President Trump’s Personal Attorney Responds To James Comey’s Testimony
[guest post by Dana]
From Marc Kasowitz:
Contrary to the numerous false press accounts leading up to today’s hearing, Mr. Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told President Trump privately: That is, that the President was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference. Mr. Comey also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference.
Mr Comey’s testimony also makes clear that the President never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election, and in fact, according to Mr. Comey, the President told Mr. Comey “it would be good to find out” in that investigation if there was “some satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong.” And he, President Trump, did not exclude anyone from that statement.
Consistent with that statement, the President never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that Mr. Comey “let Flynn go.” As the president publicly stated the next day, he did say to Mr. Comey, “General Flynn is a good guy, he has been through a lot” and also “asked how is General Flynn is doing.” Admiral Rogers testified today that the President never “directed [him] to do anything . . . illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate,” and never, never “pressured [him] to do so.” Director Coates said the same thing. The President likewise never pressured Mr. Comey.
The President also never told Mr. Comey, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty”. He never said it in form and he never said it in substance. Of course, the Office of the President is entitled to expect loyalty from those serving in an administration, and, from before this President took office to this day, it is overwhelmingly clear that there have been and continue to be those in government who are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications. Mr. Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers.
Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President. The leaks of this privileged information began no later than March 2017 when friends of Mr. Comey have stated that he disclosed to them the conversations he had with the President during their January 27, 2017 dinner and February 14, 2017 White House meeting. Today, Mr. Comey admitted hat he leaked to friends of his purported memos of these privileged conversations, one of which he testified was classified. Mr. Comey also testified that immediately after he was terminated he authorized his friends to leak the contents of those memos to the press in order to, in Mr. Comey’s words, “prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
Although Mr. Comey testified he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet, the public record reveals that the New York Times was quoting from these memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies Mr. Comey’s excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory. We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated along
with all the others being investigated.In sum, it is now established that the President was not being investigated for colluding with the or attempting to obstruct any investigation. As the Committee pointed out today, these important facts for the country to know are virtually the only facts that have not been leaked during the course of these events.
As he said yesterday, the President feels completely vindicated, and is eager to continue to moving forward with his agenda, with the business of this country, and with this public cloud removed.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
The transcription is mine. If you see any errors, please let me know so I can correct. I found a few online but in checking, there were inaccuracies in them, so I went through and listened 3x to Kasowitz’s statement and transcribed it myself.
Dana (023079) — 6/8/2017 @ 12:25 pmSo who you gonna believe? A director of the FBI testifying under oath or DJT’s hired gun?
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 12:39 pmThe entire Leftosphere took time off (some even got drunk) in anticipation that Lt Daniel Kaffee was going to prove that a CODE RED was called and instead they got Mary Pilant telling Claude Dancer “Barney Quill was my father”.
harkin (536957) — 6/8/2017 @ 12:47 pmDana,
WaPo Transcript for a cross check.
Kasowitz is a very experienced divorce/contract dispute attorney. I’m sure he’s the very best available who is willing to be engaged to perform in an arena far beyond his experience.
Rick Ballard (4fdfcf) — 6/8/2017 @ 12:49 pmIt’s worth remembering Trump’s complaints about leaks began when there were leaks from his meetings with Clapper, Comey, Brennan and Rogers during the transition. It continued when he set up a one-on-one in Trump Tower with a still unidentified person that no one else knew about, even his secretary, that ended up being leaked to the press. Recall that Trump told us he did that to learn to what extent that person was involved in leaking previous meetings. With that in mind his one-on-ones with Comey and Comey’s CYA memos make more sense. If there was any doubt neither trusts the other and each believes the other has to go it was erased today.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/8/2017 @ 1:05 pmResponse from his personal lawyer? Nothing to see here, folks! Not worried at all, no siree!
Leviticus (efada1) — 6/8/2017 @ 1:29 pm@6. Another billable hour to invoice.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 1:33 pmStandard spin. Average competence level (which not all of Trump’s surrogates manage to meet).
Kasowitz isn’t a “divorce lawyer.” He does civil litigation, mostly business litigation, and while that might include an occasional big-ticket divorces for existing clients who have money to burn, it’s definitely not his specialty, and it’s not mentioned on his firm webpage. His firm, Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, is a relatively new would-be BigLaw firm that has had moderate success, as defined by growing and opening branch offices. They have a Houston office, I’ve litigated against them; but while the lawyers on that case were solid and competent, they didn’t stay with that office very long. It would be absolutely fair to say that Marc Kasowitz is a successful lawyer in many of the same ways that Trump is a successful businessman (which is to say: you have to credit a lot of bluster and be taken in by a lot of smoke and mirrors to actually swallow that, but a case can be made).
What he is not is experienced in the Washington white collar criminal/political movers-and-shakers practice of law. Reports are that he’s having a lot of trouble adding anyone like that to his team, because Trump’s reputation — and I’d heard this in exactly the same words about him back in the 1990s — is that “he doesn’t listen and he doesn’t pay.”
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 1:43 pmFor example: Kasowitz probably has little or no first-hand experience with grand juries, from either side. He probably has no experience with Fourth Amendment/exclusionary rule issues, or with immunity grants and consequences therefrom, or with criminal investigatory procedures & practices, or with juggling parallel FBI/DoJ and Congressional inquiries. He has no network of personal relationships to mine, no friends in town.
That’s just an objective recognition, not a criticism, and he’s surely aware of all these gaps — any civil litigation specialist, including me, would be at a similar disadvantage trying to parachute into this particular representation.
What he does have is a relatively long-lived and well-demonstrated ability to survive without Trump firing him, and if he has the sense and can manage to find the people to fill in his own gaps, that may indeed make him invaluable to Trump right now.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 1:51 pmNYTimes having kind of an awkward time praising Comey when he testified that their big Trump Campaign/Russia collusion story (with, wait for it..NO NAMED SOURCES) was a big stinking pile of manure.
The only thing missing from the hearing today was John Podesta coming out at the end, telling everyone how awesome they were, that it wasn’t technically over but “the best thing to do now is go home”.
harkin (f611c5) — 6/8/2017 @ 1:59 pmI’m unclear on whether Comey’s memo released to his Coulmbia friend to leak, belonged to Comey or did it belong to the government as something classified?
Dana (023079) — 6/8/2017 @ 2:01 pmDana: The easiest way to tell about the status of the leaked memos is to watch for mention of them in the NYTWAPOABCBSMSNBCNN.
Bart Batley (5a4596) — 6/8/2017 @ 2:25 pmDana (023079) — 6/8/2017 @ 2:01 pm
I remember hearing Comey characterize that material as being his own personnel reflections on the matter, and thus not the property of the Gov. What is unclear is if those materials were, in fact, produced using secure government property.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/8/2017 @ 2:46 pmIt belonged to the government.
There is more I can say on the subject. I’m sure the unhinged Trump haters will provide me the chance.
So I’ll be patient.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/8/2017 @ 2:47 pmfelipe, when you write a memo to file for official purposes it is no longer yours. It’s just a fact.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/8/2017 @ 2:50 pmThanks, Steve57, I agree that any thing produced using secure equipment becomes property of the gov.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/8/2017 @ 2:51 pmhttps://jonathanturley.org/2017/06/08/did-comey-violate-laws-in-leaking-memo/
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 2:51 pmwell, if it was classified, he wasn’t acting with any kind of mens rea, with criminal intent, so he’s good
peggy (fb6611) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:07 pmHillary lost. Get over it.
Deuce Frehley (7654f5) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:08 pmLet me be clear that I am not clinging to a fine point about “secure devices” being a technicality – Comey could have used a ball point pen and dept. stationary – it was his writing about a particular subject matter in his official capacity that is my point. That Comey used govmnt equipment to produce the leaked info (no doubt to give it a level of credibility to the press) is how one can know that the information could not be his property to dispose. Like Ms. Winner, Comey is undone by his own actions.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:14 pmpeggy (fb6611) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:07 pm
There we go with intent, again. Intent is not what makes the leaking of classified material criminal.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:18 pmI don’t see Comey’s testimony gets Trump any closer to a criminal prosecution or even impeachment.
But the political damage is devastating.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:36 pmBe nice to the little people on the way up because you might see them on the way down.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:37 pmwe already knew comey was a slimy corrupt fbi turd
but now we have anecdotes about what a vindictive and womanish turd he is
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:38 pmAgreed. Congressional republicans are caught between a rock and a hard place. The base won’t allow them to replace Trump with Pence and they will struggle to get their agenda passed with a damaged Trump clinging on to power.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:55 pmOf course we all know that whatever Kasowitz said will be swept away at around 4:00 am by Trump’s Twitter storm. 😉
nk (9651fb) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:03 pmSo much for “Infrastructure Week.”
“I came in like a wrecking ball…” – Miley Cyrus
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:08 pmgood point but did you really see pervy mitt romney’s slicked-up little rent boy paul ryan doing any meaningful legislation this week?
they’re getting all oiled up for Joe Biden this weekend!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:22 pmDeuce Frehley (7654f5) — 6/8/2017 @ 3:08 pm
peggy (fb6611) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:24 pmHillary losing is not enough for me. In a just world, she and Comey would be prosecuted.
@ Dana, who asked (#11):
I’m not disagreeing with felipe or steve57, but of course being the nerd I am I might formulate my answer differently.
Because it’s a document created by Comey in his official capacity, it is indeed a government record, which creates all kinds of continuing legal obligations on the part of its maker, and anyone with access to it, to ensure that federal laws are complied with regarding its retention.
It doesn’t have to be classified to be a government record. It doesn’t have to be secret or confidential either. A lot of the relevant law and regulation on this, actually, is the product of debate and argument and litigation and legislation arising out of Nixon’s departure from the WH upon his resignation, when he wanted to cart off a lot of paperwork that he considered “personal” and that others considered “government records,” so that’s why the laws are written in a pretty sweeping fashion.
If he had not left the original document at the FBI when he was fired, that would assuredly gotten him crosswise with these government record statutes and regs.
Now there’s a separate issue, though, about “classified status” and this particular memo, and his sharing it with his long-time friend and former colleague, Prof. Daniel Richman. That was a very calculated and shrewd choice by Comey, in part because I’m sure Richman fully appreciated that by becoming a willing participant in this chain of disclosure — Comey gave him the memo with the express purpose of having Richman leak it to the press by reading it (but not giving them a copy) — Richman might be creating legal problems, and perhaps even legal jeopardy, for himself. Based on his background, Richman understood all these laws, having been subject to them and having had to comply with them when he was a government employee. He was, in other words, capable of appreciating and making an informed decision about the personal risks he would be running by being the conduit for Comey’s leak. Moreover, as a non-government employee now — as compared to, say, Andrew McCabe or other Comey chums still getting their checks from Uncle Sam — Richman’s receipt and continuing possession of the memo probably didn’t violate the government record & retention laws, since he no longer had any duty as a public servant to comply with them.
And most significantly, Comey admitted that he’d been quite careful and deliberate to avoid including any reference in the memo — when he wrote it — to anything classified. This memo was written with the express advance intention that someday, it might “have to be” (i.e., Comey might decide that it should be) leaked to the press, in which case Comey wanted the leak to generate as little potential criminal liability for anyone as possible. It was a risk that couldn’t be avoided, especially for himself, but he wanted to mitigate those risks for others. If there had been something classified in the memo, then that would potentially have subjected his conduit, Richman, to criminal jeopardy (especially given his knowledgeability about classifications & such — all of which he of course had in common with, say, Hillary Clinton). Omitting classified information also, of course, eliminated the risk of Comey himself coming under legal jeopardy for leaking classified information, but likewise for his downstream associate Richman.
What I don’t know — haven’t done the legal research to know — is whether some part of the statutes and regulations on government documents and records retention generally, or FBI or DoJ documents in particular, also speaks to the legality of Comey retaining a duplicate of the original memo for personal purposes after his departure from the government.
But at a bare minimum, Comey has knowingly confessed to violating standing DoJ and FBI practices, and probably legally binding regulations (even if their violation might not necessarily be criminal) regarding the maintenance of internal departmental confidentiality of memoranda like this. James Comey is one of the leakers that he claims to have been so vitally interested in bringing to justice. He just thinks he’s justified. Well, hell, that’s what they all say, isn’t it?
This is no surprise; it’s been obvious that Comey has been leaking, as steve57 wrote, like the proverbial screen door on a submarine. But today he had to admit it on TV under oath. The best part of his acting job today was pretending not to be concerned about that; he worked hard, and generally succeeded, in appearing to be untroubled by what he was necessarily admitting. But it’s nevertheless absolutely clear now, beyond a reasonable doubt or even an unreasonable one, that the FBI Director decided that based on his subjective judgment of what did and didn’t need to be in the public arena, he could deliberately transmit the substance of a confidential government document to reporters.
And that’s sh*tting the bed if you’re an FBI Director. That’s not following your oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States, it’s the opposite of that. It’s a professional, ethical, and moral disgrace, despite every other admirable thing that Jim Comey has done in his life.
I think Comey testified in good faith and truthfully again today, as he sees it. If you polygraphed him, the results would suggest he thinks he’s telling the truth. But I am reaffirmed in my long-standing judgment — going back, obviously, at least to July 2016 — that he has made a continuing series of colossal, cosmic, spectacular errors in judgment that simply cannot be forgiven.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:25 pmthis slimy fbi turd is who cowardly torture victim John McCain entrusted with his copy of the bogus pee pee dossier
great judgment there torture boy
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:30 pmPeggy, in a just world you would get the Meds you obviously need.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:31 pmi wonder if fbi turdboy planted people to laugh at his seagulls quip
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:33 pmBeldar……..leaking isn’t a crime per se. It depends on what you leak. There is no evidence that Comey has ever leaked classified info, which can get you arrested. A conversation with the POTUS over dinner? A conversation POTUS has already revealed in a televised interview? Not classified. You might try to hit him up on ethics, good luck with that.
Release the tapes.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:39 pmLet me mention in particular one way in which this leak was a professional betrayal of responsibility:
When Comey communicated with the POTUS on matters of official business, those communications were potentially subject to executive privilege. Like most privileges, executive privilege can be waived either deliberately or accidentally by disclosure of the substance of the communications outside the privilege group. But also like most privileges, the decision whether to waive or invoke privilege belongs to the principal, the client — in this case, the POTUS.
As Director of the FBI, Comey wasn’t serving as the POTUS’ lawyer. He’s got other people to do that — the Attorney General serves the POTUS, the Office of Presidential Counsel serves the occupant of that office at any given time on official matters, and (as here) the POTUS can also hire personal counsel to advise & represent him in his purely personal capacity.
But of course, Comey is a lawyer. Earlier in his career he was indeed employed by the federal government as one of its lawyers. Simply as a matter of legal ethics, I don’t believe someone in his position could participate — even while not giving legal advice or representation to the POTUS in a direct attorney-client relationship — in the deliberate seizure from the POTUS of the decision whether to invoke or waive executive privilege.
I don’t deal with executive privilege in my practice, obviously. But I know that if I decided — unilaterally and without my client’s knowledge or consent — to waive my client’s attorney-client privilege on any matter communicated to me in confidence, I’d lose my bar card, and deserve to lose it.
What Comey has done is worse than that, in my moral judgment. I doubt anyone will pursue a grievance against him, trying to get him disbarred. But the man should not be a hero in anyone’s eyes. His blind spots are the size of the Grand Canyon.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:41 pmBeldar, don’t you think he laundered the memo through Richman to get around a possible claim of executive privilege by POTUS? Since POTUS didn’t make the claim and Comey probably revealed his actions to Mueller he was free to tell US all about it today.
Also you’re prediction about the quality of the questioners today was pretty darn good…
crazy (d3b449) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:42 pmNevermind. Looks like you addressed that while I was typing.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:43 pmfbi turdboy comey thinks he’s a role model for other federal government bureaucrat trash
let that sink in for a minute
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:44 pmIt’s a squirrel issue.
Comey was a private citizen when he ‘talked’ to a journalist by way of a go-between. He swopped ends on The Donald.
Well played, sir.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:45 pmSparty, my target audience when I write here comprises reasonable adults who are capable of discussing things in good faith and who have a reasonably clear understanding of the English language.
By my estimation, you’re not in that group. No one who can insist that the FBI Director isn’t subordinate to the POTUS is in that group.
Please don’t bother to invoke my name in your drivel.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:49 pmAnd the kids in WH press office needs some serious b-tch-slapping all ’round. If there’s ‘tapes,’ find’em and produce them, don’t crack wise about ’em. We’ve been through this game before.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:50 pmThank you Beldar.
NJRob (d9cfb8) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:52 pmBTW, just like a fiduciary (someone in the privilege group, clearly including Comey) cannot supplant his principal in making a decision whether or not to assert privilege, the fiduciary is likewise incompetent and unfit to make a decision about whether the principal has already waived privilege through an inadvertent (or even deliberate) public disclosure. Comey doesn’t get to decide that it’s now okay for him to release material subject to executive privilege because he (Comey) has decided that yeah, the POTUS will probably lose in court if he decides to stand on executive privilege because a judge will conclude that he waived it all by himself.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:52 pmSpartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:31 pm
peggy (fb6611) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:56 pmGreat comeback Sparty, what are you, ten?
