Comey fired

CNN: Subpoenas Issued To Flynn Associates

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2017/05/09/cnn-subpoena-issued-to-flynn-associates?via=desktop&source=copyurl

According to a report in CNN, federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. They are seeking business records as part of a larger probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The news comes on the day that President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey. The subpoenas, which were issued in recent weeks, according to CNN, were received by associates who worked with Flynn on contracts after he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014. Investigators have reportedly been looking into possible wrongdoing in the way in which Flynn handled disclosures about payments from clients tied to Russia and Turkey.

According to a report in The New York Times, FBI director James Comey was addressing a group of employees in Los Angeles on Tuesday night when a television report in the background said that he was being fired by President Trump. The Times said that in response, Comey initially laughed and said it was a funny prank. His staff then reportedly ushered him into a nearby office. In the office, they confirmed to Comey that he had been fired. Shortly after that, a letter was delivered to the headquarters of the FBI informing them of the decision.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Tuesday night that FBI Director James Comey should be fired in part for his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. “The current FBI director is an articulate and persuasive speaker about leadership and the immutable principles of the Department of Justice,” Rosenstein wrote in the letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “He deserves our appreciation for his public service. As you and I have discussed, however, I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand the refusal to accept the nearly university judgment that he was mistaken. Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes; it is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives.” Sessions recommended to President Donald Trump that he terminate Comey based on Rosenstein’s findings.

waterfield wrote:

zn wrote:

We agree on all that, W.

.

Not sure how to take that. My first reaction is that it means: “We (whoever “we” is) know all that so why bother posting it”. My second reaction is what I choose: ” Thx for posting that. I agree with you as I think most here do”.

Lol. It’s the 2nd. I wouldn;t even think the first, let alone post it. And by “we” I just meant you and I, though you’re no doubt right that many others here would agree too.

wv wrote:

zn wrote:

No evidence (at that point) of collusion.

But collusion is not the only animal in this hunt.

..

=============

Yes. And fwiw, I dont have any doubt the rooskies spent a ton of money
helping Donald, as well as other candidates in other nations.

And can almost guarantee that other powerful nations have taken notice and are working on their own versions of influencing modern elections. China, Israel, etc.

And of course the USA is the king of influencing elections the world over. And thats putting it mildly.

Meanwhile the mega-corpse just laugh at it all. Trump, Obama, Hillary, Russians, Chinese, it dont matter.

w
v

I dunno WV, sometimes you gotta turn from all global history for all time, and just look at x topic in its time and place.

The issue is, were laws broken. Collusion aside, which is just one thing on a long list of things, did the Trump circle have contact with Russians officials and/or business people in ways that broke laws.

If the answer is yes, I am not going to be talked out of interest in that specific topic because Everything is Wrong Everywhere.

It’s like, I am the coach, and I go, do I punt here or go for it? And then think, what’s the point, human nature has not lessened its depravity since the dawn of time, and winning is a form of indefensible greed. That’s just out of proportion to the real issue.

I don’t excuse this administration breaking the law and then covering it up because Everything Else Everywhere Is Bad.

You fight wars a battle at a time.

wv wrote:

Well as you’ve noticed, I have changed over the last year or so. And its reflected in my posting. I used to take each issue “and just look at x topic in its time and place.” That used to be exactly what i did. But it doesn’t work anymore (for me).

That outlook (as opposed to actual ‘approach‘) only made sense to me when i thought the system could be reformed. I no longer think the system can be reformed, and i think the system under Clinton/Bush/Obama/Trump is now so hideous and growing so rapidly, that I see no hope in reforming it. I think its too late. For all the reasons I’ve yacked about for years.

So now, i find myself reacting to every single outrage-of-the-week with the same basic post — “yes, yes, the Dem-Rep-Corporotacracy-Deep-State is killing the biosphere and the masses brains have been colonized so there will be no resistence. Have a nice day”

Believe me, i ‘get’ how uninteresting and monotonous my posts are. They are monotonous to me, believe me. But then thats how i really see it. Its not just board-talk. I really think the system is beyond fixing now.

Now what I’ve just talked about is my ‘outlook’. That doesnt change the fact i actually have to LIVE in this world and DO things and make decisions about what to do with my life, etc. So I’ll continue to fight the good fight as i see it, and ‘do my best’ and ‘do what i can’ — but I now look at like I’m giving the heimlich maneuver to someone on the Titanic.

Oh, and I am going to try and discipline myself so that I dont reply to every outrage-of-the-week with “yes, yes, what do you expect from a Corporotacracy, we are all doomed”

I’ll think it, but I wont post it.

I am into hiking now, btw. I’m getting into better shape. I need some good hiking shoes.

w
v

Great post. And say what you feel. It comes across differently once you explain it. It’s where yer at.

I have to tell you my attitude/beliefs though, and I am not upholding them as The Thing You Must Do.

I don’t think you fight wars without hope. So I look for signs of hope. Even small ones. So yes the system is raising itself to new levels of evil, but, 10 years ago I would never have dreamed that Sanders would have gotten as many votes as he did. I lived my entire american adult life not even wishing for a genuinely popular progressive candidate because it would be like wishing for wings or a real functioning magic wand. I didn’t even regret there being no such animal, I just lived in a world where they didn’t exist…it would be like regretting the sky is blue (why can’t we have ORANGE skies dammit).

