Posted on 06/12/2017 11:43:48 AM PDT by Meet the New Boss
His leaking, at the very least, was improper.
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One major issue is whether these documents belonged to Comey, in the sense of being his property rather than the government’s. That is the position he took in his testimony. Like Turley, I think the former director is wrong.
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There is also a claim floating around that the memo(s) should not be deemed to have been “leaked” because they were, it is asserted, not classified. We need to unpack this errant suggestion in three steps because it is so wrongheaded.
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Nevertheless, as Turley observes, Comey never sought a classification review of his memos by the White House or the Justice Department. It is possible that they’d disagree with Comey’s conclusion that the memos are not classified. Going forward, it will be interesting to see what position the government takes regarding the memos: Their disclosure has already been demanded by Congress, and additional disclosure demands will be the subject of Freedom of Information Act litigation.
I’m betting the memos are not classified. There is no doubt, though, that at least one of them has been leaked, and that the leak was, to say the least, improper.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
He thinks it is possible that the government would say these memos are classified, but gives Comey "the benefit of the doubt" on this because his buddy Comey is a "smart and careful guy". But McCarthy does point out that notes of conversations General Petraeus had with the president were considered classified in the prosecution of Petraeus.
To me, an interesting question is, what's up with Comey's claim that he woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat over Trump's tweet that he might have taped Comey's conversation?
Comey said that this prompted him to then leak his memo to the NYT through his law professor buddy Richman.
But people have pointed out that the NYT had already published an article based on the memo BEFORE Trump's tweet and before Comey woke up in the night in a cold sweat.
And Sharyl Atkisson pointed out how strange it was for Comey to say this prompted the leak, when after all the tapes would be much better evidence of Comey's account (assuming he is not lying) than an uncorroborated memo by Comey. So his reasoning makes no sense.
My theory: Comey wrote a memo with a false account of the conversation with Trump and gave it to his buddy to leak to the NYT. This was part of the campaign cooked up by the Deep State to smear Trump and create pressure for a Special Counsel, the appointment of which signals eventual checkmate for the Trump administration. We already see Mueller hiring the most expensive and highly-reputed criminal lawyers he can find to go after Trump.
Trump saw that the NYT article was full of lies, knew that it must have come from Comey since it was a one-on-one meeting and tweeted out that the big swamp rat better hope there aren't tapes.
So Comey thought, Oh shiite! How do I get out of this fix?
So my theory is he REWROTE the memo to try to protect himself, and then gave it again to his pal Richman for a second leak to the NYT. He probably told Richman to destroy the first version of the memo and claim that the first leak was based on an oral conversation, and any falsehoods would be said to be garbled in misunderstanding and transmission.
The fact that his pal Professor Richman is in hiding certainly suggests that Richman is worried about his own hide and supports my theory.
Trump can just whip up his own memos... then it’ll be his memos vs. Comey’s memos... same thing as a “he said she said” situation.
I agree. He was the FBI director when the conversation was held. The only way he could get out of the ‘Government property’ question is to admit he wrote them after he was fired. Bwahahahaha! Get out the popcorn! (Yet, now he says he deleted them.....shouldn’t they be able to be discovered on the hard drives that were confiscated the day he was fired.....if he actually wrote them on the day?)
One thing that has never once been a part of Comey’s display of character: truth telling.
Comey has not shown even the slightest inclination of sincerity or that he desires to uphold the truth.
Your theory is a good one. I'd also suggest that Comey's reason for writing the memos about those conversations was not what he said it was. I suspect he was engaged in his own surreptitious investigation of Trump, and changed his story about why he wrote those memos after it turned out that he had nothing to show for what he was doing.
Thanks to Freeper tumblindice for this instant classic. LMAO.
Your theory sounds quite plausible.
Richman should be subpoenaed and justice department officials should scare him with potential for legal consequences, and give him the option of immunity if he sings.
Jay Sekulow is apparently part of Trump’s legal team. In a TV interview this weekend he did not rule out the possibility that Trump could fire Mueller.
I suspect that eventually this will happen.
His behavior is so strange and complicated. My experience has been that truthful people tell simple stories.