BTW Mueller has the Comey memos. Barn door, horse ….gone.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:03 pmSparkycuss just knows there’s a pony under that steaming pile of Democrat horsesh*t.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:08 pmif he has the sense and can manage to find the people to fill in his own gaps, that may indeed make him invaluable to Trump right now.
I would expect that the usual “white shoe” DC law firms expect to be doing business there a long time and know that it is a form of suicide to represent Trump when the Deep State hates him with an insane passion.
I’m sure he had to go to someone he has done business with and will do so again.
Mike K (f469ea) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:10 pm@ Mike K: DC firms aren’t quite “white shoe” in the same way BigLaw firms in NYC or LA or Chicago or Houston or Philadelphia might be. You see combinations and representations there which are frankly jaw-dropping. The ethical rules on conflicts of interest mostly permit them so long as they’re fully disclosed and then waived by the client in a knowledgeable decision. But the DC big firm lawyers —
the WilmerHales, the Arnold & Porters, the Akin, Gumps — take this way past the point that most lawyers elsewhere would be comfortable with.
For instance, Jared Kushner’s personal counsel is Jamie Gorelick at WilmerHale. Given her prior employment history and politics, that blows my mind. (But then, he’s a Democrat too, so maybe it’s not that surprising. I always point out to my leftie friends that the most powerful Dem in the country right now isn’t Pelosi or Schumer, but Kushner.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:20 pmwell the parallels are with Silvio, and fininvest and forza italia, they went after him for 20 years, they didn’t play the Russian card against him, there was a division of deep state forces in that case, sisde, was against, sismi was mostly for, the latter has been reorganized in a similar fashion to sdece, became dgse,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:20 pma firm like king and Spaulding, where wray hung his shingle, that defended gitmo detainees, but would not defend doma, outfits of that nature, do we have to revisit the last baker’s dozen of years,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:21 pmAh, I see WilmerHale airbrushed the word “Democrat” and the names of the POTUSes for whom she served out of Gorelick’s webpage. Wikipedia has those details. She, and the subject of conflicts of interest, were among the first subjects on which I started blogging back in 2003.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:23 pmThere’s a Politico piece from March 2017 (no links to bullies, per our host’s practice) titled: “Ivanka’s lawyer, a Democrat, defends herself: Jamie Gorelick, a veteran of President Bill Clinton’s Justice Department and a Hillary Clinton supporter, explains why she’s working for Trump’s daughter now.” Gorelick has continued to represent both, including representing Jared in his responses to whatever inquiries come in about the Russia investigation. “It has been an uncomfortable position for a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat to assume, and Gorelick has been shocked by the vitriol that has been hurled in her direction.” Heh.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:27 pmMike K, Americans should feel a sense of outrage at the behavior of Comey AND these criminally insane Democrats. I know I do. Comey is a self-serving D-bag and the Democrats – and any like-minded Republicans who are addled enough to assist these scumsuckers – ought to be held accountable. The same goes for the lying Democrat Operatives-with-bylines in so much of the media… NYT, WaPo, LAT, CNN, MSLSD, NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC, NPR, did I mention CNN, SFChronicle, etc…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:28 pmthat line about sound and fury, signifying nothing told by an idiot,
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/06/08/irony-james-comeys-concern-about-lying-exposes-months-long-lying-of-democrat-leadership/comment-page-2/#comments
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:28 pm“Shocked” like Captain Renault, of course.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:29 pmFurther @ Mike K, re DC firms:
I interviewed with all the big DC firms in the fall of 1980. One recruiting partner took me to dinner, during which he said: “You do realize that in our practice, in Washington, today we may be representing the Sierra Club, and tomorrow we’ll be representing the International Lumber Products Association, and on some days you may be representing both on the same day. We have to be flexible here, everyone understands that because there aren’t enough of us [i.e., power players] to go around. You okay with that?”
To which I said, “It would depend.” He gave me a funny look, and said, “But the idea doesn’t make you crazy, does it?”
“It would depend,” I said, and changed the subject.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:34 pmexcept how often do they represent lumber interests,
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2017/06/09/Arab-countries-release-list-of-terrorist-financiers-supported-by-Qatar.html
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:35 pm“forza Italia”
How did you know the name of my Fiat X1/9, narciso?!?!?!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:37 pmThe timeline doesn’t support Comey’s version of events today about the memo he asked Richman to leak to the NYT.
Thursday May 11 NYT reports on the memo Comey’s friend reads to them
Friday May 12 Trump tweets Comey better hope there’s no “tapes”
Today Comey says he woke up on Monday 3 days after Trump’s tweet to ask Richman to leak the memo to the press they wrote about 4 days earlier.
It doesn’t add up.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:39 pmWas Richman Comey’s Shabbas goy?
Pinandpuller (16b0b5) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:43 pmheh, coronello, it was the name of Silvio’s soccer franchise, so it became the brand of his party,
delorian, or the device created by the Rittenhouse corporation,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:44 pmThere’s no joy in Chrissie “Tingles” Matthews land… http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/chris-matthews-trump-russia-collusion-theory-came-apart-with-comey-testimony/article/2625372
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:44 pmDC law firms value getting paid even more than the average high profile big city firms. That’s why they won’t represent Trump.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:45 pmthey’ll take their cut in blood money, consider Nigerian looter chagoury, represented by Ashcroft’s former mouthpiece, corallo, or lanny davis of patton boggs, is their anyone he won’t take their coin,
http://www.thedailybeast.com/5-clues-comey-just-left-behind
we have to invent a new stage of grief for them,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:51 pmYeah, cuz everyone knows how pleasant an unpaid, pissed off lawyer can make your life.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:52 pmOf course…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:52 pm@63- Right. The open buzz on him in DC is as a client he cannot be controlled and doesn’t pay. So he tapped his long time ‘go to’ guy in NYC. Believe the numbers reported in the media on Kasowitz are $1500.00/hr.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:53 pmI forgot what analogue of Thewlis’s varga, lanny is pitching for, firtash, I think, who had some interesting connections worth noting,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:55 pmClue #3
Comey told senators about possible third Sessions-Russia meeting
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/337065-comey-told-senators-about-third-undisclosed-meeting-between-sessions
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 5:59 pmWell written and thought-out comments, Beldar. Thank you, for them. It makes me cringe to know that I spent less time thinking about the substance of my own comments, before submitting them, than it likely took anyone to read them. You set before us all, a model to follow.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:01 pmone wonders on the audit committee of hsbc, did comey have any contact with Russian executives?
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:01 pm@ narciso (#50): I agree with you about K&S and said so at the time Clement resigned.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:03 pmremember patton boggs tried to put chevron out of business, to satisfy their clients in the correa regime,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:03 pmWell of course, he probably worked him over at the Hilton:
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:03 pmhttp://dailycaller.com/2017/06/08/putin-about-mccain-i-like-him-because-of-his-patriotism/
“Lordy…”
— Comey Pyle
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:04 pmMeanwhile, across the pond…
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/election-2017-40171454
“I say, hard cheese, old boy.” – Raymond Delauney [Terry-Thomas] ‘School For Scoundrels’ 1960
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:08 pmwell tearful Theresa may have botched the pudding, too early to tell, unlike Sarkozy, she didn’t have a rep as a strong counter terror figure,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:10 pmThanks, felipe (#70) & NJRob (#42) & crazy (#36). I’m even more obsessive about this ethics stuff than most other political or legal topic. All the CLE speaking I’ve done has been on legal ethics topics (the Texas Bar requires those hours of CLE to be tracked & reported separately for each lawyer each year), and occasionally I’ve been hired to parachute in as “special ethics counsel,” e.g., to respond to a motion to disqualify another lawyer. Plus my time at BigLaw firms — who are often far more vulnerable to “undisclosed conflicts of interest” litigation with their former clients than actual legal malpractice claims — sensitized me to always have a side channel in my thinking running, just to continuously reexamine, under changing conditions, who has what ethical obligations to whom, and what vulnerabilities and possibilities that presents.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:10 pmTrey Gowdy gets picked for plum no-show job
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/08/trey-gowdy-picked-to-lead-house-oversight-committee.html
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:12 pmTune in next week for “Pin teh Tail on teh Comey”…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:15 pmYou know who knows all this “government records maintenance & retention” stuff cold? Hugh Hewitt, from his time as Director of the Nixon Library.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:17 pmthe history going back 25 years, is dems get away with everything, doesn’t matter if it’s clinger, burton, chaffetz, gowdy, Thompson, Fiske, starr, and their defense counsel like reid Weingarten, end up special counsels and so on, whereas anybody who starts looking under the hood, for our side gets
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:17 pma bucket of night soil sumped on them,
As always – insights and thoughts greatly appreciated, Beldar.
mg (31009b) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:18 pmdid they ever present the memo, or was this just an email flash, between recipients,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:21 pm@77– May-day! Brace for impact; it’s shaping up into an interest election.
“Scotty! You’ve just earned your pay for the week.” – Captain Kirk [William Shatner] ‘Star Trek’ NBC TV 1966-69
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:23 pmComey at one point described the memo as his own “past recollection recorded,” as if that’s a justification for him keeping, after being fired, a personal copy of documents he generated in his capacity as Director of the FBI. That is indeed a legal term of art, but it’s from the context of evidentiary law, as an exception to the hearsay rule. The federal version is Federal Rule of Evidence 803(5), and there are some conditions and hoops to be jumped through before such a document can be admitted into evidence despite a timely hearsay objection.
One or more of the senators also used that term, asking him to agree that in general, in trials, “past recollection recorded” documents can critically bolster the credibility of a witness if they’re consistent with his present testimony. “Same story then, same story now” is the pitch.
But while that might be useful someday to get his memos into evidence in someone’s criminal or civil trial, it certainly can’t be any kind of justification for him keeping a copy of a government record after he’s left, even if the original is left in government files in compliance with all the laws and regulations.
I just don’t know the answer to that question — what kind of trouble, if any, is he in for doing that? — but if Comey has a better defense, he sure didn’t offer it in his testimony today.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:24 pm76. Re Farage’s “I have no choice but to return to politics if Cornyn is PM” and how Corbyn got both urban Remainer and outlying Leave voters…must hurt the Den party here to see a successful Sanders-esque strategy effectuated.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:27 pmThis tells me all I need to know about the RoP®
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/370004.php
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:35 pmhow accurate have polls been in the uk or Israel or stateside, I wouldn’t cook up the bangers and mash just yet, but Theresa is a blanc mange candidate, with a dodgy dossier of disappointment,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:35 pmi’m so ashamed of the fbi
how embarrassing my taxes partly pay the salaries of these puerile douchebag losers
i deserve so much better than this
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:37 pm@82. Can’t imagine why…
The Watergate scandal resulted in 69 government officials being charged and 48 being found guilty, including:
John N. Mitchell, Attorney General of the United States who resigned to become Director of Committee to Re-elect the President, convicted of perjury about his involvement in the Watergate break-in. Served 19 months of a one- to four-year sentence.
Richard Kleindienst, Attorney General, convicted of “refusing to answer questions” (contempt of court); given one month in jail.
Jeb Stuart Magruder, Deputy Director of Committee to Re-elect the President, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to the burglary, and was sentenced to 10 months to four years in prison, of which he served 7 months before being paroled.
Frederick C. LaRue, Advisor to John Mitchell, convicted of obstruction of justice. He served four and a half months.
H. R. Haldeman, Chief of Staff for Nixon, convicted of conspiracy to the burglary, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.
John Ehrlichman, Counsel to Nixon, convicted of conspiracy to the burglary, obstruction of justice, and perjury. Served 18 months in prison.
Egil Krogh, aide to John Ehrlichman, sentenced to six months.
John W. Dean III, counsel to Nixon, convicted of obstruction of justice, later reduced to felony offenses and sentenced to time already served, which totaled 4 months.
Dwight L. Chapin, deputy assistant to Nixon, convicted of perjury.
Herbert W. Kalmbach, personal attorney to Nixon, convicted of illegal campaigning.
Charles W. Colson, special counsel to Nixon, convicted of obstruction of justice. Served 7 months in Federal Maxwell Prison.
Herbert L. Porter, aide to the Committee to Re-elect the President. Convicted of perjury.
Convictions among members of the Watergate “burglary” team included:
G. Gordon Liddy, Special Investigations Group, convicted of masterminding the burglary, original sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Served 4½ years in federal prison.
E. Howard Hunt, security consultant, convicted of masterminding and overseeing the burglary, original sentence of up to 35 years in prison. Served 33 months in prison.
James W. McCord Jr., convicted of six charges of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping. Served 2 months in prison.
Virgilio Gonzalez, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Served 13 months in prison.
Bernard Barker, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Served 18 months in prison.
Eugenio Martínez, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Served 15 months in prison.
Frank Sturgis, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison.Served 10 months in prison.
“Dick Nixon before he dicks you.”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:40 pmfield agents like special operators are different than the management back at the hoover building or Langley, consider that rheumy sot ed price that pretended he was jack bauer or at least jack ryan,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:47 pmoh my goodness it’s almost ten
time for sleazy torture victim john mccain to go beddy bye
tomorrow’s a busy day!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:49 pmDCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:40 pm reminds everyone why it’s a bad idea to leave your teen aged boy in charge of the Ferrari a la Ferris Bueller.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:50 pmComey lied and said he leaked the memo to the NYT as a response to Trump’s tweet about the NYT article that detailed the leaked memo that Comey had already fed the NYT.
That’s the real story here. That is the basis on which Comey will be going to jail for a long, long time. Leaks and perjury, cut and dried.
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 6:59 pm@95 jcurtis
The NYT doesn’t have the Comey memos and has never seen them. Mueller has them tho.
Thx for playin
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:02 pmWatch how the Sleazy Democrats will now start blaming Republicans and the Prez for this distraction, when all they’ve wanted to do all along was to do the work the people elected them to do: infrastructure, job creation, yada yada…
Just wait.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:02 pmThe more clownish, moronic among them will continue carrying on like ASPCA, Tillie and Sparkycuss do.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:03 pmWarner, chuckie, poschiff and everyone knows her as Nancy have been telling us for some time President Trump was under investigation.
mg (31009b) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:04 pmToday Comey said President Trump wasn’t.
These hacks lie
Beldar,
Jonathan Turley shares your concerns about the legality and ethics of Comey’s leak/actions.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:05 pmTurlry if like diogenes and likewise ignored.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:12 pmwhy did slimy fbi turdboy james comey want the investigation shifted from the purview of his trashy lowlife fbi agents to a special counsel
did he not have confidence in them?
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:14 pmBecause that is how he rolls pikachu.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:16 pmThank you for that link, DRJ!
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:18 pmJohn Wayne Gacy, convicted of killing thirty-three young men, sentenced to death and executed.
What does that have with what’s going on here? About as much as Watergate does.
nk (9651fb) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:20 pm95.Comey lied and said he leaked the memo
He said he leaked the contents of the memo to the press via his buddy.
harkin (536957) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:20 pmhe’s just so low-class and petty, which is ironic given how that’s exactly the same brush the CNN Anderson Cooper fake news propaganda sluts try to paint President Trump with
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:21 pmHatefulfeet, try to keep up. The FBI works for the DoJ. The FBI are like police, the DoJ are like prosecutors. A special counsel takes over for the DoJ, not the FBI. The FBI are still working on the Russia foreign intelligence investigation, and any spun-off criminal investigations, but they are doing so under marching orders from Mueller.
That said, the question you intended to ask is not a bad one, except for your usual toilet humor baby-talk.
I think the reason Comey wanted a special counsel is because of the implication cast by the appointment — the exact thing he said he didn’t want to see afflict poor Hillary’s campaign. If someone who knows the regs pressed him hard, I’m quite sure he could not and would not have identified any kind of disabling conflict of interest on the part of Rosenstein. But neither Rosenstein nor Trump are much in Jim Comey’s good graces right now.
I’d say you’ve blundered into identifying another one of Comey’s huge blind spots.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:23 pmIra einhorn, creator of earthday, buried his gitkfriend in his backyard, mike Peterson novelist wife murderer.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:24 pm@ nk (#105): Ditto that. The proper response is: “Oh yeah? But Jim Crow! Slavery! Civil War! Jefferson’s Mistress!” I think that’s about as far back as it can go, though.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:26 pmthanks!
yes yes i’m a terribly flawed person but every day i try to do a little better
and what we learned today is that this isn’t something James Comey can say
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:27 pm@105. Think again.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/05/10/trump-nixon-and-watergate-same–different/101506662/
Slip the SP in the similarities column now.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:28 pmHe was the mark felt character in the blame case, he leveraged his position to carry out a vendetta, no matter the cost to the nation. Is it a coincidence that Liam neeson will be playing felt and some rough characters including ton sizemore will play his byreaucratuc rivals
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:29 pm(And actually, Mueller only brought a couple of people with him — from, ahem, WilmerHale, identified above re his partner Ms. Gorelick — so even as special counsel, he’s mostly relying on career DoJ people.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:30 pmComey won’t be prosecuting anyone in the future, but I bet he signs a 5 million dollar book deal.
mg (31009b) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:30 pmThe Lynch case and the Clinton e-mail case should be reopened if they have been shut down.
