Today WH Chief Spokes-Shill Sarah Huckabee-Sanders issued a scathing rebuke of James Comey in response to brutal excerpts from his upcoming new book.
This is nothing more than a poorly executed PR stunt by Comey to desperately rehabilitate his tattered reputation and enrich his own bank account by peddling a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section instead of being remembered as a dedicated servant in the pursuit of justice, like so many of his other colleagues at the FBI.
Comey will be forever known as a disgraced partisan hack that broke his sacred trust with the president of the United States, the dedicated agents of the FBI, and the American people he vowed to faithfully serve. One of the president's greatest achievements will go down as firing James Comey.
“Broke his sacred trust with ...” Trump? I sorry but the oath of office doesn’t include a pledge to the allegiance of TRUMP. They swear to protect the Constitution of the United States not a White House Resident. That’s a really twisted, and telling, re-imagining of reality there.
She then went on to continue her attack when asked what he supposed “lied” about and proceeded to completely fail on each of her questionable claims.
Leaks of Comey’s book and interview on ABC’s Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos have began to drop.
Comey says that when he and other Intel heads briefed Trump and his staff about Russia meddling and interference during the election that instead of asking what they could do to protect the nation in the future they immediately began to try and spin the news for the press and the public.
Trump’s people repeatedly asked, almost rhetorically, that the meddling hadn’t changed the outcome [So basically Russia didn't put him in the WH, right?] But at least twice James Clapper had to say that the Intel Community hadn’t made that determination one way or the other because that’s not their job. He would say that they didn’t think they artificially changed the vote results tho, but in reality they really didn’t check that either at the time and they still haven’t.
Despite assurances from the U.S. intelligence community that Russian hacking only influenced the 2016 U.S. election—and didn’t change vote tallies—there was never actually a formal federal audit of those systems, the Department of Homeland Security said.
And while DHS offered free security scans to any state that wanted them, many states—even ones that took up the DHS offer, like Michigan and Maine—either use audit procedures that are considered inadequate or don’t audit their election results at all.
“I think there’s a presumption amongst both the general public and lawmakers that DHS did some sort of investigation,” said Susan Greenhalgh, who serves as Elections Specialist at Verified Voting, a nonprofit devoted to U.S. election integrity.
“It didn’t happen. That doesn’t mean that something happened, but it also means it wasn’t investigated.”
Comey’s impressions of Trump was that he was unethical, egotistical, self serving, untethered to truth, unfit for office, used a tanning bed with googles that gave him orange skin with white raccoon eyes, [Yeah we’ve noticed] had normal sized hands even though they were smaller than his own, and his hair helmet was his own [as is the giant bald patch he’s covering up in the back]. Trump and his staff reminded him of mobsters from his earlier career in the FBI like Sammy The Bull with their reality warping, living in their own bubble and demands for loyalty to the “group” over facts or the law or the nation.
He said that on the day he was fired then Homeland Secretary Gen. John Kelly had called and threatened to quit because the “Dishonorable People” who would fire Comey “made him sick” [Those “dishonorable people” would be TRUMP] but Comey had told him he needed to stay because he was honorable. [So he’s a hostage to honor then?] Comey’s Former Special Assistant Josh Campbell who now works for CNN confirms this call live on the air since he was present with Comey at the FBI Field Office in LA when Comey was fired.
He said that when he briefed Trump personally on the Steele Dossier and the Russian hookers allegation he had an out of body experience. Trump kept denying that it happened saying “Do I look like I need hookers?” while Comey said that he didn’t have confirmation of whether the allegation was true or not, he was just telling him because Russia might be making these claims. Trump later brought up the “Pee Tape” portion of the allegation, which Comey hadn’t briefed him own directly, at least four times saying he it wasn’t possible because he a germophobe while Comey felt it was still possible because of the size of the Moscow Ritz Carlton Presidential Suite [Which is 1390 Sq Ft which can host 3 adults with a roll away bed available upon request, a Living and Dining area for 6 people, a Dressing and Bathroom as well as the default King Size Bed in a separate Bed Room.]
