By Judi McLeod ——Bio and Archives--June 9, 2017
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“Comey dared Trump to release tapes of their meetings: 'I've seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes!' “Comey explained why he kept detailed memos on his conversations and meetings with the president – something he said he didn't do with President George W. Bush and Barack Obama because there wasn't a need. (Daily Mail) 'I knew that there might come a day when I would need a record of what had happened, not just to defend myself but to defend the FBI and our integrity as an institution,' Comey said. 'I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so I thought it really important to document,' he said.”
“But the ex-FBI director also validated Trump's assertion that he was not personally a target of the federal counterintelligence investigation into possible campaign collusion with Russia. Comey says he did offer the president that 'assurance,' but resisted Trump's appeals to make that information public. (Daily Mail)Comey came across as bold at today’s hearing, but was downright cowardly in standing up to former attorney general under Barack Obama Loretta Lynch when she pressured him to downplay the Clinton email server investigation.
“Comey said that when he asked Lynch if she was going to authorize him to confirm the existence of the Clinton email investigation, her answer was, “Yes but don’t call it that. Call it a matter.” When Comey asked why, he said, Lynch wouldn’t give him an explanation. “Just call it a matter,” she said. (Daily Mail) “Comey added later that he was concerned about that direction as it was false. He was further concerned because it aligned with the Clinton campaign’s spin on the investigation. “Lynch’s order, Comey said, “concerned me because that language tracked the way the campaign was talking about the FBI’s work and that’s concerning.” “I don’t know whether it was intentional or not but it gave the impression that the attorney general [Lynch] was looking to align the way we talked about our work with the way the political campaign was describing the same activity, which was inaccurate,” Comey added. “Comey complied, in his words, because it “wasn’t a hill worth dying on.” In February 2016, the FBI confirmed in a letter that the agency was “working on matters related to former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server.”
“Comey said he believed at the time that the media wouldn’t buy into the Clinton campaign’s spin that it wasn’t a criminal investigation. (Daily Mail) “When asked by Texas Sen. John Cornyn if it would be fair to say Lynch had a “conflict of interest” in the Clinton email investigation, Comey answered in the affirmative. “That’s fair,” he said. “Comey cited that pressure from Lynch to downplay the investigation as one of the reasons he held a press conference to recommend the Department of Justice not seek to indict Clinton. “Comey also cited Lynch’s secret tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton as a reason he chose to hold the press conference, he said, as he was concerned about preserving the independence of the FBI. “The Clinton campaign consistently sought to mislead the public by denying that Clinton was the subject of an FBI investigation. Instead, the campaign claimed the investigation was a simple “security inquiry.” Comey said he was concerned by Lynch’s pressure on him and the FBI to use the campaign’s spin, as it appeared that Lynch was intentionally trying to align the language the FBI was using to match the angle pushed by the Clinton campaign.”Comey was caught in his first lie within minutes of the end of his private meeting with Congress members when President Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz pointed out this little oversight:
“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 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 that he leaked to friends his purported memos of these privileged conversations, one of which he testified was classified. He also testified that immediately after he was terminated he authorized his friends to leak the contents of these memos to the press in order to “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 entirely retaliatory. We will leave it the appropriate authorities to determine whether this leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated. In sum, it is now established that there the President was not being investigated for colluding with the or attempting to obstruct that investigation. As the Committee pointed out today, these important facts for the country to know are virtually the only facts that have not leaked during the long course of these events. “Comey’s testimony, who testified about his past conversations with the president, was the first since Trump fired him last month. The former FBI director said during the hearing he believes Trump ousted him because of displeasure over how the Russia investigation casting a cloud over his presidency. Comey also said he told Trump he personally wasn’t under federal investigation and criticized media outlets for inaccurately reporting stories.”Meanwhile, though the crazed Democrats will never own up to it, their key witness on the alleged Trump campaign’s collusion with the Russians went down in public ignominy today. It’s an ignominy that will force them back into a brutal reality: They lost the 2016 election and will remain in a restless exile for a long time to come.
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