Its as far back in that Billy Joel song which has some serious chrobokogy issues
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:31 pmIf the whole thing is smoke, getting a special counsel involved is an additional puff to hide the indisputable facts that he had irredeemably compromised himself in the Hillary “matter” and his firing was justified.
nk (9651fb) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:34 pmhttp://americanlookout.com/rms-boom-comey-caught-in-lie-while-under-oath-video/
mg (31009b) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:34 pmpants a blaze
Remember that pournelle price some weld back.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:34 pmIt’s actually kind of interesting who he brought with him. One was another warhorse in his 70s, a contemporary of Mueller’s who’s obviously cast in the role of “sage and grizzled outsider to consult on strategy.” The other is a middle-aged up-and-comer who’s previously been Mueller’s chief of staff when Mueller was at FBI. He’s giving up an equity partner slot, but probably with a side assurance that he’ll be welcome back, so it just means a temporary pay cut (surely a six-figure one, though).
If Mueller thought there was any kind of genuine conflict of interest inside DoJ, he’d likely have put together a bigger staff of outsiders. Likewise if he saw this lasting two or three years. What Mueller brings to the party is simply his reputation and stature. If there’s any justification for his appointment, it’s that.
But yeah, he also would have been a pretty good pick, for exactly the same reasons (and much better ones, when it comes to real-live watch-Bubba-get-on-the-AG’s-plane reasons), in the Clinton email investigation.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:35 pmAnd if you haven’t gotten enough chuckles from the Comey “Wait, let’s chuck the collusion accusations and go for obstruction” clown car….
I think the funniest thing I’ve heard in the last decade was the Newsweek, MSNBC, Vanity Fair and former NYTimes “investigative reporter” claiming today he did not have the skills to find tentacle porn on the interwebs.
Seems he posted a photo which included his computer screen and it showed a tab open for a rather lurid website.
When it was pointed out to him, this same guy who recently claimed Jared Kushner had “no innocent explanation” on meeting with Russians offered the innocent explanation that he was viewing Japanese comics of naked schoolgirls in graphic positions as part of research he was doing with his kids to show his wife.
http://gizmodo.com/newsweek-writer-im-not-horny-im-just-researching-tent-1795930932
I’ve seen this guy on MSNBC and he’s a loony tune who is obsessed with not only Trump but also Tucker Carlson.
harkin (536957) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:35 pm96, Trump tweeted the day after the NYT published the stuff from the memo that Comey leaked to them ( himself, through a surrogate, it’s all the same ). Today Comey claimed he leaked it as a response to Trump’s tweet about Comey leaking it to the NYT. It’s not that difficult. I think the difficulty you’re having is that you can’t believe that someone in a high position like FBI director can be so stupid about basic time lines. These are incredibly stupid people that have been running this country for years. It’s a miracle that the US is still standing.
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:37 pmhttp://lawnewz.com/opinion/trumps-next-move-prosecuting-comey-for-perjury/
mg (31009b) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:38 pmhope so.
@59 crazy
Might want to do a word search for ‘memo’ on that May 11 Times story, just sayin.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:39 pmThat was like Austin poerrs denying the provenance of his implement, ahem
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:40 pmEven in the federal system, a conviction for perjury is not all that easy to get. http://www3.ce9.uscourts.gov/jury-instructions/node/594
nk (9651fb) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:42 pmMy phone just buzzed. There’s an Amber Alert out on Daniel Richman. Last seen in Brooklyn. Approach with caution.
Pinandpuller (10eeb1) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:48 pm124, what else would it be, fool? Are you saying that was Comey leaking stuff that wasn’t from a “memo” but Trump’s response to the Comey leak of stuff not from a “memo” led Comey to leak stuff from a “memo”? How stupid are you?
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:53 pmTo squee, or not to squee… that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in my mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of congressional grilling
Or to take shelter against a sea of lawyers,
And by deposing end them. To die – to sleep –
No snores; and by a sleep to say we end
The headache, and the gravy train
The public sector is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
The taxpayer to be raped. To die – to sleep.
To sleep – perchance to dream: Lordy… there’s the rub!
For in that sleep of death what terrors may come
When we have mashedpotatoed off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. I get no respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and ball gags of time,
Th’ dominatrix, the proud man’s comeuppance,
The pangs of tainted love, the law’s betrayed
The insolence of office, and the spurns of the people.
— Comlet
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:53 pmUK election: Theresa May’s future in doubt as Conservatives forecast to lose majority
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/06/08/uk-election-theresa-mays-future-in-doubt-as-conservatives-forecast-to-lose-majority.html
“This just isn’t your day, is it.” – James Bond, 007 [Sean Connery] ‘From Russia With Love’ 1963
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:56 pmI’m sorry. It what is there left to investigate, comey summoned up a wild goose chase, flynns farads registrations shirley?
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:58 pmIts a plan mange pudding she served up, like heath in 75.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:00 pm124, If the NYT would have used the term “Comey memo” on May 11th, wouldn’t that have exposed the leaker? They tend to want to keep their leak sources confidential, wouldn’t you agree?
Of course, who else could the leaker be? It was either Comey or Trump who leaked it to the NYT for the May 11th article.
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:00 pmPretty good, Col. H (#129). Comey would need a size extra-tall singlet.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:01 pm@129. ***** Well played, piglet!
“Brush up your Shakespeare; Start quoting him now…” – ‘Kiss Me Kate’ 1953
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:01 pmActually, I guess an extra-tall inky cloak. W/e.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:02 pm86.
Later:
The Senators weren’t completey paying atanetion to each other. In between we had:
Prof. Daniel Richman only got one memo, dealing with Feb 14 and otehr people may have gotten others.
Is Comey saying that until he heard about the possibility of tapes he was reluctant to leak about the Mike Flynn query? Who leaked about the loyalty conversation?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/us/politics/trump-comey-firing.html
,
Sammy Finkelman (4a6ffc) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:02 pm*Doublet! That was the word I was searching for! (My kid wore a singlet as a high school wrestler.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:03 pmComey was afraid to be alone in the same room with Trump.
mg (31009b) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:06 pmThat is just lunacy. Glad he was fired. Know fire the most powerful democrat in the country – your darn son in law.
Comey is writing g checks he can’t cash, where is the memo, we have to rake his word for it.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:07 pm@122 jcurtis
See 124
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:08 pmDid he reason fro. The memo, its just a soliloquy.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:12 pm@128 jcurtis
We didn’t know about the existence of the Comey memos when Trump wrote that tweet taunting Comey about possible tapes. Comey authorized his friend to leak the existence of the memos only after seeing Trumps tweet. Simple really.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:13 pmIn a stunner, exit poll projects British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives could lose seats
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-uk-election-20170608-story.html
“Exit polling projects Britain’s Conservative Party could fall short of a majority in Parliament, which would be a stunning setback for Prime Minister Theresa May, who called a snap election Thursday to strengthen her hand as she embarks on two years of divorce negotiations with her European Union counterparts.”
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:18 pm137, It looks like Comey thinks Mueller will assist him in covering up his lies. Mueller will have to testify on this time line for sure. I bet the two most recent FBI directors are working feverishly trying to work out some convoluted alibi for Comey. It’s gonna get even more interesting.
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:22 pm143, who leaked the material for the NYT May 11th article? You don’t have a lot of choices for your answer.
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:24 pmColonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 7:53 pm
Heh!
felipe (023cc9) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:24 pmThx, Beldar. And I appreciate your exploration of this circus from multiple angles. It’s quite an education.
Colonel Haiku (d19b35) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:25 pm122. 124. 141. 143. Comey did not say he was responsible for the May 11 NYT story about the Jan 27 private dinner in which he subject of loyalty came up.
Nor is there is any clue in that May 11 story that any kind of memos exist. It just says that Comey told others about it and two of them told the New York Times. They don’t say Comey then told them or gave them permission to leak it, but rather said that when he told them, he had told them that on the the condition that they not discuss it publicly while he was F.B.I. director.
But now that Comey was no longer the FBI Director, they felt free to discuss it on the condition of anonymity, and, it goes without saying, without checking back with him. What’s the truth is a little bit hard to tell.
Sammy Finkelman (4a6ffc) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:25 pm@146 jcurtis
Comey gave a copy of the memos to his friend who called it in to the NYT. Leaks are not illegal per se.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:28 pmThanks beldar you’ve seen it from The inside.
O
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:29 pmIf corbyn Katie bar the door gets to downing street, it will match a similar event in march 2004, in Spain
felipe!!!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:37 pm150. No, Comey says that he only gave a copy of the memo about the Feb 14 meeting to his Columbia Universty professor friend. You have really study this to realize he is saying this because Senator Gail Collins used the word memos. but Comey replied with the word memo. COLLINS: Finally, did you show copies of your memos to anyone outside of the department of justice?
COMEY: Yes.
COLLINS: And to whom did you show copies?
COMEY: I asked — the president tweeted on Friday after I got fired that I better hope there’s not tapes. I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night because it didn’t dawn on me originally, that there might be corroboration for our conversation. There might a tape. My judgment was, I need to get that out into the public square. I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Later, Senator Blunt asked: “What kind of information did you give to a friend?” and Comey replied “That the — the Flynn conversation.” and then Blunt notes that Comey didn’t consider his memo or his sense of that conversation [the substance of the memo] to be a government document.
Sammy Finkelman (4a6ffc) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:37 pm149,150, so now you (150) admit that Comey leaked it to the NYT through a surrogate but “it’s not illegal”. That’s different than your old position and Comey’s testimony today that Comey didn’t start leaking Trump stuff to the NYT until after Trump tweeted about Comey’s leaking of stuff to the NYT.
Can we agree now that Comey is a full of shit perjurer or do I have more convincing to do?
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:39 pm* “Later, Senator Blunt asked: “What kind of information did you give to a friend?” and Comey replied “That the — the Flynn conversation.” and then Blunt notes that Comey didn’t consider his memo or his sense of that conversation [the substance of the memo] to be a government document.”
….is not part of the Comey quote of course, but I didn’t format this right,
Sammy Finkelman (4a6ffc) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:39 pm@ jcurtis, who wrote (#145):
I’m curious to whom you think Mueller will be required to testify. Be specific, tell us how you anticipate that happening.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:45 pm149,150, so now you (150) admit that Comey leaked it to the NYT through a surrogate but “it’s not illegal”. That’s different than your old position and Comey’s testimony today that Comey didn’t start leaking Trump stuff to the NYT until after Trump tweeted about Comey’s leaking of stuff to the NYT.
Can we agree now that Comey is a ridiculously transparent perjurer or do I have more convincing to do?
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:46 pmBeldar– serious question.
Your background is law. Knowing what you know just from what you’ve seen, read and heard– and putting aside he’s POTUS as a motivator- would you take Trump on as a client?
No answer would be answer enough. Only reason asking is my experience in media/NY advertising dealt w/experiences and shops handling accounts attached to Trump as client. He put city shops in the 80’s though financial hell; it’s what the DC lawyers balk at now.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:49 pm@58 Colonel Haiku
I heard a joke you might appreciate.
Guy takes his Fiat to a mechanic because it won’t start. Mechanic has it for a week trying to fix it.
Guy comes back for a progress report and the mechanic says he can’t fix it.
“Well what’s wrong with it?” the guy asks.
“It wants to go home.” the mechanic replied.
Pinandpuller (0ca6ed) — 6/8/2017 @ 8:53 pm156, at Comey’s perjury trial, duh. Wouldn’t Comey’s defense call Mueller to testify on his behalf?
I noticed this Beldar guy hasn’t acknowledged anything nonsensical about Comey’s testimony today. It should be obvious. Comey’s created a real problem for you shills because he’s so unpredictable that if you start defending his testimony too much, he could come back tomorrow and say his testimony was an absurd mistake that he is totally embarrassed about and now your credibility is shot because you’ve shilled for his absurd embarrassing mistake. Apart from his lies about his leaks, he exposed the Clinton/Lynch thing today, and I can get into the self-serving purpose of that but it would be a distraction from this conversation. He is a nutty loose cannon, seemingly. Go ahead and stake your reputation on his day-to-day assertions.
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:03 pm@159. The ‘Clinton/Lynch thing’ – investigation vs. matter- is old news, fella.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:06 pm@159 jcurtis
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:13 pmJust gotta treat ’em like a Ferrari, PandP. They have personality. Most other cars are just reliable transportation!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:17 pm@124. You’re right. I conflated the dinner meeting with the oval office meeting.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:17 pmWith sir. Wenches in lynches back pocket, there wasmt a diubt
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:18 pm@ jcurtis (#159): That’s about what I thought you’d say. I’m reassured that your thinking is indeed at exactly the level of sophistication that I had inferred from your other comments.
Would you be interested in placing a cash side bet to be held by a reliable intermediary? Because I’ll gladly give you 100-to-1 odds. If you’re right, you’re passing up a fortune here.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:18 pmHow is it they move heaven and earth fir clintins to never be legally account table fir anything, yet we always let the scorpion on our back, because this tie e, fir sure, it will be different.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:24 pm@63 DRJ
Trump gets a bad rap for not paying contractors. Maybe he deserves it. Maybe he doesn’t. I’m pretty sure it’s dumb to pay a contractor more than 50% up front. And who knows if the contractors lived up to their end of the contract?
I bought a house that had hail damage. The seller had received an insurance settlement for redoing half the roof. He already had a guy hired and lined up to do it.
The guy came by and tried to talk my wife into a tear off because he lied and said there was no roofing felt under the shingles. You know contractors lie, right?
His guys took three weeks. They left garbage and nails all over my yard. They tried to steal eggs from my chickens but my mom caught them and made them put them back.
I wasn’t going to pay the balance until they came back and cleaned up but my wife was too quick.
Now later she wasn’t as quick and forgot to pay the house insurance. Then she got the bright idea that she could kill silverfish in a book in the microwave. The book had a metal spine. The book caught on fire. The microwave caught on fire. The house almost caught on fire, and thus the roof.
Pinandpuller (0ca6ed) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:27 pm166, Just to be clear, you are not finding any timeline problem with Comey’s leak remarks today and are signing on to all his claims? Is that correct? Don’t go into hiding now. If you’re gonna shill for a nut job, be a courageous shill.
jcurtis (3ed235) — 6/8/2017 @ 9:41 pm@138 Beldar
Singlet. Doublet. Thruplet?
Pinandpuller (0ca6ed) — 6/8/2017 @ 10:05 pmAlthough Mr. Comey testified he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet, the public record reveals that the New York Times was quoting from these memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies Mr. Comey’s excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory. We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated along with all the others being investigated.
Marc Kasowitz
When Comey explains why he does something, it is all BS.
Yet he seems to be believable when he quotes Trump.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 6/8/2017 @ 10:07 pmGoes from zero to shilling in just 168 posts…
Pinandpuller (0ca6ed) — 6/8/2017 @ 10:25 pmThis blog has turned to CRAP-STEW. Do any of you morons have a conscience?
GUS (30b6bd) — 6/8/2017 @ 11:42 pmJames Comey made an abject FOOL of himself. Did any of you blubbering idiots miss that?
THE DIRECTOR of the F.B.FUCKING.I….H/t John Waite and the Baby’s, ADMITTED TO LEAKING A “MEMO” to the LIBTARD PRESS, and he used a LIBTARD COLUMBIA PROFESSOR to do so. He further whined about MEDIA at his YARD. WTF??? This is a MAN that you LIB/MARXIST MORONS would TRUST???
Comey is a FRUIT CAKE, and he is a SWAMP PERSON.
AZ BOB, the DIRECTOR of the F.B.I., admitted to leaking a self serving and possibly fictitious MEMO to the PRESS, vis a LIBTARD COLUMBIA PROF. He said he didn’t have another path, because the MEDIA was at his door. WHAT UTTER EFFING BILE SHYTE.
GUS (30b6bd) — 6/8/2017 @ 11:46 pmTHE DIRECTOR of the F.B.I. admitted to LEAKING INFO, and he specifically admitted his INTENTION was to CREAT A Special Prosecutor type action. The man is a F@#%ING DISGRACE. A pathetic wimp and LOSER.
Off-topic, but I don’t want to dredge up the Reality Winner discussion in its entirety, and it is actually relevant on the topic of leakers and their legal jeopardy:
I just saw the “midnight edition” of Bret Baier’s show, which included video of an interview of Reality Winners’ parents, probably taken after her detention hearing this afternoon before a federal magistrate judge in Augusta, Georgia.
The magistrate denied bond; she will remain in custody pending trial. PACER tells me that sometime during the day today, her CJA-appointed counsel, whom the court has already terminated because she’s not sufficiently indigent, nevertheless filed a series of routine motions asking for immediate disclosure of prosecution files and materials (Jencks, Brady, grand jury, etc.). (I hate to razz the guy, or his staff, for the minor editing error, but I did snicker when I saw him refer to his client in his motions as “he” rather than “she.” Maybe it was a paralegal who hadn’t met the client and guessed wrong about “Reality’s” pronoun, unless maybe I’m completely wrong and she’s also really self-identifying today as a “he.”) No new counsel shows up yet on the docket sheet as of tonight, although it’s possible that new, retained counsel might have shown up with her in court today but that PACER just hasn’t caught up with that yet.