Since he initiated the request to meet with President-Elect Trump at Trump Tower, Comey was acting in his official capacity as FBI Director, any notes he made of that meeting are Federal government property. He also met, and spoke with President Trump, either in person, or on the phone in his official capacity as FBI Director, so any notes/memos he made as a result of those meetings/phone calls, are also the property of the Federal government. Comey is wrong. They are not his personal property.
I continue to read that Mueller and Comey are best friends. How on earth can he investigate any matter involving a best friend? The swamp seem to have penetrated everything.
Evidence shows Comey leaked his Jan 27 memo on or before May 11.
I think appointment of SC was pre-agreed between Trump, Sessions, and Rosentein - totally unrelated to any leak, only by coincidence of timing. The bogus Comey investigations won't go away on their own, and Rosenstein, the guy who fired Comey (more or less) won't be trusted to deal with them.
What if: Comey wrote a false CYA memo after the meeting and when he was fired, he immediately gave it to his buddy to leak to the press. After President Trump’s tweet about possible tapes, he attempted to retrieve the memo but found it had already been given to the press. He woke up in a cold sweat when he realized the memo was now evidence that could be shown to be false.
CORRUPT Mueller should have been FIRED IMMEDIATELY after CORRUPT COMEYS TESTIMONY!!!
The same way he didn't rule out dropping a nuke on Moscow. Sekulow even suggested outwardly absurd events that almost certainly won't happen, but can't be ruled out, that would justify a firing.
Mueller has a conflict of interest with his good pal Comey. His buddy Comey is a witness here, a person with his own interest (his FBI job) at stake here and who himself should be a target of the investigation.
This can be handled without firing Mueller as follows:
Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein issues a revised Special Counsel Appointment Letter.
He says that he appointed a Special Counsel in order to avoid any perceived conflict of interest, but now a new conflict of interest has arisen in the form of Mueller's relationship with Comey.
Therefore, Rosenstein is now amending the Special Counsel appointment to limit to ONLY two matters not involving Comey:
1. The Flynn matter as to Turkey agent registration and
2. The Manafort matter regarding Ukraine apparently having to with FCPA or something
3. Any other matters Mueller wants to investigate that he comes across during the investigation of these two matters need permission from DOJ to pursue in order to ensure that Mueller does not have a conflict and that a conflict with the Trump admin exists such as these new matters must be handled by a Special Counsel and cannot be handled by DOJ internally. So generally Mueller can not go on a fishing expedition.
Furthermore, Rosenstein states in the revised Appointment Letter on the basis of the multiple testimonies by Comey that after months of counterintelligence investigation there has been found no legitimate basis for a criminal investigation of Trump campaign collusion with Russian government to hack computers, that this part of the appointment of the Special Counsel is hereby terminated.
The matter involving Comey's dismissal and claim that Trump fired him to obstruct justice in the Russia matter or the Flynn matter and the investigation of Comey's crimes regarding leaking will be given to a new special counsel who has NO relationship to Comey, Mueller, the Clinton Crime Family, or the Obama Crime Family.
My thoughts (posted earlier):
I really did believe Comey’s https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system July 5, 2016, speech was made for sincere and professional reasons, even though it was wrong in a number of ways.
I even assumed his https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/28/us/politics/fbi-letter.html?_r=0 reluctant letter that the investigation was back on was released under pressure from senior men in the FBI, but only reluctant because he did not want to influence the election.
It takes a lot for me to conclude that someone is moral scum, but former-Director Comey has reached that point. I now realize that I was completely wrong on Comey’s fundamental character. My best read now is that the July speech was to give Hillary cover, and the October letter was only sent because it would hurt Hillary less than the leaks he was warned would flood out.
Since Hillary’s loss? Comey seems to have been a partisan, one of the top tier aides to those orchestrating the “Resist” and impeachment movements. It looks like Comey was fabricating leaks in favor of and even evidence for impeachment. There used to be laws about conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States, back when the rule of law mattered.
What are the chances that the Director of the FBI would create a contemporaneous memo to refresh his memory, then leak the memo and not keep a paper copy or even an electronic file? That is such an unnatural action for an amateur that it would be implausible from my barber. For a senior and allegedly expert law enforcement officer, it’s completely unbelievable.
I just love the "Don't leave me alone with him."
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