So are we at the stage where things have finally collapsed, or are we on the cusp of a progressive backlash unlike anything we have known? Darkest before the dawn?

But either way, whether or not you like my example, you can’t fight wars without hope.

Gamling: “Too few have come. We cannot defeat the armies of Mordor.”
Théoden: “No, we cannot….But we will meet them in battle nonetheless.”
[The men nod in agreement.]

Trump’s war with Comey intensifies

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/333217-trumps-war-with-comey-intensifies

President Trump is escalating his public feud with former FBI director James Comey.

Under siege in the media and on Capitol Hill, Trump on Friday morning lobbed a direct threat at the former director, tweeting that Comey “better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

For days, the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover building has been a sieve of leaks contradicting the president’s account of his decision to fire Comey, painting Trump as paranoid and vindictive. In a New York Times story Thursday night, allies of Comey said the president had summoned him to the White House for dinner and demanded that he vow political loyalty — but was rebuffed.

Trump in an interview with Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro denied demanding Comey’s loyalty, though he added, “I don’t think it would be a bad question to ask.”

The president has also said that Comey asked for the meeting and that during dinner, Comey told him he was not the subject of an investigation. The claim has been met with incredulity, as it would represent a major breach of ethics for the former FBI director.

Comey, meanwhile, has stayed staunchly silent, forcing Trump to shadow box with his opponent. The only glimpse of the towering former director has been paparazzi shots taken through his back fence in McLean, Va.

Trump has gotten little support as he has ramped up the fight.

On Capitol Hill, even Republican lawmakers have shifted in their seats, calling his dismissal of Comey “disturbing.” Democrats have labeled his actions “Nixonian.”

Former and current FBI officials have stood by Comey, even as the White House has scrambled to back up the president’s shifting account of the firing.

Former national intelligence director James Clapper on Friday afternoon corroborated the Times account of Comey’s January dinner with the president.

“He had mentioned that he had been invited to the White House to have dinner with the president and that he was uneasy with that because of compromising even the optics, the appearance of independence, not only of him but of the FBI,” Clapper told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

Associates reportedly say it’s highly unlikely that Comey — who was concerned with appearing too chummy with the White House even under former President Barack Obama — would ask for a meeting with Trump.

That he would discuss an ongoing investigation that implicates the president’s own associates, they say, defies belief.

“He tried to stay away from it,” a former official, who worked closely with Comey and stays in touch with him, told NBC News. “He would say, ‘Look sir, I really can’t get into it, and you don’t want me to.’ ”

Trump’s “hyper-reactive and thin-skinned response on almost an hourly basis” hasn’t helped him win support in the feud with Comey, said Kevin Madden, a GOP strategist and former public affairs official in George W. Bush’s Justice Department.

“The effect has been is to lionize Comey and put the president in the difficult position of being defensive,” Madden said. “That just puts him at a disadvantage when it comes to how the public judges whether what took place was the right thing or the wrong thing.”

Comey was widely liked and respected within the FBI, contradicting a claim from the White House that he had lost the faith of the rank-and-file over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe.

The man who has temporarily taken over Comey’s job, deputy director Andrew McCabe, on Thursday morning gave testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that included a hearty show of support for his former boss.

“Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does to this day,” McCabe told the Senate Intelligence Committee, calling it the “greatest privilege” of his professional career to work with him.

The president’s relationship with his independent-minded FBI director had been steadily and publicly deteriorating since Trump took office on Jan. 20.

Although Trump had praised Comey during the election for pursuing the Clinton email investigation, the relationship quickly soured as news reports about the bureau’s investigation into Russian interference in the election trickled out.

In February, he blasted the bureau for being “totally unable to stop the national security ‘leakers,’ ” following reports that officials refused to dispute a New York Times story that said agents had uncovered contact between Russian officials and his campaign.

And Trump was reportedly incensed by Comey’s refusal to defend his accusation that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower before the presidential election.

Comey testified in March that the Justice Department had “no information” to support Trump’s wiretapping allegation — the same hearing at which he made public that the FBI was investigating possible coordination between Trump campaign officials and Russia.

Some say the dismissal was likely inevitable, given the inherent tension between Comey’s independent streak and a president who values loyalty above all else.

“I think we probably should have seen this coming,” Madden said with a chuckle. “The culture of law enforcement and the celebrity culture that the president comes out of are very different.”

Trump’s tweet on Friday was widely perceived as an attempt to intimidate Comey into silence. But longtime Comey-watchers think there’s a good chance he will emerge to tell his side of the story.

He has declined — at least for the time being — an invitation to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify behind closed doors on Tuesday.

But Comey rarely shied away from media appearances when he felt it was in the public interest to speak — something some critics say was his critical failing. It has long been bureau practice for directors to stay out of the limelight, but Comey is now a household name.

“One thing I learned at DOJ about Comey: he leaves a protective paper trail whenever he deems something inappropriate happened,” former Obama Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller tweeted Thursday night about the White House dinner.

“Stay tuned.”