The short video with her father started with him saying, in a voice understandably choked with emotion, “If she did this thing, then …,” and he went on to say (my paraphrase) that her responsibility oughted to be judged against the good things she’s done (or sentiments to that effect). This struck me as a very different tone from the video of her parents on the day of her arrest: They’re still obviously stunned and in pain, but to me they looked like people who’ve now heard an accurate and candid — and therefore devastatingly pessimistic — evaluation of her prospects of avoiding both conviction and a substantial prison sentence. My reaction, using an irreligious or perhaps sacrilegious phrase that trial lawyers use when discussing the delivery of essential but bleak news, was that they and they lawyers have had their “come to Jesus meeting.” And they just looked stricken about it, with no defiance and little indication of unrealistic or false hopes. For their daughter’s sake, I hope she is likewise receiving, heeding, and taking seriously such counsel, because at least from what’s already in the public arena, she’s well and truly hosed.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:00 amDRJ, in that Jonathan Turley link you helpfully posted above (#100), he mentioned a few, but just a few, of the specific statutes and regs that might be implicated. But he also mentioned, just as a throwaway, a whole ‘nuther category of legal problem from Comey’s leak to his law-prof friend: “Besides being subject to Nondisclosure Agreements, Comey ….”
I hadn’t considered it, but now it seems likely to me that the FBI would require pretty much everyone with access to confidential information to sign such a contractual NDA. In addition to creating a paper trail to help document actual knowledge of the regs & laws, the NDAs would expressly make that also a continuing obligation of their employment — compliance with which was made an affirmative part of their job performance, regardless of one’s potential liability on criminal charges.
NDAs are often used as a basis for getting a civil injunction, sometimes on an emergency basis, which compels the defendant to do, or to not do, something in particular, on penalty of being held in contempt of court, possibly resulting in fines and jail. But sometimes they also have liquidated damages or disincentives or penalty provisions. Is his pension at risk? I dunno, but he certainly ought to have considered that, if he didn’t. (And he might have.)
Further on the “recorded recollection” stuff: Yes, his memories belong to him. The document on which he recorded those memories immediately after the events therein — that ain’t his. By reading the memo (even if only in digital form, e.g., from a .pdf Comey emailed to him) aloud, and apparently verbatim — or so closely thereto that the multiple news sources reported the leak using the exact same phrasing and detail — to the reporters to whom he was systematically leaking, Prof. Richman was revealing not what was, at that moment, inside Comey’s head, but what was written down on that government document. The fact that the document had been created from an earlier version of what was (supposedly) inside Comey’s head doesn’t change that. And Comey didn’t give Richman what was inside his (Comey’s) head; he gave Richman the government document.
So that dog just won’t hunt.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:38 amBedlam – Your Winner discussion should be continued.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:39 amBeldar- apologize for my spelling above.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:41 amHey Beldar. Loser is REALITY…. is accused of sharing CLASSIFIED DEFENSE DOCUMENTS, outside of her authority. Rodham did so MANY MANY MANY times. Reality Loser, needs to be compensated for her (not assuming gender) FELONIES. What has happened to US??? There is a reason for CLASSIFICATION and levels of secret clearance. I KNOW THIS PERSONALLY. LOSER MAKE BELIEVE REALITY, voluntarily provided NON-CLEARED individuals WITH CLASSIFIED DATA and INFO, that had been CLASSIFIED …………………..FOR A REASON. PERIOD. There is NOTHING MORE TO DEBATE NOR DISCUSS.
GUS (30b6bd) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:41 amThis FREAK, did so, for her (not assuming gender again) own reasons. OK. Pay the price.
We need to get back to reality….NO NOT LOSER REALITY, but we need to recognize that IF YOU ARE GIVEN SECRETIVE CLEARANCE, there is a reason for it, and if you BETRAY your OATH and CLEARANCE. You will be DEALT WITH.
Another reason that would have occurred to Comey (because it just occurred to me) for why he picked Richman in particular:
Given his job history, he’s doubtless had very high-level security clearances, including clearances for FBI and DoJ classified materials at very high levels. He probably doesn’t anymore. But Comey’s defenders (including, most prominently, Comey in his own internal dialog) can argue that Richman is a pretty “safe” guy, universally respected, can be trusted to have put the public interest first, yada yada.
And that’s all probably generally true. But then again:
Out of all Comey’s friends who don’t presently work for the government, Richman is the particular friend whom James Comey chose to be his secret-from-the-world (except for the leaked-to reporters) collaborator in a long-designed plan (going back to January 2017) for how (including with no classified info) and when (maybe after he was fired, if he kept personal copies or gave them to others) the Director of the FBI planned to leak the contents of this confidential government document. He could still be all of the things Comey picked him for — yet someone whose impartiality and therefore whose judgment is irreparably compromised and skewed.
That it was Richman instead of, say, Glenn Greenwald might make it slightly less awful, but it damn sure doesn’t make it right.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:49 amYup, I’ll likely continue to monitor Defendant Winner’s docket sheet — hey, there’s an acceptable pronoun, right? sexually ambiguous and gender-neutral! — until there’s a resolution. I still predict that will come through a quick but fairly stiff plea agreement that includes serious multi-year prison time. Some of our other commenters with more criminal law experience than I have might be better able to guess how her case might fall in the sentencing guidelines, assuming the plea is to the single count currently alleged. (They can assuredly find other counts to add in a supplemental complaint or indictment, I’d imagine, if needed for plea leverage, but I doubt they will.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:56 amYou don’t just take a leak when you have a prostate problem, Comey liked it and continued leaking. And I don’t believe he only met Lynch once on the tarmac. Comey needs a lawyer as does Lynch.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:58 am{Wishing} – If Winner snitches, down goes Frazier.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:01 amMay’s UK election gamble backfires as Tories lose majority
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May’s gamble in calling an early election backfired spectacularly as her Conservative Party lost its majority in Parliament, throwing British politics into chaos.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/reports-uk-conservatives-cant-win-a-majority/ar-BBCgWS1?OCID=ansmsnnews11
UK election 2017: Conservatives lose majority
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-40209282
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:09 amFor those willing to listen, I’ll try, briefly, to explain why I think it is extraordinarily improbable that Comey is in legal jeopardy for perjuring himself in any of his testimony today. This certainly applies to the time-line discrepancy I’ve seen mentioned here and heard others reference tonight (e.g., Jay Sekulow on Hannity’s show; Hannity tried to get his guests to back him up on this perjury stuff but they didn’t use that word themselves or expressly agree with Hannity’s speculation):
People don’t commit perjury just by virtue of making a mistake in their sworn testimony. That happens every day. I’ve done that — made mistakes in documents that I had verified, i.e., sworn to before a notary, and made mistakes on the vastly fewer occasions when I’ve given testimony as a witness rather than appearing as an advocate. It’s part of the human condition.
Indeed, even deliberate misstatements of fact — deliberate lies told under oath — are not automatically or necessarily perjury. The subject of the testimony not only has to be something very specific, but something that’s very important, something that is legally “material.”
Suppose I’m asked on the witness stand what day of the week my wedding day was on, and I answered, “It was a Saturday.” And suppose the truth is that I was married on a Tuesday, and I knew that at the moment I answered the question, but for some reason, even an ugly reason, I had decided I wanted to fool the jury about that. (Or the judge, or the congressman, or the notary.)
If the case is my divorce, and if there’s some reason under the law that makes the day of the week upon which I was married important to the issues being determined in my divorce — say I claimed to have been married in Saudi Arabia, but the law their doesn’t recognize marriages performed on that day, hypothetically — then that might be perjury.
If I’m asked, and give that same answer, in a lawsuit about how I hurt my knee, and one of the elements of damages I’m claiming is loss of consortium, so I’m asked some general background questions about how long I’ve been married, then that same deliberate, wicked lie is not material and therefore not perjury.
Comey wasn’t there today to testify about what day of the week or what date of the month he woke up in the middle of the night. Is it chronologically impossible? Assume that it is. Was he therefore at least mistaken? Assume that he was at least that. Could he have been deliberately lying about it? Let’s assume that too.
It’s not material — not in the legal sense of that word as it’s used in perjury law.
And don’t get me started on misprision of felony. Just don’t, it’s been explained already elsewhere and it’s about as persuasive as “fire can’t melt steel!”
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:30 amActually that wasn’t so brief. Oh — wait, was that perjury on my part?!?!?!11?@!
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:31 amI readily grant, by the way, that even innocent mistakes, when revealed, tend in general to diminish the witness’ overall credibility. I’m not criticizing anyone for pointing out errors, and I can’t disprove anyone’s speculation about what Comey’s subjective intention was if he gave erroneous testimony; everyone’s entitled to speculate in the court of public opinion.
But not in a courtroom in a criminal perjury trial. In determining criminal liability for perjury, exact context matters, and context changes from one proceeding in which sworn testimony is given to the next.
Today’s main subject was not Jim Comey leaking, although we can all imagine many and varied contexts in which some future day’s testimony might be. A deliberate lie told about a date and sequence in that hypothetical future proceeding might be perjury, because the date and sequence would be legally material to that proceeding in a way it couldn’t possibly have been to today’s proceeding.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:45 am(And yes, unlike most of the general public, Comey certainly knows very, very well that not all intentional lies told under oath are perjury. He knows about materiality, he could write out for us what the likely jury instruction on materiality would be in any criminal trial, and he’s at least heard, and maybe made, closing arguments marshaling evidence to meet the materiality element in perjury prosecutions. It’s the kind of mental calculus that he could surely do in the back of his head in the milliseconds between the time he hears the question and he begins to answer it aloud.)
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:54 amHe knows the slalom course, in other words. He knows the moguls, he knows the icy spots, he compulsively and reflexively mitigates his legal risks. It’s all consummate CYA.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:55 amTL/DR:
Beldar comprehensively condemns Comey’s judgment, professionalism, and job performance, including a discussion of Comey’s potential civil and criminal jeopardy.
Trumpkins: “Beldar will stake his reputation on what a great guy Jim Comey is!”
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:58 amThe day that Jim Comey can’t out-plan, out-think, and outwit the likes of jcurtis — or for that matter, Sean Hannity — on the subject of criminal legal jeopardy to perjury charges will be the first day following Comey’s death or entry into a permanent catatonic coma.
This is basically the same mental drill an FBI agent does with every single thing he’s told in the course of an investigation by every single witness — “Is this clear? Is this specific? Is this material? Is it pinned down? Could this be a mistake? What’s the circumstantial evidence of intent? Am I listening to something that might be a Martha Stewart-type false statement already, or that might later become an inconsistency in future testimony, or that might someday be the basis of a perjury prosecution?”
Yes, I know that’s a whole paragraph, but it takes that long to describe in words the kind of spidey-sense background filtering that Comey doubtless has, but which a lot of very smart people (Martha Stewart) and even smart lawyers (Lewis “Scooter” Libby) don’t have.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:38 amApproaching a new late-night personal record for serial commenting (except when I mask my IP to leave those “You 2 Can Make $ from Home” links, of course). Anyway, re the suggestion that Comey himself ought to lawyer up:
I actually agree with that, although I think he probably thinks he has, or close enough. To the extent he’s only relying on his own judgment, even as supplemented by that of close lawyer-friends who are unintentionally biased, then he’s subject to Lincoln’s warning: The lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. A dispassionate legal advisor, even if only considering light complications from Comey admitting to breaking some departmental procedures, would have said: Stay home, don’t volunteer.
And senators from both sides of the aisle gushed in their gratitude for his willingness to volunteer “as a private citizen.” (Well, yes, and also as the just-fired Director of the FBI reporting under oath to a select committee of Congress, as part of its oversight responsibilities, on matters within his unique personal knowledge and relating to the course and scope of his government employment. He’s not a private-private citizen, as Woopee might say.)
But Comey so desperately wanted this star turn. Whatever risks it entailed, he was obviously not only willing, but eager to run.
He’s a capable, dangerous man nursing a grudge. I say again, be thankful that the guy was so compulsive about documentation and ass-covering. Yes, it corroborates what he says, but it also thereby pins him down to a considerable extent. So he’s taken his best shot, and since he seems to be driven by his grudge to take these personal risks, however substantial they are, it’s probably a good thing for Trump to get this boil lanced.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:11 amIf Comey makes a turn into bottomless powder, he could start an avalanche.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:38 amI’d bet a super sized fresh lobster roll Comey let loose leaking of the FISA info on the ruskie Kislyak.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:53 am26. nk (9651fb) — 6/8/2017 @ 4:03 pm
Trump has broken his Twitter silence, which lasted for two days.
He’s claiming complete vindication, and crowing that Comey is a leaker.
That’s basically what Kasowitz (or his prepared statements) said.
That 3:10 AM is Pacific time – this happened after 6 am Eastern time.
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:54 amOnly one tweet, so far.
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:55 am183. Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:30 am
It’s not, although it could very well be a lie. I’d suspect the reason he gae for using Dan Richman as an intermediary is more likely to be a lie.
It’s only a lie if he was responsible for the first leak about the Jan 27 meeting as well. He was not asked about that. The May 11 New York Times story mentioned nothing about memos, but only said that Comey had “recounted” – and that would sound like verbally – to associates (probably meaning at the FBI) what happened at the Jan 27 meeting (where the subject of loyalty came up maybe.)
The New York Times said he told a number of people about it, which is true, although he may have mostly shown them and let them read and keep the memo in some kind of a special FBI archive, and that two of them told the New York Times about it, and it doesn’t say they now got permission from Comey to talk about it, but rather that, apparently when he told them, it had to remain confidential while he remained Director of the FBI, and now that he was so no longer, they were released from their pledges of confidentiality, at least so long as they remained anonymous.
Alternatively, for some reason, Comey thought the accusation related to the Feb 14 memo was much more problematic than the Jan 27 meeting, or that it was much more important that he be able to prove it than to be able to prove the loyalty question. (The truth is, he leaked the Feb 14 meeting with the intention of getting a special prosecutor, and it is quite possible that the reporters were being misled a bit about what it meant. It was maybe dexcribed in way so as to imply this was an attempt to halt any and all investigations into Mike Flynn, and with it maybe a considerable portion of the Russia influence eddling investigation and that he didn’t leak it himself.)
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:17 amThe problem with realixzing something in the middle of the night is why should it occur to him that the possibility of a tape made it much more safe for him to leak details of the Feb 14 meeting when he hadn’t wprried about leaking the Jan 27 meeting.
Two possible answers are:
1) He didn’t leak the Jan 27 meeting, but others did.
OR
2) It was much more important for him to ptove what happened at the Feb 14 meeting than what happened at the Jan 27 meeting.
Another possibility is the thought that the memo was not subject to the accusation of being non factual if there were tapes so he could hand it over to someone else.
(And another possibility is that the account of the Feb 14 meeting is accurate while the account of the Jan 27 meeting is not.)
It always looked to me that Comey was scared off by that May 12 tweet, because it was followed up by a second, totally dfferent leak, and nothing about the Jan 27 meeting was leaked again.
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:20 amRe: Why Comey used Richman to leak:
It was maybe described in way so as to imply this was an attempt to halt any and all investigations into Mike Flynn, and with it maybe a considerable portion of the Russia influence peddling investigation and that was why he didn’t leak it himself. (because he intended to mislead people about what Trump had meant)
As I have said he is concealing that he did precisely as Trump asked:
http://ktla.com/2017/02/16/fbi-not-expected-to-pursue-charges-against-michael-flynn-law-enforcement-officials/
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:30 amThe problem is Beldar even though he likely hold faced , comey will not probably held to account unlike Libby who had his life destroyed, meese who was mailed and left a pariah, the huntress who had to give up her job, and people are still asking was there another way out?
narciso (63624e) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:47 amWith Libby eickenrode lost the notes, the whole trifecta at nbc Russert Mitchell gehoru lied and the judge looked the other way.
narciso (a7152d) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:59 amcomey’s legacy is a disgraced politicized and toxic fbi staffed with menacing feral anti-american thug-trash
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:19 amAs DAG, Comey orchestrated the Fitzgerald appointment to pursue Bush-Cheney and had to settle for Libby and made clear yesterday he orchestrated Mueller’s appointment to pursue Trump. Time will tell how it all works out.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:28 amthere’s a drak stinky cloud over this sleazy mueller dude now
good job comey
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:30 am“Impeachment is merely a tactic aimed at one man. The broader strategic aim is to stymie and sabotage THE AGENDA. PDT will not be impeached, but if he can be smeared as illegitimate, then everything he wants to do will be made out to be against the will of the people because he “stole” the presidency.
And since the GOP-e is in league with the Dems and the Deep State bureaucracy, this is why everything is being slow-walked and stonewalled.
No one thought he would win. Now that he has, they are scrambling like mad to make every excuse imaginable why the Repeal can’t go forward, or Tax Reform or The Wall or you-name-it. The Dems claim fraud/collusion, the GOP-e claims process/rules bullshit, the Deep State Leviathan leaks and sabotages. And the press reports PDT as an insane failure.
QED”
— JJ Sefton
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:39 amoopers i mean *dark* stinky cloud
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:41 amOT: The British election didn’t come out the way Theresa May expected. She didn’t understand the electorate. There was no case for her, and she had a bad and incoherent platform.
