Michael S. Schmidt and Michael D. Shear with The New York Times reported Sunday afternoon that James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to reject Donald Trump’s wiretapping claim.
“The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s assertion that President Barack Obama ordered the tapping of Mr. Trump’s phones, senior American officials said on Sunday. Mr. Comey has argued that the highly charged claim is false and must be corrected, they said, but the department has not released any such statement.”
The White House has shown no signs of backing down, saying an inquiry is needed.
“In his demand for a congressional inquiry, the president, through his press secretary, Sean Spicer, issued a statement on Sunday that said, ‘President Donald J. Trump is requesting that as part of their investigation into Russian activity, the congressional intelligence committees exercise their oversight authority to determine whether executive branch investigative powers were abused in 2016.’”
And then there are the Trump-appointed senior officials in the DOJ including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who will, most likely, side with Trump over Comey. Jeff Sessions recused himself on Thursday from overseeing the federal investigation into any Russia’s ties and/or associations with Donald Trump. Since this new Trump debacle may be indirectly related to Russian ties, we’ll see if Sessions gets involved.
On Saturday, Kevin Lewis, who is an Obama spokesman, said Trump’s allegations are completely false, adding that it was a “cardinal rule of the Obama administration” that no White House official would ever interfere with any independent investigation by the DOJ.
“Mr. Trump’s demand for a congressional investigation appears to be based, at least in part, on unproved claims by Breitbart News and conservative talk radio hosts that secret warrants were issued authorizing the tapping of the phones of Mr. Trump and his aides at Trump Tower in New York.”
The NYT reporters write the wiretapping claims “appear similar in some ways to the unfounded voter fraud charges that Mr. Trump made during his first days in the Oval Office.” Here’s where it gets very interesting for some of us:
“Mr. Comey’s request is a remarkable rebuke of a sitting president, putting the nation’s top law enforcement official in the position of questioning Mr. Trump’s truthfulness. The confrontation between the two is the most serious consequence of Mr. Trump’s weekend Twitter outburst, and it underscores the dangers of what the president and his aides have unleashed by accusing the former president of a conspiracy to undermine Mr. Trump’s young administration.”
Many feel Comey betrayed America during the 2016 election. Going after Trump relentlessly and fearlessly now, until Trump resigns, will be one way he can start righting his wrong.
James Clapper, former director of national intelligence, was asked about Trump’s claims on NBC’s Meet The Press and said that to his knowledge, there were no secret intelligent warrants regarding Mr. Trump. ”
Read the full story: New York Times.
Trump may have opened a Pandora’s Well. In any case, it’s critical that the media and the American people do not ignore the havoc and insidious bills and actions by Trump, his cabinet and the GOP, while the Predator in Chief once again sucks up all the attention.
I know I can speak for others when I say — I am so fucking sick of this demented shock-monger taking this country hostage with bullshit, hate, bogus executive orders and dangerous outbursts. It’s one thing after another after another… This has got to stop before so much damage is done we will no longer be able to reverse it.
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