Also Trump kept asking if the FBI could investigate it to disprove the claim because if Melania thought is was just a 1% chance of being true it would hurt her terribly. [Saving your marriage is not their job, man!]
In order to counter Comey’s claims Huckabee-Sanders claims that Comey is a “repeated liar and admitted leaker” and when asked specifically what he lied about claims:
- “Comey claimed re-opening the Clinton investigation was done on the merits, now he says it was based because of poll numbers”
- Actually opening the investigation again was based on finding Huma Abedine’s emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop which was “merit based”. Sanders is wrongly conflating that with Informing Congress publicly with the letter written by Agent Strzok which was based on the idea that Clinton would win the election, which he expected, and if he hadn’t been forthcoming to Congress as he’d promised it would have damaged her Presidency. In the end it violated DOJ protocols not to disrupt elections within 30 days of the vote and destroyed her Presidency. So yeah, Democrats are pretty critical of that.
- “Even the press has reported that he leaked 4 memos with classified information”.
- “Comey said the President told him to ‘stop investigating Flynn’ after he previously testified that “no one told him to stop investigating.”
- This is a flat-out lie. Comey has always said that Trump said “Flynn is a good guy, could you see a way to let him go?” Which doesn't specifically mention anything about ‘stopping an investigation” which is what he’s always said and testified to. You don’t have to “stop” an investigation if you’re ultimately going to not recommend any charges — just like they didn't recommend any charges against Clinton. Unfortunately for Flynn — and Trump — it was out of Comey’s hands after he was fired.
- “Legal organizations have found that Comey’s leaking was grounds for firing”
This performance by Sanders definitely got under the skin of MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson.
“Clearly, Sarah Sanders was fired up, she was riled up, she came out ready with talking points prepared absolutely blasting James Comey in scathing and personal terms,” Jackson explained. “And questioned about the appropriateness of doing that from the White House press podium here.”
“This appears to be a coordinated assault against the fired FBI Director, you had the president kicking off the morning calling him a slime ball, you had his allies out on TV saying this is fiction, this book is not real, basically,” she continued. “You had Kellyanne Conway on the North Lawn earlier, talking about how Comey is a simply a disgruntled ex-employee.”
“Clearly, this has turned personal and it has turned bitter,” Jackson concluded.
Yeah, ya think?
Even Shep Smith at Fox has picked up on the subtle undetectable pattern of Sanders repeating the same claims made by Trump tweets.
After White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders went off on fired FBI Director James Comey during Friday’s briefing, Fox News’ Shep Smith mocked her ire — and her word choice.
“Hack, liar, leaker, slime ball,” Smith said, echoing the press secretary’s pejoratives used to describe Comey after anecdotes from his new book made headlines Thursday.
The host then pointed out that much of the language Sanders used was also contained in President Donald Trump’s tweets posted earlier in the day about the FBI director he fired last year, including when she suggested Comey’s sacking was one of the greatest acts of his presidency.
Yeah, I see what you did there. Epic Strategery.
Meanwhile RNC head Ronna McDaniels-Romney went on CNN and trashes Comey — surprise — and whines that the media gives nothing but non-stop negative coverage to Trump, so thats why they have to have their new lyincomey.com website full of quotes and complaints Democrats over his handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails to discredit James Comey in advance of his new book which is scheduled for release next week.
All of that’s pretty ironic since the RNC Finance chair Elliot Broidy just resigned because the WSJ reported that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen arranged for a $1.6 million hush payout to a former Playboy model on behalf of Republican Party Fundraiser and Donor Elliott Broidy who had impregnated her last year, before she ultimately had an abortion.
Also it turns out the Michael Cohen has been under criminal investigation and covert FBI surveillance which revealed that he really doesn’t do much lawyerin’ and his only client is — Trump — whom he hardly does any legal work for meaning just about none of the seized materials this week from his office and home are protected by attorney-client privilege.