Polls were showing some trouble – that was maybe as accurate as the polls can be, or as much as they are trusted at this point.
The Conservatives had a majority of 17 seats before. It was said that if the new majority came in under 30 calling the election would be a failure. They had hoped for 100 or 200 seats. They actually lost the majority outright, although the Conservative Party is still the biggest party. But it’s back to the way it was before David Cameron’s 2015 election.
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:53 amIsn’t this the swamp Trump was going to drain? And no, “The mosquitoes won’t let him” is not a good excuse.
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:54 amMr. Trump, the Donald, seems to have an affinity for damaged goods. In his personal relationships, in his business relationships, and now in his Administration. Birds of a feather? Turkeys hang out with turkeys, they don’t soar with the eagles?
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:56 amThe New York Times has abg front page ehadline – it’s worse even than the Daily News. It says:
And there’s five big quotes from him on the elft side of he top portion of the front page.
I don’t where Comey says that Trump tried to sink an inquiry. I think the New York Times is still follwing the subtext of what dan Rchman, the leaker, told them. As Comey said, it concerned only the possible case against Flynn fr ling to investigators, and as Comey also said that was quite discrete from the overall Russian investigation, and as Comey doesn’t say in fact it was immediately leaked that Flynn was not going to be charged.
Comey did indeed codemn Trump’s lies. Now here is what the lie was about:
Here is where Comey says Trump told lies:
A lying justification for firing him, that really can only be opinions, anyway.
The Daily News has on the front page that Trump lied about the bid to kill the Flynn probe. I don’t think Cmey says anythinng like that. It also says Trump lied by calling the FBI ase a hoax. That wold be an opinion, even if it’s not his real opinion. But some parts of it – namely the dossier – can be described as a hoax (by Russia, not his american political enemies) and Trump seems to have been reerring to that, which seems to have bothered him very much.
And the third lie the New York Daily News has is about why Comey was fired, and Trump did lie about this, and in fact even ccntrived a whole paper excuse, but it was all retracted within two days.
that
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:10 am“Impeachment is merely a tactic aimed at one man. The broader strategic aim is to stymie and sabotage THE AGENDA. PDT will not be impeached, but if he can be smeared as illegitimate, then everything he wants to do will be made out to be against the will of the people because he “stole” the presidency.
And since the GOP-e is in league with the Dems and the Deep State bureaucracy, this is why everything is being slow-walked and stonewalled.
No one thought he would win. Now that he has, they are scrambling like mad to make every excuse imaginable why the Repeal can’t go forward, or Tax Reform or The Wall or you-name-it. The Dems claim fraud/collusion, the GOP-e claims process/rules bullsh*t, the Deep State Leviathan leaks and sabotages. And the press reports PDT as an insane failure.
QED”
— JJ Sefton
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:19 am206… magical thinking
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:20 amYou know, when the word suddenly came down that Trump had fired Comey, they thought it was about Comey having to retract his testimony that the reason so many of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails were found on Anthony Weiners’s computer was that Huma Abedin had emailed them there for printing.
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:22 amis new york times fake news really a factor anymore?
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:25 am“Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”
— James Comey
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:27 amYou guys really need to read this. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/09/reality-winner-accused-leaker-wanted-to-burn-white-house-down.html
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:29 am* The Daily News also says Trump lied by calling the Russia case a hoax.
Now this Senator Martin Heinrich (who?)
Here’s how it goes:
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:30 amAre lawyers and “teh bureaucracy” a collective Swamp Thing?
https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/06/08/report-437000-deportation-cases-backlogged-delayed-for-up-to-5-years/
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:31 amIt vindicates me when I said in a previous thread that “the cops scared me into confessing” was a jailhouse lawyer lie. Lordy, the “tech-savvy” dipsh!t didn’t even know that all phone calls in jail are recorded.
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:32 am“I don’t remember”… “I could be wrong.”
self-serving weezul
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:33 amYes that’s the story and armitage who was already known to be the leaker, kept quiet and let his fmr atty from the 90s scooter Libby hang in the wind, see why you need crocodile dundee?
narciso (a7152d) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:34 amThere are some recurring themes here.
Lawyers like Beldar and nk point out the legal standards. We are a law-based society so the legal standards matter. (nk, nice point on Trump draining the swamp. Trump has a lot of excuses for a campaigner who was so confident he could get the job done.)
Others, chiefly the Trump supporters, are concerned about loyalty to Trump and Comey’s leak/betrayal. The legal details don’t seem to matter to them as much as the emotional betrayal. I agree it is upsetting to feel betrayed, especially if they truly believe politicians should be on their side.
I look for politicians who share my goals. I don’t think any of them are on “my side” and it’s foreign to me when people view politics like tribes. Maybe the tribal aspect is why loyalty is so important to Trump supporters.
ThOR even quoted the Boy Scout law to emphasize how important loyalty is to real men like him and Trump. I notice that he didn’t quote the Boy Scout oath. I guess real men don’t care about morality, something the Boy Scouts have learned the hard way in recent years.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:37 amI’m conflicted on Comey’s leak because, in general, I don’t think government employees should leak.
But if what they leak is true AND if they are willing to take the serious legal consequences for orchestrating a leak, then I am not that concerned. Whistleblowers are a small part of politics and society, but they can be important. However, there should be consequences and that’s why Beldar’s discussion of Comey’s possible legal jeopardy for disclosing government information is so valuable.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:44 amAnother recurring theme is current and former government officials using their position and protected national security information in pursuit of what they believe to be noble ends does not justify their illegal means nor should it protect them from accountability and/or prosecution.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:46 amReality Winner should face the consequences, too, and it’s already clear she will. I hope she enjoys her 5 minutes of fame, because she’s going to end up in prison and a political footnote.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:50 amYou’ve also described Trump, crazy.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:51 amComey says Trump lied. Trump says Comey lied. What a pair they make.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:56 amDRJ, I don’t disagree. Trump should be held accountable for his actions just as the others should be.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:59 amwhen corrupt fbi turdboy p.o.s. james comey starts burbling about how unfuzzy everything is
remember that the lazy trashy-assed incompetent fbi he led never examined the DNC server they claim putin hacked
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:01 amcowardly comey was so eager to stand by his leaks he had a sleazy professor do it for him while him and his hot to trot wife slinkered out of town
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:03 amYes, the Republicans in Congress, the Deep State, #NeverTrump and the pigs at the trough are all absolved of any responsibility. Because Trump.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:05 amWell said, crazy. Comey should, too.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:06 amThat makes no sense, Haiku. No one said that but you.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:07 amBut Trump is Presidrnt. Responsibility starts at the top.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:07 amAnd a story for urbanleftbehind, happyfeet, and all the other Chicagoans, http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/2017/06/06/round-2-voting-continues-for-berwyns-best-egg-dish/a9ntfye/ ,
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:08 amin which I have a personal interest. I have eaten at Connie’s, the front-runner, many times and the owner’s wife is the sister of the husband of the granddaughter of my mother’s first cousin.
I’ve got no issues with an exDirector of the nation’s chief law enforcement agency leaking government documents and exposing himself as a moral coward. Oh, wait…
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:09 amThis nothingburger continues to have legs because it’s what’s most important.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:10 amDRJ @ 224, that’s what I was getting at above @5. DNI and DOJ seem to be uninterested in shutting down the leakapalooza. Locking up a tadpole like Winner is a start, but it’s unlikely to quiet the bullfrogs.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:11 am@224 DRJ
Only one way to resolve this.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:11 amEVERYONE is accountable.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:12 amThis will be remembered as a shameful chapter in our history…
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:13 amRide Teh Crazy 😜
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:15 amTo the nihilist Democrats, nothing is valued but power and maintaining it and expanding the reach of the State. The USA be damned.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:20 amAgreed, crazy. They locked up Chelsea Manning but Obama commuted his sentence. No wonder there isn’t more concern about leaking. As I said, responsibility starts at the top.
Fortunately Trump will probably be more vigilant, even if it’s only because he’s the target.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:21 amNo notes from conversations with Lynch? Or Clinton? etc, etc, etc.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:21 amMy goodness the whole thing is a coverup.
Only a complete idiot would frame it this way. Thanks for continuing to make my job of pointing out the truth about you so easy.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:22 ami’ll add Connie’s to my list
here’s a beautiful egg dish i kinda like sometimes but i don’t want to oversell it
it’s beautiful, but not as satisfying as a special eggs benedict or what have you
speaking of which
i just discovered Pauline’s – though i have yet to go – here’s the menu: [PDF] and this page gives you a sense of the character of the place
there’s another very very well established breakfast place over a bit closer to you Mr. nk called Alexander’s
been there 50 years or so some say
it’s in my bookmarks for a someday
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:22 amWhat would Cruz do?
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:23 amThe rest of us care, Haiku. I’m sorry you don’t.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:23 amScottish combat with broadswords highlander rules.
narciso (a7152d) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:24 amI think Comey disclosed his leaks so Trump sues him and then Comey through discovery can ask for the tapes.
I also KNOW that Mueller will never go after his friend or the FBI FOR ILLEGALLY LEAKING to the press.
If I am Trump, I ask for a special prosecutor to investigate FBI and IC leaking.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:24 amShorter Sparky: “Ooh, ooh, grunt, grunt, both Comey and Trump have the exact same opinions about each other, but only Comey offered his unsupported opinion about Trump UNDER OATH!”
Wowza, Sparky, that’s significant.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:26 amPauline’s btw has a special eggs benedict au pauline, which they say is finished with a vanilla cream sauce
it is truly an age of wonders
that and the “french bread pudding” i’m eager to be in a position to deserve, and soonly
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:26 am“Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”
— James Comey
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:27 am
… false bravado by Comey. Fact is he lied and covered up Trump’s not being investigated. His credibility as a TRUTH TELLER is dead.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:27 amhillbilly bigot kim davis says ted cruz never calls anymore, that she feels cheap and used
i’m torn about how to feel about this
on the one hand nobody should feel used cheap and disposable
on the other hand maybe God wants her to learn something from this
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:29 amThe recurring theme here is that high ranking members of the US Intelligence Community engaged in an unprecedented subrosa conspiracy to undermine the results of our most recent Presidential election.
This treacherous cabal acted in concert and directed witting members of the national press and the Democrat Party to advance a totalitarian agenda. Additionally, ideologically motivated dupes and fellow travelers aggressively piled on like a crazed anti-democratic lynch mob out to deny the legitimacy of our duly elected president.
Over 50 years ago the Intelligence Community acted to remove a beloved sitting president and install crooked Lyndon Johnson in the White House. The direct result was the Vietnam War and it nearly tore our nation apart.
Perhaps we’ve dodged a ‘magic bullet’ this time around, but unless the evil doers are driven out of government and rendered impotent they will soon rise again to thwart the will of American voters and seek to impose their own totalitarian rule.
ropelight (329905) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:30 amyes yes Mr. Blah
you see very clearly in these matters
SO much of sleazy fbi turdboy Jim Comey’s testimony was explicitly and obviously tailored with the idea in mind that there may be tapes out there what could expose his machinations
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:31 amPeople will continue to quote news sources that have been repeatedly shown to be malevolent propagators of falsehoods allegedly provided by anonymous bad actors as if what was on display yesterday never happened.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:34 amif you look at the pics for Pauline’s you’ll see a parrot
i see a guy walking around ravenswood quite a bit, pushing an odd sort of conveyance what has this parrot perched upon it
not sure what the story is here, but it’s a nice bit of neighborhood color i think
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:37 amAnd ropelight tells IT like IT is.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:38 amyes yes Colonel
we’re learning that fake news has managed to actually develop a market all its own
this is just a happy accident i think – this wasn’t what the propaganda sluts intentionally set out to do
they thought they were being sneaky
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:39 am@250 Steve57
Exactly!
Trump, his hired guns and sycophants can holler and scream for all they are worth. But the only sure way to resolve the conflict is to get POTUS under oath. Mueller might want to pursue that.
Spartacvs (2db708) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:40 amReality Winner….posts that she wants to burn down the White House, move to Kabul and pledge allegiance to the Taliban…..then wonders why she’s denied bail.
These Resistance folks is deep.
harkin (536957) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:42 amhttps://mobile.twitter.com/peddoc63/status/873171114998067203
narciso (a7152d) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:47 amSo it seems like comedy is in violation of his hiring agreement, fwiw.
Madsen, Hennessey schindler it seems you don’t have to be crazy to work at the puzzle palace, but it helps
narciso (a7152d) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:52 amsleazy fbi turdboy Jimmy Comey
he thinks he’s above the law like hillary Mr. narciso
and you know what
i bet corrupt p.o.s. Robert Mueller concurs
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:53 amHow many people here agree with ropelight and Haiku that the intelligence community assassinated JFK?
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:13 amI thought it was LBJ. Yes, it is “that” Roger Stone.
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:18 amjfk faked his death and ran away with an underaged girl to a trailer park in the florida interior
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:21 am“Pauline’s btw has a special eggs benedict au pauline, which they say is finished with a vanilla cream sauce”
Sacrilege. Eggs Bene must always be topped with the customary sauce…..and served on a hubcap.
When all’s said and done, there’s no plate like chrome for the hollandaise.
harkin (7b6094) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:24 amSKWRL!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:24 ami love hollandaise
esp with asparagus
but i feel like i need to try the special pauline benedict
she’s dead now you know
but she left a legacy and it sounds kinda tasty
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:32 amcrickets… Anyone? Buehler?
crazy (d3b449) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:35 amjfk faked his death and ran away with an underaged girl to a trailer park in the florida interior
No, that was McKinley.
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:42 amR.I.P. Glenne Headly, actress
Icy (2211c8) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:45 amthat looks like a fun read Mr. nk
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:49 amNo dials needed to read this group’s reactions to the Comey show.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:56 amYou’ll also learn about “Boston Marriage”.
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:57 amOnly if he’s as big a fool as you are.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:58 amSome people ain’t bin payin’ attention. The only thing Comey said Trump lied about is the demoralized state of the FBI. Trump need not (nor is he the best witness to) testify to that. Any half dozen agents will do.
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:03 amI’m amazed Spartacvs can remove his hands from his pecker log enough to type a comment. Bravo, lad!
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:05 amcan you imagine how demoralized the sleazy fbi people are
they’ve all been exposed as frauds and losers
they’re probably wondering if they can get away with just putting “DoJ staffer” on their resume instead of admitting the truth about who they are and the choices they’ve made
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:06 am280 posts to complain that the President hired a lawyer to elaborate on Trump’s tweet regarding how the Comey testimony completely exonerated Trump.
Still winning.
Steve Malynn (d29fc3) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:15 amTeddy bear or kewpie doll?
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:16 am273 – R.I.P. Glenne Headly, actress
Three performances I remember:
Trelis in Fandango
Renee in Nadine
Dallas Wayne in Winchell
harkin (536957) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:19 am@277 Steve57
Agreed, POTUS would be a fool to testify because that would likely lead straight to his being impeached. Comey has treed him, now it’s all down to Mueller.
Spartacvs (a14283) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:20 am@281 Steve Malynn
I think you’ll find that ‘exoneration’ had a short shelf life.
Spartacvs (a14283) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:22 amUntil Sparky came along I never knew brain tumors could use a keyboard.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:24 amwhich puts them tumors quite a bit ahead of the useless and doddering queen of england really
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:30 amI watched all of Comey’s testimony. He’s a pretty dumb bunny. What kind of nitwit suggests that only Americans are allowed to influence our elections, when we have 30 million foreign nationals from Mexico agitating illegally within our borders? I can only imagine the liberal screeching if there were even a dozen “undocumented” Russian nationals doing the same thing.
Apart from leaking, Comey committed perjury and going to jail.
Proud Prolifer (354055) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:34 amSpart’s comments, attitudes, and assumptions remind me of Perry. I wonder.
ropelight (329905) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:35 amIf Trump’s “intent” in his meetings with Comey is a fit subject for investigation by the special counsel, so is Comey’s. Having invoked the name of J. Edgar Hoover in his testimony, we are certainly entitled to know whether he was intending to blackmail the president with the phony pissing-hooker story in that Russian dossier. To claim that it wasn’t his intention only raises another question of fact as to whether he should be charged with perjury on top of extortion and treason.
Proud Prolifer (354055) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:39 amThe Democratic Party Is in Worse Shape Than You Thought
The NYT looks at the Democrat revolting prole situation without ever noting the negative impact of Obama’s OFA/BLM propaganda strategy which did so much to magnify and intensify prole flight. It’s going to be fun watching Dem’s treat a nicked artery with an assortment of loose bandages.
Rick Ballard (4fdfcf) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:42 amNot many takers, DRJ. Ask yourself why LBJ gave up the most powerful position in Congress to run for an office ‘not worth a bucket of spit.
Hint: It’s related to the proximity of a heartbeat.
ropelight (329905) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:42 amComey need to explain something; a clear dichotomy.
