Posted on 06/06/2017 1:45:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Get ready for a big … nothingburger? Everyone in Washington and the media awaits James Comey’s testimony on Thursday with bated breath, but they may be in for a deep disappointment. ABC News’ Justin Fishel and Jonathan Karl report that sources close to the former FBI director say he will not claim that Donald Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation into Michael Flynn. He will, however, tell the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump didn’t tell the truth about whether the investigation into Russian influence had excluded him as a subject:
Although Comey has told associates he will not accuse the President of obstructing justice, he will dispute the president’s contention that Comey told him three times he is not under investigation.
The president allegedly said he hoped Comey would drop the Flynn investigation, a request that concerned Comey enough that he documented the conversation in a memo shortly after speaking with the president. In the memo, according to sources close to Comey who reviewed it, Trump said: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” during a February meeting.
The request made Comey uncomfortable, but the source tells ABC News that Comey has told associates he will not accuse the President of obstructing justice.
“He is not going to Congress to make accusations about the President’s intent, instead he’s there to share his concerns,” the source said, and tell the committee “what made him uneasy” and why he felt a need to write the memo documenting the conversation.
So … what else is there to discuss? No one really bought that Comey had told Trump that he was off the hook. The FBI does not disclose the status or targets of an investigation, or at least they didn’t before Comey’s run of poor decisions last year. Comey may not have publicly disputed that characterization of their conversations at the time, but he made his displeasure with those claims known well enough that it’s become common knowledge.
Comey will discuss his “discomfort” with Trump’s conversation instead, and explain his need to memorialize them in the form of an unofficial 302 document. That too is rather self-explanatory, just on the nature of the subject matter at hand. Hearing that Trump asked whether the Flynn matter could get dropped would make any law-enforcement professional cringe, and reach for a notebook. Comey would have wanted to take contemporaneous notes just in case there was any later suggestion that he encouraged that topic.
Basically, then, Comey’s not going to tell us anything new, if ABC News has this right; he’s simply going to amplify what we’ve already heard. That will cause the White House some discomfort, as the pull quotes are bound to be amazing, but it won’t create any lasting damage beyond what has already occurred. And the most likely reason why Comey won’t push the notion of obstruction or interference is because it would raise serious questions as to why Comey didn’t report the conversation at the time. One has to wonder whether Comey’s asking friends to get this story out now as a way to seriously dial down the expectations and the panting anticipation that have erupted this week ahead of his testimony.
Some of those questions will likely get asked anyway, including the seven that the Senate Judiciary Committee sent to Comey last week. Guy Benson covers some of that ground in his suggested twelve questions for the committee. Expect at least one Republican to focus closely on any other informal 302s Comey may have written after meetings with Barack Obama and Loretta Lynch, especially in relation to the Hillary Clinton probe.
Instead of leaks from unnamed sources telling us what he will say, now they claim to know what he won’t say.
FAKE NEWS
ROTFL! These “hearings” and “investigations” by the Fools on The Hill are a real freak show. What a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Yes...well, you mean Comey’s lieutenants sealed his office. Who knows what was confiscated by whom and put where?
No one but the bicycle boy was there. The security friend of Trump was the courier who delivered the termination statement to the department. He had no higher authorization after that to do anything more.
The process took over from there. Who were the processors, but Comey’s men? Just saying.
Sort of hard to prove a negative.
Talk about starting a bunch of drama. wow!
CABRERA: And now we're learning -- speaking of Thursday, this came in also during the press briefing. Senator John McCain, he's not a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, but he has been invited to be one of the senators to question James Comey during this committee hearing, again, in front of the Senate Intel Committee. We know Senator McCain is on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Phil, what do you make of this?CNN - June 6, 2017
Never trust ABC.
Comey will sing like a canary on Thursday.
God forbid someone tell him he has blood on his hands from letting both the Boston Marathon Bomber and Orlando Pulse jihadist off the hook after having both in custody. “Do you feel you failed the nation for the dozens of dead Americans that resulted from your actions?” “Would you like to take this opportunity to apologize?”
I keep wondering about what journals he might have, what government document rules, security regulations, and all he is at risk of or violating. Aren’t his journals government property and classified? He should not have any.
BREAKING????? Give me a break - this is all a media circus and most of the public see right through it. Waste of Tax Payer money for the free loaders to get some comic TV relief from their idle lives.
I’m trying to understand, how do we know Comey
wrote this memo? at the time specified?
If he had concerns, he was required to notify
the JD was he not?
______________________
The all too obvious questions that Comey can’t ever satisfactorily answer.
Why do these networks always set the public up for what they’re saying is going to happen before it even is underway!! Good grief I hate the press!
As written.....”Everyone in Washington and the media awaits James Comey’s testimony on Thursday with bated breath”....
What for? So we can hear him tell us why he can’t speak about matters. No thanks I’ll wait for the spin as it’s got to be better than anything Comey isn’t saying...again! He’s just struggling to save his reputation he shattered all on his own.
“sources close to the former FBI director say”
that’s odd.
“the sources say” HAD all been saying today and for the last two weeks that the Comey testimony would most likely lead to Trump’s impeachment. WaPo, NYT, HuffPo, Salon, Slate, Vox and ALL the rest have been assuring us of that.
just goes to show you can get “sources say” to say pretty much anything you want them to say.
the enemedia has completely given up on actual news reporting and now publicize nothing but crap they make up.
to paraphrase Rocky Horror Picture Show: “I’m the National Enquirer, You’re the National Enquirer, We’re ALL the National Enquirer” (sung to the tune of “The Time Warp”.
That’s the sick feeling I also have. Praying we’re both wrong :-)
“If even FAKE NEWS ABC is saying so, then look for the snowflakes to blow up SOME OTHER bit of his testimony to make it look like Watergate!”
that is EXACTLY what is going to happen. there’ll be one minor thing that Comey says that maybe, might, possibly be interpreted as bad for Trump, and the entire enemedia will explode for days about that one little thing, twisting it with each re-telling until they finally state as gospel that James Comey’s testimony completely destroyed the very last shreds of Trump’s credibility.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.