Since firing him Trump has repeatedly claimed that “James Comey is a liar”. He recently argued that he was “right to fire him” in the wake of the “insurance policy” — which was something FBI Agent Strzok texted about continuing to investigate Russia even if Hillary Clinton won the race.
But MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has obtained hand written notes by then Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente who in the early days of the Trump administration was handling the Russia investigation after Trump had called Comey asking for him to “remove the [Russia] cloud” from over his head, and Comey in turn had done the proper thing, he called Boente and asked him if he could publicly announce that Trump himself — at that time — wasn’t personally under investigation.
It’s after that point that things went off the tracks...
Via RawStory.
Maddow’s evidence comes in the form handwritten notes written on March 30, 2017 by then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente. Comey called Boente, who was at the time overseeing the still-burgeoning Russia investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself, to relay to him an “unusual” conversation he’d had with the president. The acting deputy AG’s notes echo, in some cases verbatim, what Comey later told Senate investigators after he was fired by the president.
In the notes Maddow acquired, Comey, per Boente, said that Trump considered the Russia investigation a “cloud” hanging over him that impaired his ability to govern the country. The former FBI director, the host continued, used that exact word when testifying before the Senate after he was fired.
In that same conversation, Comey also told Boente that when he reminded the president that the FBI was “not investigating him,” the president told him it would be great to “get out” that fact. Comey, as Maddow noted, also told Congress that Trump asked him to publicize that he was not under investigation.
Boente’s notes are in fact nearly word-for-word what Comey later testified to before Congress. We do know that Comey kept his own notes on these conversations, and also spoke to his staff members including Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe — who also kept notes.
Here’s the thing, Dana Boente is scheduled to be interviewed by Robert Mueller’s team soon while at the same time Mueller is attempting to setup a meeting with Trump — they actually had a negotiating session over this on the same day that the warrants were executed again Michael Cohen — where he’ll likely be asked about the firing of James Comey and the firing of Micheal Flynn.
If the story reported by Comey, McCabe and Boente lines up as closely as these notes seem to indicate and Trump deviates from that story -— as he tends to do — he’s potentially looking at a violation of 18 U.S. Code § 1001, for false statements to a Federal Agent.
That’s what George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn and Andrew Van Der Zwaan have all already pleaded guilty to doing when they all lied about the details of conversations with or about Russians even including members of Russian military intelligence (GRU).
So if there’s “no collusion” why is it that Trump’s campaign aide Papadopoulos, his former National Security Adviser Flynn, his former Campaign Chairman Manafort and his partner Gates as well as his associate Van Der Zwaan are all facing likely facing jail time because of their financial links and/or communications with Russians?
And of course, Trump’s claim that he nothing to do with any of this — although during the campaign he personally authorized Papadopoulos to talk to the Russians, and Jeff Sessions personally authorized him to “get the dirt on Hillary” involving the “thousand of hacked/stolen emails” that he, and Carter Page had been told about by their Russian contacts both before it was first confirmed by the Intelligence Community that Russia was responsible for this hack — is clearly a crock of shit.
Which is why he wanted Comey to “remove the cloud” and then ultimately fired him because he (and Boente) never actually did that.
All of that is on top of the report that Comey, during an interview with ABC News over his new book which will be released next week, compared Trump to a “mob boss.”
Axios reports that the former FBI director compared President Donald Trump to a “mob boss” in the upcoming interview, and one source tells the publication that the interview will “certainly add more meat to the charges swirling around Trump.”
According to Axios, Comey is going to reveal information that he has never discussed before — and the publication’s source predicts that Comey is “going to shock the president and his team.”
I’d say that’s probably right but he forgot one thing: Trump is just like a Russian mob boss.