Bugg (b7f13d) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:42 amComey saw no intent in Hillary Clinton sending classified information and thousands of top secret emails to non-clearance people like Anthony Weiner. This is a crime that has no intent element; you did it, you’re dirty. But Comey claims there is some heretofore unknown intent element even though the volume of materials tells us all we need to know. In fact a Navy sailor is in jail right now for inadvertently sending photos of the inside of his sub to some friends.And USMC Major Jason Brezler has had his military career destroyed and was almost jailed for sharing classified data with Marines in the field about an awful pedophile Afghan warlord. One of the warlord’s child victims got loose on the base and killed several Marines ; an understandable intentional attempt by Major Brezler to prevent that for which the US government has sought to destroy a heroic man . Further Comey did not tape nor arrange for a transcription of his interview with Hillary Clinton.
Despite being told/pressured by AG Loretta Lynch not to call it an “investigation”, he did not offer to resign, as he did in 2004 as acting AG under Bush Jr. when asked to implement policies his disagreed with. Instead he suddenly found this nonexistent intent element despite THOUSANDS of such emails.
But Trump takes office, and suddenly he cannot document enough each and every statement of President Trump. And now he asks us to infer a man merely “hoping” to have his former security chief cleared is some sinister intent. And there is no quid offered for Comey’s pro either way.
In one case, he seeks to add an intent element that isn’t required. Yet in the other, he seeks to find intent with no evidence of intent, nor any quid pro quo. In one case, his superiors tell him in every way to stand down, and he becomes a meek little lamb. In another, he claims he is outraged about the mildest of hopes he might find nothing.
Simply Comey is part of a DC establishment that will stop at nothing to get rid of Trump.If President Trump doesn’t know this already, he knows it now; the status quo of both parties view him as a threat that has to be stopped any which way they can. To that end, it’s incumbent on President Trump to focus on his agenda : the border, jobs, the economy. And stop tweeting like a 17-year old girl the day after the prom; it’s not only unbecoming of his office it needlessly gives his very real enemies very real ammunition.
Outside of fever swamp left, teh media (but I repeat myself) and #NeverTrump, general consensus seems to be Comey didn’t lay a hand on Trump.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:44 amComey committed suicide.
ropelight (329905) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:47 amApparently, we’ve devolved to a point where a former FBI director testifying under oath that the sitting president is unethical and incompetent shouldn’t cause the slightest concern.
Leviticus (efada1) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:49 amSimply Comey is part of a DC establishment that will stop at nothing to get rid of Trump.
this video of slimy senile torture victim john mccain trying to ask questions in the hearing yesterday is already well past a half million views
this establishment ain’t gittin any fresher
that’s the exact message people are getting from this hearing
the desired narrative of propaganda sluts like Jake Tapper? not so much this time
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:51 amthe FBI is as sleazy, toxic, hyper-political, and third whirl as the IRS Mr. Leviticus
there’s just no looking past that anymore
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:52 amand so stunted
if you’d listen to comey on the radio yesterday, you woulda thought he was an effing millennial
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:00 am*listened* i mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:00 am266,that’s the stock answer of any northeasterner born before 1960. I wish I could locate this one scene from King of the Hill where Hank Hill has to show a guy from Massachusetts around Arlen.
Hank Hill: Back when we had a Texan in the White House, and not that George Herbert Phillip…
Masshole(interrupts): Eee killed aahh J-F-K
urbanleftbehind (3af27a) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:04 amSimilarities in Times article, testimony could bolster Trump claims
fbi turdboy comey’s a good liar but not good enough
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:04 amHappy, it’s as though Marshall from How I Met Your Mother went shooting with the lovely Robin and Peter principled into the head Gman.
urbanleftbehind (3af27a) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:09 amit’s very disillusioning
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:13 amThat’s my assessment, too. Peter Principle. Comey was okay as an upper mid-level functionary, but does not have the judgment, and capacity to exercise discretion, required at the higher levels of government. Not a leader who can deal on an equal footing with other leaders.
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:27 am#296. Leviticus The guy who appeared in the Oval Office is the same guy we saw on the campaign trail, and the same guy who authors all those tweets. So, yep, ex-FBI Director Blackadder didn’t tell us very much we didn’t already know, guess, and price into our evaluation of Trump.
Appalled (d07ae6) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:29 am@294
Too funny. In other words, the base has his back. Where they ever in doubt?
Spartacvs (a14283) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:30 amWhich is why so many of the Senate Kommissars were fawning on him, yesterday. They’re mediocrities, too.
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:31 amWas history misquoted at yesterday’s hearing?
COMEY: Yes. It rings in my ear as, well, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?
KING: I was just going to quote that, in 1179, December 27th, Henry II said, “Who will rid me of the meddlesome priest?, and the next day, he (Thomas Becket) was killed. Exactly the same situation. We’re thinking along the same lines.
But (thanks to Ann Althouse) the actual quote is:
“What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?” (Henry Plantagenet is said to have shouted these words at his castle in Rouen, according to his chroniclers, upon hearing the news that the newly-returned Becket wouldn’t admit those who had remained loyal to the King to the communion of Christ’s Church).
I thought the use of the word “drone” was interesting. This definition was among many on the internet:
drone(n): A drone is someone who follows an ideology or some other form of idealization blindlessly and uncritically. The noun’s original meaning is used in context with “social” insects, which are ordered into a hive structure. In an insect hive, drones are the workers – the ones gathering food, building the hive – in short: maintaining the hive, controlled by the queen, if not by some common instinctual fellowship and hierarchical order.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:34 am216. nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:32 am
She didn’t know much of anythng. She thought that she would be better off keeping her name secfret from the publication, and that in that case there was no way she could be tracked.
But, while they don’t have very much of a system for prevention of leaks of classified information, they do have one for detection. They record everybody who looks at a file or prints it, but almost never look at it. The people she sent that to, particularly because they knew nothing about whoo had sent it, wanted to verify it and even gave the name of the city from which it was mailed. It was pretty easy to track her down.
And then she thinks – what – because she’s pretty and white – and cute – they’ll go easy on her at least as far as giving her bond. (because she thinks the society is very racist)
It’s not being scared into confessing that bothers me. It is confessing that it was harmful to the United States or of use to a foreign power. That seems to be almost an impossible thought to have about this, sp she’s agreeing to everything because she wants to sound credible.
Now we’ve got something that makes it look maybe that was in her mind, but if so, it only shows further ignorance. Most likely, all she thought was that this was about tampering with an election, and thought maybe that would hurt Donald Trump because maybe he had tampered (she didn’t really read it or understand it.)
The paper itself was probably produced for wide circulation – otherwise there’s no point to it – but possibly would have been usedm after some time, to produce a declassified version. It already is missing a lot anyway.
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:39 amThe “meddlesome priest” line was in the movie with O’Toole and Burton. I can’t tell you if it was in the original play by Jean Anouilh.
What? Does Comey think he’s St. Thomas a’ Beckett?
nk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:52 am“Apparently, we’ve devolved to a point where a former FBI director testifying under oath that the sitting president is unethical and incompetent shouldn’t cause the slightest concern.”
Leviticus (efada1) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:49 am
Men – in this case the Director of the top law enforcement agency in the nation – who won’t stand up for what they think to be right or wrong and instead choose to write self-serving “notes to self” to cover their own backsides or too be used as cudgels by entrenched Beltway Bunch-types who have everything to gain or retain if they employ that weapon are not credible.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:55 am309. Re: Who will rid me of the meddlesome priest?
That’s the urban legend version of it – but the real issue here is, that was probably the cover story of Henry II – that he never ordered or conspired with anybody to kill Thomas a Becket but instead some people mistook his words. It’s an unlikely story.
Anyway, if this was similar, it was not an intentional order, hoping somebody got a hint, because that is the not idea intended to be conveyed when that story was told.
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:56 amAlso, Comey did close the case against Mike Flynn:
Feb 14: Donald Trump speaks to James Comey about letting Nike Flynn go.
The next day:
At 6:25 am February 15, Zero Hedge has this:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-14/mike-flynn-may-face-felony-charges-lying-fbi
But by 10 pm Zero Hedge reports:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-15/fbi-reportedly-will-not-pursue-charges-against-cooperative-and-truthful-mike-flynn
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:57 amLoyalty according to Trump on May 1, 2017, meant loyalty to our Nation and the principles on which it was built.
Now his attorney says to “the Office of the President is entitled to expect loyalty.”
That’s an interesting evolution.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:58 amI’m sorry the first story was Feb 14, before Donald Trump spoke to James Comey and the second story is the next day, after he spoke to him.
There was also the issueof the Logan Act where Mike Flynn was cleared first:
http://circa.com/politics/accountability/the-fbi-is-not-expected-to-charge-michael-flynn-but-that-doesnt-mean-the-dust-has-settled
Also, there was this:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/15/515437291/intelligence-official-transcripts-of-flynns-calls-dont-show-criminal-wrongdoing (that’s all with regard to the Logan Act)
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:58 amIndependent of actual evidence it shouldn’t. Appeals to authority are logical nullities.
And that’s all you’ve got.
I am #NotATrumpFan. Not #NeverTrump. Just #NotATrumpFan. If you had something I would listen to it. But you have nothing.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:02 amCorrectioon again> Although the URL of the first Zero Hedge story says 02-14, the time stanp is Feb 15, 2017 6:25 AM
Both stories are by Tyler Durden. The time stap of the second story is Feb 15, 2017 10:00 PM
It starts:
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:05 ampoor little priest
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:05 amThere’s a reason none of the GOP Senators attacked Comey, Steve57. They complimented him, and then tried to undermine or mitigate Comey’s criticism of Trump. I submit that is because Comey will win any character battle with Trump. Comey might lie but Trump does, repeatedly, and he does it about everyone and everything.
That doesn’t mean Comey “won” and Trump “lost.” I don’t think for a minute that Trump should be impeached over this, but the overall damage is done because Trump is defending instead of implementing an agenda. Domestically, the ball is now in Congress’ court and I doubt Congress wants to do much so we have a lame duck President on domestic issues. I pray that he won’t decide to make foreign policy his signature issue, but it’s all he has now.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:09 amFeb 14: Trump meeting with Comey re: Flynn:
Feb, 15:
https://mobile.twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/832013379124486148?p=v
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:15 amAlso found in the conversation:
Seems like, contart to MArco Rubio, it was leaked. Comey maybe didn’t leak it, though.
Sammy Finkelman (88a8f5) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:17 amWhen it comes to the intelligence community and the Deep State (someone has been watching Hannity and listening to Rush), there are people in government with their own agendas. Many of them probably identify with Democrats, but they aren’t all powerful or even that smart.
Obama and Hillary were complete idiots when it comes to the way they handled Benghazi. No one stopped them or fixed the mistakes they made. If they are trying to hurt Trump, and they might be, then he should do his best to put good people in authority and make good decisions. Trump will not succeed trying to use Obama’s people and anyone who thinks he can is a fool — especially Trump.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:19 amRight ask Alberto Gonzalez, Stephen hatfill or just miller about comey’s sterling chAracter. Memories are often short around here.
narciso (8b1d12) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:22 amDemocrat theme song.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:29 amhttps://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Jerry+Jeff+Pissin+in+the+Wind&&view=detail&mid=F6163457B943CEABB818F6163457B943CEABB818&FORM=VRDGAR
Comey and Hillary need jail.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:30 amYes,Paul pillar, Robert grenier the late Tyler drumheller,
narciso (8b1d12) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:42 amComey was truthful when he called himself a coward.
AZ Bob (f7a491) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:42 amtrump’s walkin on sunshine
and it’s time to feel good!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:43 amIt’s already out of date, but this article about Ms. Winner’s briefly-CJA-appointed lawyer, Titus Nichols, is pretty interesting to a wonk like me.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:44 amI have a deep and abiding respect for you, DRJ. I am with Groucho Marx on this one; I would never stoop so low as to become a member of a club that found me acceptable.
Anybody who actually deserved Mueller’s reputation would have nothing to do with Washington. So I’m not impressed.
I am even less impressed when I remember Mueller’s testimony months after the Boston Marathon bombing when he still headed the FBI. While being badgered under oath there was a revealing instant. Mueller revealed that the FBI had visited the Islamic Center of Boston. But only as part of their Muslim outreach program.
Yes, I’m sure these !$$ covering b#stards had all sorts of reasons for not attacking Comey. So?
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:45 amMs. Winner’s GoFundMe page now reflect contributions of $28,550 toward a (newly revised, from $10k) goal of $50k. But they don’t mention legal fees, perhaps to avoid some website restriction? I dunno. What it now says about the purpose of the fundraising is:
Maybe she can get Don Jr. or Eric to give her some tips on “creative accounting” with fundraising proceeds, though. Let’s see, how can we work a golf tournament into this?
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:59 amMy point is they are experts at knowing how to pick sides, Steve57, and it’s instructive whose side they picked.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:02 pmThe page also reveals that she got a $1000 pledge from Rosie O’Donnell! Oh, that’s too good, especially given my “fire can’t melt steel” crack above (#183). Synchronicity!
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:03 pmYes, I agree that they are experts at once again moistening their saliva-shriveled fingers into the air and figuring which way the wind is blowing, DRJ. I just don’t think that’s any way to run a country.
Steve57 (0b1dac) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:09 pmGood article fleshing out speculations that regardless of classfied/confidential status, Comey’s leak of the memo to Prof. Richman violated express NDA-type contractual provisions in the FBI’s standard employment contract.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:13 pmMs. Winner could probably raise $100k from Lena Dunham for a commitment to permit Dunham to player her part in the eventual, inevitable mockumentary. Can anyone propose more apt casting? Seems spot on to me.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:16 pm*play, not player (obviously)
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:16 pmSo Comey will win a “character” battle versus Trump?
Same guy who hid for months the innocence of POTUS to play politics?
Give me a cafone over that type of evil any day and twice on Tuesday.
Any man who would allow what he did, is a scum bag of major proportions.
Comey had a moral and ethical obligation to speak THE TRUTH — he did not.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:17 pmhappyfeet @297, I know you’re just mocking him, but McCain seems to be trying to get at why the FBI is still investigating Russian attempts to recruit and/or blackmail the Trumpsters but not the Clinton gang with their Russian purloined emails and financial entanglements. Replay the last couple minutes. That’s what he’s asking as his time runs out.
Perhaps he’s starting to regret pushing the dirty dossier to FBI.
crazy (d3b449) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:21 pmWell maverick put that dossier in motion, so it’s one of many things be firgoy.
narciso (8b1d12) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:24 pm“I’d be willing to testify under oath!” – President Donald Trump
… like a lamb to the slaughter.
“You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I’m innocent. You’ve got to believe I’m innocent. If you don’t, take my job.” – Richard M. Nixon
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:30 pmThat’s how Congress works, Steve57. It’s 435 individuals with their own ideologies, values, and flaws. It’s why we have a single executive with his own set of ideologies, values and flaws. I think we need the checks and balances our system has so it is a good way to run a country.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:31 pmSorry, Blah. THE TRUTH has nothing to do with this entire sad episode.
PJ Media:
During the James Comey hearing Thursday, someone edited the Wikipedia entry for “obstruction of justice” to list President Donald Trump as one of many “notable examples.” Trump has not been convicted of obstruction, and Comey’s testimony did not suggest he should be. Worse, the anonymous editor altered the entry from a congressional IP address.
“Obstruction of justice Wikipedia article edited anonymously from US House of Representatives,” tweeted congress-edits, a bot account that reports on anonymous Wikipedia edits made from IP addresses in the U.S. Congress.
The Wikipedia entry has since been re-edited to omit Trump from the “notable examples” of obstruction. But that does not change that someone — likely a staffer — in the U.S. House of Representatives deliberately altered an Internet record to slander the president, in the absence of a conviction.
This only confirms once again that Trump’s enemies — and perhaps especially those in government — are willing to twist the truth to tarnish the president’s reputation. At least in this case, the fabrication was short-lived.
What we have been witnessing is a collaboration between the media and the Deep State to overthrow the results of an election. That’s called a coup and it’s sedition.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:32 pmi get it Mr. crazy i made the same point poor doddering mccain tried to make before he tried to make it (and a lot more succinctly quickly and cogently if you ask me)
he just disgusts me is all
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:32 pmBlah,
Trump has the same moral and ethical obligation to speak the truth. That’s my point. DC has decided they know who wins that battle.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:32 pmBecause like Europa that is offimits just like the notion that nothing happened in Adams Morgan last night.
narciso (364166) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:35 pmOMG, Hoagie! Someone deliberately altered a record on the internet?!!?
You’re right, of course, about the mindset of the Angry Left. You’re right, too, that some of its shallowest, pettiest, and most hypocritical members either work for Democrats in Congress or are Democrats in Congress.
But an edit war on Wikipedia is pretty small potatoes, my friend. I’ll grant you that it’s another data point amongst billions, but not much more than that.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:37 pmThe phrase that comes to mind when I ponder Donald Trump is: “Even paranoids can have real enemies.”
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:39 pmI’m thinking Amy Schumer looks more like Winner.
Chuck Bartowski (bc1c71) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:41 pmToo old, not enough attitude, Mr. Bartowski.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:42 pmTapes? “… you’ll be very disappointed!” – President Donald Trump
Mr. President, we’re disappointed already.