In court Cohen’s attorney — well, actually Trump’s new attorneys who he just managed to conjure up from Mordor — couldn’t name any other clients of his besides Trump.
Today Trump Pardoned Scooter Libby to which Fox’s John Roberts said that he may have pardoned Libby to send a message to Mike Flynn. [Which is too late since he’s already pleaded guilty and has been cooperating for months — Mueller has what he needs from him by now.] Libby was originally convicted of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice after undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity was revealed by the Bush WH for as political pushback against her husband Ambassador Joe Wilson’s criticisms about the bogus “They bought Yellowcake Uranium” rationale for the Iraq War. Libby prosecution had been by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald who had been assigned his position by then Assistance Attorney General James Comey.
Also today the DOJ Inspector General released their report on Andrew McCabe. In response Trump tweeted triumphantly about the report:
“DOJ just issued the McCabe report – which is a total disaster,”“He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey – McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!”
But actually the reports says that he lied TO COMEY when he said he didn’t authorize the disclosure to Barret about the Clinton Foundation Investigation continuing, it doesn’t suggest any “Control of McCabe by Comey!”
Almost most no one has reported this correctly because what McCabe authorized being shared with the Wall Street Journal wasn’t even about the Clinton email investigation — it was about the fact that there was a ongoing fight between the FBI and DOJ over the Clinton Foundation investigation with the DOJ saying the evidence is weak, but McCabe order the FBI to continue to look into it anyway without their involvement. As noted by the WSJ.
The FBI field office in New York had done the most work on the Clinton Foundation case and received help from the FBI field office in Little Rock, the people familiar with the matter said.
In February, FBI officials made a presentation to the Justice Department, according to these people. By all accounts, the meeting didn’t go well.
Some said that is because the FBI didn’t present compelling evidence to justify more aggressive pursuit of the Clinton Foundation, and that the career anticorruption prosecutors in the room simply believed it wasn’t a very strong case. Others said that from the start, the Justice Department officials were stern, icy and dismissive of the case.
“That was one of the weirdest meetings I’ve ever been to,” one participant told others afterward, according to people familiar with the matter.
Anticorruption prosecutors at the Justice Department told the FBI at the meeting they wouldn’t authorize more aggressive investigative techniques, such as subpoenas, formal witness interviews, or grand-jury activity. But the FBI officials believed they were well within their authority to pursue the leads and methods already under way, these people said.
- The DOJ Inspector General report on Andrew McCabe says the following:
- The IG argued that McCabe had a “lack of candor” regarding his reasons for sharing information with the Devlin Barret at the WSJ about the Clinton Foundation investigation which the INSD had investigated as an “unauthorized leak”
- McCabe had authorized his then Special Counsel (Linda Page) and his Assistant Director for Public Affairs (Mike Kortan) to share with Barrett information about a phone call between himself and the DOJ’s Principal Associate Deputy AG (Karl R. Thompson) which was intended to counter the narrative that he had terminated the Clinton Foundation investigation under pressure from the DOJ.
- McCabe had recused himself from part of the Clinton Foundation investigation which involved Governor Terry McAuliff because his wife had accepted money from his SuperPAC during her own run for office in Virginia.
- The Journal reported: on October 30th that McCabe had allowed the Washington FBI office to continue investigating the Clinton Foundation, after his recusal, even after DOJ Prosecutors had refused to authorize subpeonas or a grand jury as they felt the evidence was weak:
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According to a person familiar with the probes, on Aug. 12, a senior Justice Department official called Mr. McCabe to voice his displeasure at finding that New York FBI agents were still openly pursuing the Clinton Foundation probe during the election season. Mr. McCabe said agents still had the authority to pursue the issue as long as they didn’t use overt methods requiring Justice Department approvals.
The Justice Department official was “very pissed off,” according to one person close to Mr. McCabe, and pressed him to explain why the FBI was still chasing a matter the department considered dormant. Others said the Justice Department was simply trying to make sure FBI agents were following longstanding policy not to make overt investigative moves that could be seen as trying to influence an election. Those rules discourage investigators from making any such moves before a primary or general election, and, at a minimum, checking with anticorruption prosecutors before doing so.
