emboldened because the tapes would corroborate" is what I refer to as superfluous decoration on the facts. It doesn't color the underlying reason (wanted special counsel), it only goes to timing. Comey had been trying to damage the president with leaks, before the "have tapes" tweet came out.

[Political Junkie Too]

RE: Comey's truthfulness about memo vs interview vs leak...

Let's give it the same consideration that Trump had regarding "wiretapped" and "surveilled." We all know that the bottom line was that Trump was spied on, and we all now know that the bottom line was that Comey traded insider information.

-PJ

[elhombrelibre]

Just wondering...have you ever worked with classified documents and do you think POTUS determines all classified documents? In addition, if it’s classified can POTUS talk about the subject and others not talk about it? I ask because it sounds like you really know.