“…these tapes will show that I have told the truth.” – Richard M. Nixon
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:43 pmI agree with you about their looks being similar. But the essence of Ms. Winner’s particular self-destructiveness is painfully naive youthful self-destruction. Youth & attitude are more important to this casting decision than looks.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:44 pmTrump’s daddy didn’t give him enough chores this is why there’s crisis all up in it. By the same token Trump works very hard but he didn’t do all the chores when he was younger because his daddy never said here’s a broom son get to it.
Work ethic is why! Plus we cannot do any meaningful legislate like repealing obamacare or doing the tax reform. Cause my daddy did not give me all the chores.
So everyone should go do chores thank you.
#harvardeffyeah
happysasse (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:51 pmShe looks like Maggie gylenhall or Kirsten dunst back in the 90s.
narciso (364166) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:52 pmTrump Walks All Over Tillerson On Qatar Dispute
The secretary of state called for a resolution to the blockade. The president lashed out at the Gulf state a mere 90 minutes later.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to end their blockade of Qatar on Friday. He then went over to the Rose Garden at the White House, where President Donald Trump completely contradicted his messaging, choosing to lambast Qatar for funding terrorists.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-tillerson-qatar_us_593add6be4b024026878e24a
“Don’t question my decisions again!” – Captain Queeg [Humphrey Bogart] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:55 pmi think President Trump has the better of the argument Mr. DCSCA
funding terrorists is wrong
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:57 pm@357- Perhaps he should have tweeted that to his SoS, T-Rex.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:00 pmLooking at the Wiki history page, it looks like more than one person tried to insert Trump’s name, and that whoever does guard duty for Wikipedia got tired of the nonsense after a few hours and put the page on protected status.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:History/Obstruction_of_justice
Which is how Wikipedia is supposed to operate
If you want to see a truly absurd hit job, here’s what someone tried to do to DUP. Link is to the entry made by whichever guard of Wiki removed it.
kishnevi (1b8c69) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:04 pmhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/784655606
i don’t see how they’re really at cross purposes though Mr. DCSCA
funding terrorisms is no good
doing blockade on Qatar is no good unless you want to destabilize the LNG market
Qatar needs more chores, clearly
also Saudi Arabia needs more chores
don’t make me take off my shoe
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:06 pm@360 Please do get your Hush Puppies brushed back by the breeze of our captain and T-Rex talking past each other and at cross purposes.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:14 pm331: Mueller’s Boston FBI field agents visited the Tsarnaevs repeatedly. And the Tsaranaevs could not have been more explicit about their intentions by their actions-visits abroad, participation in a murder on the 10th anniversary of 9/11a,mong other things,-had they taken an ad out on the Fenway scoreboard on opening day. Yet none of those things woke Mueller’s FBI from their slumber. And the official story remains that despite the Tsarnaevs living within walking distance to the bombing anf their FBI contacts, the FBI Boston field office had NO IDEA who the guys in the photos were until the public started calling in with tips 2-3 days after the bombing. Not much point to gathering a little nor a lot or any of intelligence at all if you never act on it. Yes, Bob Muller, the Establishment’s man of the hour, a man of integrity and competence. What a joke; another establishment do nothing looking to advance his Beltway career.
Bugg (08921e) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:34 pmDCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:00 pm
I think his Secretary of State doesn’t like where Trump is leanng, so he’s trying to keep his attention away from Qatar.
The professionals are all so worried about the bases. They even think that maybe that Donald Trump doesn’t know there are two very important U.S. military bases very active now in the war against ISIS in Qatar. But it is quite impossible that Donald Trump wouldn’t know this by now – he’s just ignoring that fact, or maybe he’s not intimidated. Qatar is not going to try to join forces with Iran or ISIS or North Korea.
Also they (the career military and diplomatic people) think maybe the policy should be let Saudi Arabia and Qatar fight it out while the U.S. stays on good terms with both. They never want to change policy even when it’s not working.
Trump may not have a good endgame though – he’s just following Saudi Arabia, which is doing this in part, to dovert attention from their own role in supporting terrroist groups. Saudi Arabia will settle for far too little, and for things more of concern to Saudi Arabia. We need a complete upheaval in Qatar’s foreign policy – and no more secrets. Qatar will cave – but only when they know it is serious.
Sammy Finkelman (78d0b5) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:34 pm362. The FBI demanded more information from Russia about Tamerlan Tsarnaev – and when Russia wouls not suppply it, they closed the investigation.
Sammy Finkelman (78d0b5) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:35 pmDunham and Schumer are both douchebags, I’m sure either has the acting chops to pull off the part 🙂
Chuck Bartowski (bc1c71) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:35 pm@351 Beldar
Chloe Grace Moretz.
Pinandpuller (10eeb1) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:41 pmI call BS. Winner is not a naïve youth. She is the result of deliberate planning by the education establishment. She is the quintessential leftist, void of morals, judgment, loyalty, patriotism of responsibility. She is the New American.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:41 pmnk (9651fb) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:18 am
Possibly Texas Democrats, but they didn’t take LBJ into their confidence. If there was a conspiracy, Governor Connally was a crucial member of the conspiracy. But he didn’t know it. He made a crucial call changing the parade route which caused it to pass by the Texas School Book Depository. See footnote 1 on page 25 of “the Death of a President” by William Manchester. The warren Commission got ths wrong.
Sammy Finkelman (78d0b5) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:46 pmYou need someone built like Winner.
Stephen Amell was believable as Joran Vandersloot.
Dave Chapelle did a great Prince but he was more convincing as Rick James.
Schumer and Dunham would be better for a Chris Farley bio.
Pinandpuller (10eeb1) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:50 pm366, agreed but she needs to eat a lot of pasta.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:51 pmRev Hoagie
She’s the anti-Highlander: there can’t be only one.
Pinandpuller (10eeb1) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:52 pmWinner’s language skills will come in handy for her new job as a soccer coach in Gitmo. La Guantanamera.
Pinandpuller (10eeb1) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:54 pm#346 DRJ,
DRJ in matters of criminal proceedings, I expect the Investigator / Prosecutor to be of the highest caliber, not the lowest.
That you have low opinion of Trump for being a POS like Maxine Waters is irrelevant to my analysis because any Cop / Lawyer / Prosecutor who would subject another human to the weight of Criminal Prosecution over NOTHING and create this air of suspicion is a disgusting piece of vile filth.
Trump has no obligation to give his political enemies victories. He does have an obligation not to punish people criminally for non-criminality. Comey too. Sessions too. Rothstein too.
So that is why I can’t compare Trump the POTUS to Comey the FBI Director. Trump is not running around putting folks under Special Counsel Clouds over literally NOTHING. Trump does not put people in jail. But that is what Comey and Lynch types do.
I dunno, maybe I expect more from police and criminal law types …. my politicians, I know what they are — scum bags.
But when FBI and DOJ are extension of the DNC, purge and jail time would serve them well. IRS types too.
You can mess with a man’s wallet, but don’t mess with his freedom. When accusing a man of crimes of which they can be jailed you better not be playing politics.
So off with his head, Lynch and Rothstein. That Trump is not being investigated should have been published loud and proud. That Russia had no effect also (instead of learning it thru leaks). Instead we got a circus all for political reasons. Shameful.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:56 pm# 373 and then in that circus they try to Scooter Libby people, including POTUS.
Another abomination and why Lawyers are to be reviled.
That they made that poor guy go thru what they did when he had zero to do with leaking all the while leaving Armitage and the State Dept scumbags free to keep leaking illegally. Wow.
Off with that Special Counsel’s head IMHO.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:59 pm@370 urbanleftbehind
They need the makeup artists from Monster for sure.
I used to work with a guy who was sure if you smoked coke off the bumpy side of the foil it would make your face break out. She could do that.
Pinandpuller (10eeb1) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:00 pmAnd Starr too. Say what you will of slick Willy, what he went down for is pure BS.
Don’t have the BALLZ to actually deliver justice to the victims of Whitewater so you ruin Lewinsky’s life?
Again, off with their heads.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:02 pmIs someone is going to be an NSA anAlyst I’d rather they look like cpbie smolders, from the avengers series
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:07 pmNY Times, Comey, Lynch, McCain and Democrats went out fishing for tuna, caught a thread bare tire and decided to declare victory and hang it over the fireplace.
Really just amazing.
Blah (44eaa0) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:09 pmdon’t forget cnn fake news propaganda slut Jake Tapper
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:10 pmon mueller’s watch –
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:21 pmhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/russia-warned-fbi-about-tsarnaev-brothers-but-name-was-misspelled-9217308.html
mueller’s a seedy ex-fbi p.o.s. and he brings his own agenda to this mess
and he’s probably going to be the sum total of jeff sessions’ legacy of bumbling self-serving incompetence
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:27 pmSo one has to look long and hated to see some endeavor of comes that has been worthy. But don’t ask miller, Gonzalez any of w’s replaced us atty,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:36 pmThis is another thumbs down
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/fbi-director-americans-fighting-isis-entitled-come-back
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:40 pmhttp://www.wnd.com/2017/06/trumps-pick-for-fbi-director-tied-to-shariah-compliant-deals/
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:47 pmlol – j edgar loser
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:55 pmhttps://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/06/09/from-russia-with-stupidity-n2338795
you’re not gonna get anyone with integrity and principles to agree to do the fbi director job
it’s an extremely thuggy and freewheeling organization, comprised of hyper-entitled pension-piggy douchebags what only took the job cause they knew they’d be wholly unaccountable
sleazy ivy league swamptrash like chris wray is pretty much par for the course
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 2:57 pmbingo!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:01 pmYou know who else came from king and Spaulding sally fandancer Yates,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:09 pmincestuous princoxes the lot of them
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:12 pm“I’m thinking Amy Schumer looks more like Winner.”
Chuck Bartowski (bc1c71) — 6/9/2017 @ 12:41 pm
Now that was just mean…
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:16 pmComey and Goodell sound the same. And come across as fools.
mg (31009b) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:19 pm“Congress criminalizes lying to Congress under oath. The relevant statutes are 18 USC 1621 and 18 USC 1001. Section 1621 requires a person first, be making a statement under a sworn oath; second, that statement be “material” to the proceeding; third, the statement be false; and fourth, the statement be knowingly and willfully false. Section 1001 mirrors those elements, without the same tribunal prerequisites: it also requires the government prove a person willfully made a materially false statements. In either case, the primary focus is: first, a false statement; second, a false statement as material to the matter; third, the false statement be made knowingly and willfully. A statement is not false if it can be interpreted in a completely innocent manner. A statement is not material if it is not particularly relevant or pertain to the subject of the matter. Willfully remains a very high standard of proof in the criminal law, though less in perjury cases than in tax cases: it requires the person know they are lying.
Sadly, for Comey, Sessions has the smoking gun: Sessions’ own email sent and read by Comey, according to the Department of Justice statement, showing Comey in fact did know “the parameters of the Attorney General’s recusal” despite his repeated comments to the contrary to Senator Kamal[toe] Harris’ questions.”
http://lawnewz.com/high-profile/comey-was-before-congress-to-indict-trump-instead-he-might-have-indicted-himself/
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:26 pmThat website is not a legal website, you know, Col. H. I looked at something you or someone linked to there a day or two ago, and it struck me as thoroughly unreliable. I didn’t follow this leak, and I can’t tell from their quotes whether they think Comey’s supposed false statement about the state of his knowledge of Sessions’ recusal is perjury, but if they do — as you appear to, from the quotes you’ve selected — they are nucking futs.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:38 pmHe has legal problems. I assure you perjury is not among them.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:39 pmHoagie, what you asserted about Winner and what I asserted are not inconsistent with one another.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:42 pm“Lordy I hope there are tapes.” – Former FBI Director James Comey testifying under oath to Congress.
=Expletive deleted= Don’t we all!
Friday, June 23, 1972… in the Oval Office:
https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/forresearchers/find/tapes/watergate/trial/exhibit_01.mp3
https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/virtuallibrary/tapeexcerpts/index.php
“I would not like to be a Russian leader. They never know when they’re being taped.” – Richard M. Nixon
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:44 pmThat is true Sir Beldar. Kudos for being more polished and less nasty than I (as usual).
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:45 pmIts scary how we thought Bradley was the bottom. Of the barrel but them came ed and now reality its turtles all the way down
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:48 pmHe has been accountable to no one for so long:
https://spectator.org/comey-served-at-the-pleasure-of-himself/?utm_source=American+Spectator+Emails&utm_campaign=ce533b1051-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_06_09&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_797a38d487-ce533b1051-104403661
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:50 pmYour mileage may vary:
http://www.atimes.com/article/no-one-likes-trump-dont-care/
I noted the parallel between Madrid 2004 and London 2017
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:55 pmDonald Trump denied several things Comey said – that he asked for loyalty, although he said if he had he’s been informed there’s nothing wrong with it, but he hardly knew him so it would not make sense to ask Comey to pledge allegiance to him; and that he hadn’t requested him to drop the investigation of Mike Flynn, although there would have been nothing wrong with it if he had. He said Comey had confirmed a lot of things he said, but also told some lies. “James Comey confirmed a lot of what I said, and some of the things that he said just weren’t true.”
He said he would let people know if he had tapes rather soon and they are going to be disappointed. (which is kind of telegraphing it) A Congressional committee has asked for any recordings and given him two weeks to respond.
Sammy Finkelman (78d0b5) — 6/9/2017 @ 3:58 pmthis has the ring of truth doesn’t it
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:01 pmBlah 373,
I think you are wise to be leery of the power of the government to take away our freedoms, but it isn’t just prosecutors. The Bill of Rights is designed to protect us from government, and that includes the President. If you think President Trump can’t hurt us then you weren’t paying attention when Obama was President.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:15 pm@ Hoagie: You’re a man I’d happily trade off buying rounds with ’till closing time, Hoagie.
I’ll also volunteer, consistent with your observations about who shaped her and what shape she’s in and what she believes with passion, that even after being arrested, she didn’t start taking this at all seriously, as nk’s comments above (re her recorded jail conversations) confirm. Maybe the denial of bond has shocked her out of that.
The info that she may have used a thumb drive — as yet unaccounted for — to access an Air Force secured computer even before she was in this job makes me wonder if I was wrong in presuming that she doesn’t likely have any “bigger fish” to give up.
If she doesn’t, though, and if she continues on her SWJ path, that’s a really good prescription for maximizing her sentence.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:17 pmTrump likes to target conservatives, you know. Maybe you aren’t one so you aren’t worried, but he may decide to target you someday …. if you aren’t loyal enough. So far, I think you’re safe.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:19 pmPresident Trump wants the best of stuff for us!
beleaguered he may be but his love for us never flags
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:19 pmDo you know who/if she has an attorney yet, Beldar?
FWIW I see Hollywood casting Jennifer Lawrence or Dakota Fanning to play her.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:26 pm@405. Imagine that…
“Reagan is not one that wears well… Reagan on a personal basis, is terrible. He just isn’t pleasant to be around. He’s an uncomfortable man to be around…strange.” — President Richard Nixon
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:30 pmWell Jen is playing the Russian spy in red sparrow, I think a terrible pick by her former hunger games director.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:30 pmBlah@373,
Nicely stated. You’ve summed up my view quite well.
ThOR (c9324e) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:49 pmA little lack of self awareness on his part. Nixon in office conceded two much to the left, did he won any kudos for that, rhetorical,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:51 pmNow we hear of Barack Obama systematically dismantling the investigations of Iranian financial funding of terrorism.
What was of paramount importance to Obama for eight long years was strengthening America’s enemies and putting us at as much of a disadvantage as he possibly could. Despicable cur.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:57 pmThings must be grim in Texas this evening.
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 4:59 pmThey nabbed two up hezbillah operators, including the brother of the one who bombed that bus in Bulgaria some time back.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:00 pmBlah… https://patterico.com/2017/06/08/president-trumps-personal-attorney-responds-to-james-comeys-testimony/#comment-2005252
Well said!
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:02 pmJust another great day in the Trump presidency:
The House passed the Financial CHOICE Act, which effectively repeals Dodd-Frank.
ThOR (c9324e) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:03 pmTrump passes all the tests!
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:05 pmhttps://patterico.com/2017/06/08/president-trumps-personal-attorney-responds-to-james-comeys-testimony/#comment-2005284
And I suspect we don’t know the half of what Obama’s fiendish actions have wrought. Trump gonna trump but he will never stoop to those depths. My $.02…
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:07 pmNow we’ll see how awesome Cruz can be in the Senate, Thor!!!
Colonel Haiku (820854) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:08 pmHow many times did the House repeal Obamacare?
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:10 pmnever
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:13 pmBringing Marc Kasowitz on board was a great idea.
ThOR (c9324e) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:15 pmWe’ll see if mctyrtle follows through, morose may should signal what happens when you fail to take advantage of a wave of enthusiasm, the people voted for bruit, but as if remainders are still in charge.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:16 pmI have a lot a faith in Cruz, alright, though he will have a tough row to hoe. With both the Democrats and the #NeverTrump faction aligned to block substantive change, it won’t be easy. Here’s hoping Cruz can shame the two-timing Republicans into acting on principle, rather than pettiness (I know, it’s a big ask).