“Are you telling me that I need to shut down a validly predicated investigation?” Mr. McCabe asked, according to people familiar with the conversation. After a pause, the official replied, “Of course not,” these people said.
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In a meeting with Comey on October 31st after the WSJ article McCabe had supposedly said he didn’t authorize the disclosure to Barret and didn’t know who did it, and that he had repeated these denials to the IG office twice more on May 9 and July 28, 2017, then he reversed these claims during a recorded interview on November 9th saying that he did admit to authorizing the disclosure to Comey, and that he had denied having denied authorizing it in his previous IG interviews and that his answers were because 2 IG agents had pulled him aside and asked him a couple questions about the article.
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They determined that McCabe was authorized to disclose the information to the WSJ, but not if it advanced his personal goals.
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“However, we concluded that McCabe’s decision to confirm the existence of the CF Investigation through an anonymously sourced quote, recounting the content of a phone call with a senior Department official in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception. We therefore concluded that McCabe’s disclosure of the existence of an ongoing investigation in this manner violated the FBI’s and the Department’s media policy and constituted misconduct.”
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McCabe wasn’t clear on whether he had spoken to Comey before authorizing the disclosure claiming that he “might” have brought it up, but when they talked to Comey he stated that he wasn't informed ahead of time and didn’t authorize it.
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Text Messages between Page and Strzok indicate they blamed Thompson for a WSJ article claiming that Comey’s letter to Congress was outside DOJ policy, and that the disclosure about the Clinton Foundation investigation dispute was basically “pay back”.
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DAD [Strzok[ texted “This is all [PADAG].” Special Counsel responded "Yeah I saw it. Makes me feel WAY less bad about throwing him under the bus in the forthcoming CF article." These texts suggested that Special Counsel may have provided the information to Barrett concerning McCabe’s August 12 call that eventually appeared in the October 30 WSJ article.
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In an interview McCabe had said he wasn’t aware of Page being authorized to talk to Barret, but he later sent an email on Aug 1st, 2017 correcting that issue saying that he HAD authorized her contacts with Barrett. He later repeated this corrected recollection during the November interview.
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Ultimately the IG argued that McCabe didn’t just “forget” or make a mistake when first talking to them because he apparently made the same mistake talking to Comey — although they seem to still call it a lie when he finally tells them what they their research of his phone and text records show is the truth, he authorized the disclosure.
The IG didn’t specifically recommend that McCabe be fired but left the determination of how to handle this situation up to the DOJ. McCabe’s lawyer has countered that his firing isn’t justified based on Comey’s admittedly “vague” recollection of their conversations about the leak. Tragic though all of this is for McCabe it doesn’t really confirm that he and Comey were part of some “anti-Trump Cabal” within the FBI.
Meanwhile Rosenstein and Sessions are next to come under the knife according to the WSJ which reports that a White House insider who has spoken with Trump claims the firing of both Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is imminent.
Mueller, “appears to have gone from looking at Russian meddling to a quixotic search for the blue dress.”
Actually Stormy did say she kept her shimmering gold mini-dress…
“Sources close to Daniels tell The Blast the shimmering gold mini dress with a plunging neckline was kept in pristine condition after her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump at the Lake Tahoe hotel suite,” the publication writes. “We’re told Daniels is planning on having the dress forensically tested to search for any DNA that proves she isn’t lying about her tryst with Trump, including samples of skin, hair or… anything.”
Anyhoo… Rosenstein at least seems to be getting ready for the inevitable.
Unnamed sources told NBC News that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is aware that he may soon be fired and is content in that knowledge, asserting in private conversations that he feels confident that he did his job with integrity.
He reportedly added that he feels sure that history will look on him kindly for firing former FBI Director James Comey last May, saying that there are details about what happened in the run up to Comey’s dismissal that are still not widely known.
So there’s a storm a brewing, and I really don’t think it’s going to end up all blowing Trump’s way.