ThOR (c9324e) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:20 pmWell we’ve kucjec and stomped to the curb, how about this:
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:29 pmhttps://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/bernie-sanders-chris-van-hollen-russell-vought/529614/
If it doesn’t make 1,200% APR (that’s twelve times the amount of the loan) on payday loans illegal, I am not interested. When I was preparing for the bar exam, the prep course instructors gave us a hint on how to pass the section on bank transactions: “If in doubt, the bank wins.” And this was in 1982. And the rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer since. And if there’s any danger that the rich won’t be as rich as they want to be, there will be TARP.
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:40 pmThat’s not the purpose of red squawks gosplan was about,
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:44 pmThe parrots bit pining:l
dailycaller.com/2017/06/09/elon-musk-goes-on-twitter-tirade-against-gm-for-supposedly-trying-to-kill-electric-vehicles/?utm_campaign=atdailycaller&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:47 pm“Schumer and Dunham would be better for a Chris Farley bio.”
So good.
harkin (536957) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:53 pmTrump took a small PR problem — Flynn and Manafort, two aides with questionable ties to Russia that were limited to the aides and didn’t involve Trump — and made it a big problem by firing Comey too late and opening the door to a special prosecutor. There was nothing that touched Trump directly, even Comey admits that, but now the special prosecutor will be looking at everyone. And we know Comey is going to tell the prosecutor that Trump talked to him about loyalty, so now the prosecutor has a basis to interview Trump. That makes the small PR problem a big PR problem at some point. It’s unfortunate because it was avoidable and probably undeserved, but Trump has only himself to blame. He trusts his gut but this time it let him down.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:56 pmelon musk is weird and unpleasant
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 5:58 pmsessions opened the door to the special prosecutor by lying like a pig about his contacts with russia
he needs to drag his trashy useless racist cowardly ass back to whatever trailer park he crawled out of
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:01 pmit’s never a good idea to appoint senators or ex-military weirdos to important jobs
but nobody listens
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:03 pmNo, trumps main problem was to general flynn overboard, that wAS a sign of disloyalty on his part, it threw blood in the water.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:04 pmEverybody talks to kisyak he had a banya already set up for Obama, who did comey interact with on the board of HSBC?5
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:06 pm431… thank God he’s not a ham sammich living in Texas!
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:16 pmthis needs to come out
just how compromised is this useless jeff sessions jackass anyway?
he’s not even the attorney general he’s just a slobbering useless racist loser what’s getting in the way of the real people in charge running the corrupt DOJ
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:17 pmin charge *of* running the corrupt DOJ i mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:17 pmWhen it comes to a point that FBI agents question Reality ….
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:18 pmHeh! https://twitter.com/YoungDems4Trump/status/872848552577253376/photo/1
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:20 pmi like the tunnel idea in general Mr. Colonel but honestly there’s something vaguely terrifying about just the subway in LA
i used to use it cause i lived so close to Universal, but there’s a lot of assumptions they’ve made about this whole idea of digging tunnels in LA that may or may not be completely valid
the creepy stinkholes what plagued studio city – was it this time last year?
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:21 pmRimshot nk but that has been atansard practice for eight years.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:23 pmzero hedge dragged out that coleen rowley nutcase for some reason today
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:25 pmSpeaking of deep tunnels what possessed tom cruise to sign up for this next iteration of the mummy, I won’t hold it against annabelle wallis
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:26 pmi’d guess he thought he smelled franchise
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:27 pm@444 $20,000,000.
Rev.Hoagie® (630eca) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:27 pmRowley does point out Mueller’s judgment has been flawed in the past, but she has to stipulate things that are no longer true, about secret detention faculties and iraq
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:36 pmrowley’s only useful if you start from the bizarre assumption that Mueller’s an honest broker that can be trusted to execute his commission with integrity
why would anyone think that for a second
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:38 pmThat is the default for those don’t who know any better, he’s more like gideon mallick, one of the last roles of the late powers boothe
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:42 pmhe really elevated that little show when he was on
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:44 pmHappy, @437: a considerable element of the other side would be satisfied with only Session’s scalp from all this kerfuffle. Maybe it’s the sole endgame.
urbanleftbehind (847a06) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:44 pmWTF… Comey’s getting a $10M book deal?
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:47 pmI don’t know what your problem with Texas is, Haiku, and I don’t care. But I will tell you one thing about Texas: We know there is good and evil in the world. Three are evil people that want to hurt innocents, and we need a President who will work to stop that. I think Trump understands that, but he’s not doing a good job. Meaning well isn’t enough for me and I will continue to speak out when he screws up because loyalty won’t make him succeed, and I want him to succeed.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:47 pmSo he’ll make the transition from weezul prick to rich weezul prick.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:48 pmNone dare call it treason, if treason doth prosper
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:49 pmi get that, but he scalped himself, and did a great disservice to Trump and the nation, by recusing himself in such a cowardly and unnecessary way, and if indeed it was necessary, he should have resigned and allowed the President to appoint someone who hadn’t compromised himself
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:50 pmsleazy fbi pig comey was already rich
all them corrupt fbi piggies are loaded
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:51 pmYes bstwern the bank clearing hoysr the hedge find he was a walking conflict of interest
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 6:57 pmhere’s another instance of sessions being a half-assed ineffective loser more concerned with the tender feelings of the doj swamptrash than with being an effective agent of change as per the voters’ wish
(and i’m only linking wnd cause you can trust they’re big fans of his)
so here you have yet another useless, racist Attorney General, in the mold of Eric Holder, abiding illegality from his perch atop the corruption of the sick, dysfunctional Department of Justice – and doing so openly and unapologetically
Jeff Sessions is trash
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:03 pmYes but where was the money going to prog ngo’s, which use it to wage war on institutions, this is draining the swamp.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:06 pmthere’s nothing to stop the next Attorney General thug from starting right back up where Holder left off
this is NOT draining the swamp
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:07 pmThin-skin, DRJ. I love the state of Texas and admire the majority of Texans I’ve met, worked alongside and have had the pleasure to know. A much better ratio than what I’ve found in my home state.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:08 pmAnd I have no doubt you will continue to speak out against Trump.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:09 pmBow there’s no Easter bunny or Santa either.
https://mobile.twitter.com/instapundit/status/873357935283503105
So we spend a month talking about that which doesn’t exist, along with a bogus dossier and a similarly useless dhs funding
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:10 pm@ DRJ (#407), this is a just-published follow-up to the link I posted earlier about Ms. Reality’s CJA-appointed counsel, Titus Nichols, by the same reporter (who might have gotten an email from a blogger perhaps, on deep background): Judge Says Reality Winner Can Pay for Her Own Lawyer. I hope that’s not behind a paywall; if so, try highlighting and Googling this a phrase from this quote:
So it looks like she’s indeed retained Mr. Nichols, with whom I’m reasonably well impressed (which is to say, I think the Magistrate probably made a sage & compassionate choice in picking him for her circumstances, given Nichols’ background).
If being denied bond can’t persuade her to keep her mouth shut, nothing can. Maybe she’ll start listening to legal advice now.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:39 pmLooking at his shingle I dint see anything relating to national security exoertise
https://mobile.twitter.com/titus_esq
But she was a ringer for somebody else who put the document together.
Why would a south Asian area specialist have knowledge of sov bloc operations
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:46 pmI’m really enjoying Sen. Susan Collins for the first time in a long time — she absolutely got it at the time, and gets it now, about Comey’s leak. And the Left isn’t used to seeing her go on offensive against their narrative, she’s one of their favorite Republicans.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:50 pmChloe Grace Moretz.
Pinandpuller (10eeb1) — 6/9/2017 @ 1:41 pm
I’m with P&P. She has the attitude in spades.
felipe (023cc9) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:52 pmI’m guessing the chances it happens without a subpoena are a lot less than 100 percent, discuss.
Spartacvs (f89a24) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:53 pmthis was amusing from earlier
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:54 pm@ narciso: I’m guessing that Augusta, GA, isn’t swarming with criminal defense lawyers with national security experience of any sort. Those who were willing to take CJA appointments is probably an even smaller set. I’d be very surprised if there’s anyone better in southeastern Georgia.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:55 pmThat’s probably true, he’s got his work cut out OT fir hum but as a progessive, he probably sympathizes with her on some level.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 7:58 pmEvery trial lawyer has had the experience — most of us multiple times — of the client who lets his lawyer get blindsided in court because the client’s been lying to his own lawyer and deliberately, secretly refusing to follow the lawyer’s strongest advice.
They ought to have a course in law school — like they teach in martial arts classes, about how to fall without hurting yourself, right? — for all the times your client is going to put you on top of a rug and then pull it out from under you. But while you, the lawyer, end on your butt, the client takes the real fall.
Nichols surely must have been in that situation at that detention hearing. He was likely surprised completely, or with tiny notice at best, by the prosecution’s use of tape recordings of his client trying to secretly stage-manage the hearing and manipulate the magistrate judge: gonna cry, gonna braid my hair, I’ll play the pretty, white & cute card, threaten to go nuclear like Snowden did if I can’t get my way, etc. As blindsides go, that must just have been brutal. (As apparently it also was on her parents and friends who were observing, and, most appropriately, on her).
Good. Her parents want her to get a fair trial? They should tell her to shut her mouth and do what her lawyer tells her.
But despite this, from press reports in the local Augusta newspapers, I gather that he nevertheless made cogent, articulate arguments — the best ones available from the pitifully few facts that supported his client’s bond application.
I think I read somewhere, although I couldn’t find it again when I looked, that the U.S. Attorney for SD-GA himself sat at the prosecution table along with the Assistant AUSA sitting first chair. That bodes ill for a lot of prosecution flexibility in plea negotiations, I’m guessing.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:11 pmShe probably takes the palmer report and Louis mensch as an authority, he j she’s published in the times, why should they take her seriously.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:15 pmApparently (again, I’m too lazy to find the link on this again, so it’s from recollection and a paraphrase), narciso, among the very last and weakest arguments Mr. Nichols made was indeed at least quasi-political — something to the effect that this prosecution is small potatoes and ought not be allowed to divert prosecutorial resources and attention from the really important issue of Russian hacking.
When the law’s on your side, pound the law. When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When neither the law nor the facts are on your side, pound the table.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:16 pmIfvshe were from a federation, she was probably a fan of the falcon in the snowman, which was likely paying in the dc theaters when games started to spy.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:18 pmYes that was the gist in a piece outside the paywall.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:19 pmGeneration, back then boyce justified his actions because of doings in Australia, a push to remove goug whitlam, age said it was us aid to suppress popular movements in south America.
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:24 pmThe seriousness of the offense charged and potential punishment are very important in assessing whether the defendant will skip bail and live the rest of his life as a fugitive, or stay and face the music. It also helps a great deal if the defendant has strong ties to the community that he would be very reluctant to abandon. You try to milk both for all they’re worth.
This is a young woman, who came not out of a criminal milieu but one of government service since she left high school. If she runs away, where will she go, what will become of her? What’s facing her if she stays is not as bad as what she will face as a fugitive.
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:38 pmNow that we know Comey worked to ensure Rosenstein appointed a special counsel to continue Russiapalooza instead of his own deputy with the news today that Mueller should be done in a couple of months the question is whether Mueller chasing the scalps Comey couln’t take or is he cleaning up the mess Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Rice et al made that never would have come to light if Hillary had won?
crazy (d3b449) — 6/9/2017 @ 8:59 pmnk, she’d apparently written stuff in the spiral notebooks they seized from her house about wanting to join the Taliban and burn down the White House. Also pledged to stand and fight with Iran when it is attacked by the U.S. The prosecutor said that if she were released pending trial, she’d become a prime target for foreign subversion.
As for community ties, my impression is that she’s only been in her job in Augusta since early this year; before that, Air Force. Grew up in Texas, supposedly offered an engineering scholarship to Texas A&M, her parents still live here, not in Georgia.
You’re right about what would be facing her as a fugitive for sure. Can you think of anything she might have to trade in a plea?
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:00 pmYes this is the way Daniel ellsberg started out, he was a much wider character than snowden certainly but there were suspicions he wanted to leak the siop the list of Soviet nuclear targets that’s what prompted the plumbers
narciso (d1f714) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:07 pmBeldar @481. Remorse, demonstrated by “cooperation” with the prosecution to the satisfaction of the prosecution. Trial penalty has been approved by the Supreme Court in the federal system, although Rehnquist’s reasoning in the seminal case revolved around the surmise that the defendant’s defiance was due to wanting to remain in, or rejoin, his “criminal milieu”.
Really, the only reason I see to deny her bail, in an amount she can afford, is “danger to the community”. That she will reveal other classified information is she’s let loose. I hope that when the case is transferred to a District Judge after the indictment is returned her attorney brings a new motion for bail and puts the government to its proof on that argument. Of course, her threat, on tape, to “go Snowden” did not help. 😉
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:14 pmMakes sense to me, nk, thanks.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 9:50 pmWe know very little about the government’s entire case at this point, but I see no factors in aggravation. She did what she did because she’s a doofus*. Not, for example, because she’s in the pay of a foreign power. And the damage was contained. She has no criminal record. On the contrary, she has a history of government service. I see only two reasons for a prison sentence of any kind: The primary one, to deter others from committing the same crime; followed by the tenuous (in my mind) possibility that she will reveal the classified information she has in her “intelligent” head if she is not confined until it goes stale.
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:01 pmI’ll point out one respect in which I think Comey is worse than Trump:
Trump doesn’t give, and will never give, a flying fig about the Rule of Law. He has no concept of the phrase, no concept of separation of powers or checks and balances or constitutional prerogatives and duties, with a weak grasp of history — and he just doesn’t care about any of it. He does what he does, and I think it’s ugly, but it is self-consistent.
Comey understands every one of the things I just referenced, and the history behind them. He could teach them to 7th graders at the drop of a hat, explain them all eloquently with examples. In his own head, he is obedient to them and he’s done what he’s done in their service.
Trump should know better than he (Trump) does, and that’s blameworthy. But Comey knew — and put himself outside and above the Rule of Law. You can (metaphorically) convict Jim Comey of that using nothing but his own words — indeed, you can almost make the whole case solely from his testimony in this hearing alone. Comey’s is a betrayal, not just a breach.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:12 pmOh … meant to post that on the new thread, sorry. Copying …. this one, at 487 comments, is pretty done.
Beldar (fa637a) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:13 pm@426 nk
Are all the check cashing/title loan places 24/7 up there? Those depress me the most.
I used to work with a gal who had her loans lined up so tight she could have been an ATC.
Pinandpuller (bb7abb) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:24 pm@431 happyfeet
He’s stuck in his brother Jovan’s shadow.
Pinandpuller (bb7abb) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:28 pm@441 happyfeet
Why not just have a roller coaster lane in CA? You can get to work at 85 MPH.
Pinandpuller (bb7abb) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:34 pm@452 Colonel Haiku
You have a minute to read it and then it self-destructs.
Pinandpuller (bb7abb) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:38 pmI don’t know, p&p. I know their loan rates only from complaints about them.
nk (dbc370) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:41 pmIsn’t it time for Susan Collins to retire and become president of Lifetime Movie Network?
Pinandpuller (bb7abb) — 6/9/2017 @ 10:48 pmHow about a new new A Team starring Reality Winner, Lisa Nowak and Nidal Hasan?
Pinandpuller (bb7abb) — 6/9/2017 @ 11:00 pmThank you, Beldar. I read your links earlier, except for one that wanted me to register. I missed that she had retained Nichols. I agree he seems good and the judge probably tried to appoint one of the best for this case, but my guess is there are others with natsec experience in the JAG ranks. This happens in the military — usually on a smaller scale — but it happens.
DRJ (15874d) — 6/10/2017 @ 6:37 amHe’s stuck in his brother Jovan’s shadow.
this made me laugh!
but not right away
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2017 @ 6:41 amin LA i always lived within walking distance from work
that was mostly due to good luck
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2017 @ 6:42 am497. happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2017 @ 6:42 am
People used to do that.
Sammy Finkelman (a248bd) — 6/10/2017 @ 7:45 pmmy first job i had to drive to glendale from studio city, and i was in a freeway accident that had absolutely nothing to do with me – there’s a whole story there actually – but anyways, to be honest i need to preface the rest of the story with that
(freeway accidents are super scary cause you just watch what happens to you…
you’re not really an active participant)
after that all three of my jobs there were within walking distance of my place
and yeah that’s kinda weird but i think it’s really just a tmz thing
i had a car to get to my tv job – it was like a 30-minute walk, but i usually drove at first
(once i started to really hate the place i started walking)
then I worked at a place very close to Vivid Video on ventura, which was just a 10-minute walk from my place
i worked there for years, 3 or so of which i gave up a car entirely
at the end of that I moved to NoHo, and then worked in Burbank, which was a 35 minute walk from the new place (which was just a mile from my old place), but i’d gotten a new car so I usually drove
right past a very tasty taco bell
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/10/2017 @ 7:56 pmFor the 500th comment, in memory of Adam West.
nk (dbc370) — 6/10/2017 @ 9:20 pm@502- this pix has always stayed w/me– school crossing– believe it was taken in Britain.
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/60/c2/cd/60c2cda418eee3074e2ed0556cba5a30.jpg
DCSCA (797bc0) — 6/12/2017 @ 11:16 pm