In a two-hour-and-forty-minute true-life national reality television show starring former FBI Director James Comey...the program's special guest stars - Members of the United States Senate Intelligence Committee - questioned Comey on Thursday, June 8th, 2017...about his conversations with Donald Trump. But there was one question that was not asked by any U.S. Senator, which I believe remains the mystery whether Trump is part...note my word "part"...of any investigation by the FBI. More than one Senator asked Comey if Trump was "a target" of an investigation...if Trump was "personally" being investigated...and if Trump "himself" was the focus of any FBI probe. And each time Comey replied "No." In one response to the Senators, Comey said he answered Trump with the following sentence. "Sir, we're not personally investigating you." But in national televised testimony before the House Intelligence Committee - on March 20th - Comey revealed that the FBI was, in fact, investigating the Trump campaign...to determine whether there was any links, connection or collusion between anyone in the campaign and Russia...to affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Comey repeated before the Senators on June 8th that such an investigation was underway while he was the FBI chief. But why did no Senator ask the following question? "As the head of the Trump campaign...was Donald Trump...in any way...PART...of that investigation?" Jim Comey is a veteran lawyer and knows how to carefully answer questions. By agreeing with Senators with words such as "correct" and "yes"...that Trump was not "personally" a "target" of any counterintelligence...or criminal...or any other investigation...and that he "himself" was not the focus of the FBI's Russia probe... that did not give the American people the answer that we want to know. If the Trump campaign is under investigation...then did agents of the FBI totally ignore the centerpiece of that campaign? That is the question I wanted just one Senator to ask...so it could be answered by the Bureau's former "top cop." It disturbs me that no Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee thought to ask Jim Comey if Donald Trump was - in any way - being investigated...under the umbrella of the Trump campaign probe.
The lead in my June 7th column was..."Americans need to know...and must know...if the President of the United States is criminally guilty of obstruction of justice." Under oath, Comey told the Senators that "the Special Counsel" (Bob Mueller) will look at "obstruction of justice." Therefore, without stating that he feels Donald Trump may have obstructed justice, Comey raised the question and built a case that obstruction of justice may likely end up being the result of the Russia investigation. Comey has testified that Trump asked him at their January 27th dinner at The White House..."I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." The former FBI Director says Trump's words were "very disturbing, very concerning." He was "stunned by the conversation." Comey told the Senators..."I took it as a direction" since he was alone with the President. Comey believes that Trump's words "I hope"...did not indicate a wish...or a request...but a command...and an order from the President. Comey testified..."I took it as this is what he wanted me to do." As Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California noted..."When a robber" says "I hope you will give me your wallet...hope is not the operative word." Therefore, this entire matter with Donald Trump and his conversation with Jim Comey about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn...smells of obstruction of justice. No matter how you analyze it, the President of the United States did use words that suggested the FBI Director shut down an investigation in which he (Donald Trump)...or members of his campaign...or members of his Administration...are under investigation. When you combine the fact that Comey - who was leading that investigation - was subsequently fired...that adds up to obstruction of justice. Comey testified..."I was fired" to somehow "change" the nature of the Russia investigation. Therefore...I'm in agreement with Comey and wholeheartedly hope that Trump tape recorded conversations with the former head of the FBI. Comey was straightforward with his remark. "Release all the tapes. I'm good with it."
Are there any tapes? Donald Trump had threatened Comey in a May 12th tweet that "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!" Comey says that a few days later he woke up in the middle of the night and, in essence, decided he'd better jump the gun on Trump in case there are any tapes. Therefore, he gave the memo that he wrote - about Trump's "direction" to "let go" the Flynn investigation - to a close friend...a professor at Columbia Law School...so that the document could be leaked to a reporter. Comey told the Senators that his reason for doing so was "that might prompt the appointment of a Special Counsel." Eventually...that's exactly what happened. And although Trump had fired Comey...perhaps to put an end to the Russia investigation...Bob Mueller - as Special Counsel - has picked up where Comey left off...and Mueller will get to the truth.
As for Comey's memos...and why he felt it necessary to document his meetings and conversations with Trump...Comey was very clear. "I was ultimately concerned that he may lie." Thus Comey wanted to have a written record in order to defend himself. And following Trump firing Comey on May 9th...Comey expressed to the Senators that Trump "defamed me and the FBI" with "lies." One of those falsehoods was spoken when Trump was interviewed on May 11th by NBC News chief anchor Lester Holt. Trump stated it was Comey who invited himself to The White House to talk with the President. But Comey insists in his testimony that "He (Trump) called me at my desk" to invite me to dinner. Comey elaborated that "I never initiated a conversation with the President." And Comey testified that he was "confused" and concerned"...when Trump claimed he dismissed him from his job "by saying that the organization (the FBI) was in disarray...that it was poorly led...that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader." Comey was to the point. "Those were lies, plain and simple."
So we have a President who is a liar. In riveting testimony before Congress, the former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation thinks so...but then...I and millions of other Americans...have been saying that for a very long time.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
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GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B.
Duglin.
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Gary, one of the biggest things we learned yesterday was that Jim Comey is a weak and unethical person and deserved to be fired. He may even be in legal trouble for leaking information to the NYT. Your statements about obstruction of justice are incorrect. To put it simply, “hoping” that something happens is not a crime. The law demands much more than that. Felony obstruction requires that the person seeking to obstruct a law enforcement investigation act “corruptly.” The statute specifically defines what that includes: threats, lies, bribes, destruction of documents, and altering or concealing evidence. None of that is alleged by Comey. The liberal law professor from Harvard Alan Dershowitz stated yesterday “History, precedent and James Comey's opening statement show that Trump did not obstruct justice” Dershowitz also said “President Trump also had the constitutional authority to order Comey to end the investigation of former national security adviser Mike Flynn. He could have pardoned Flynn, as Bush pardoned Weinberger, thus ending the Flynn investigation, as Bush ended the Iran-Contra investigation. What Trump could not do is what Nixon did: direct his aides to lie to the FBI, or commit other independent crimes. There is no evidence that Trump did that.” The big question now should be did the DOJ, and the former AG Loretta Lynch, did they collude with the DNC and Hillary Clinton and her campaign top stop her from possibly being indicted? Jim Comey testified that the AG “requested” that Comey not call it an “investigation” but a “matter” a term being used by the DNC and the Clinton camp, even though per the FBI agents it was a “criminal investigation”. So who colluded with whom, not Trump and the Russians but the Obama Administration and the Clinton camp! As for Comey and the FBI Agents, Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe acknowledged in public testimony that some agents were angry with the 2016 decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton, “I think morale's always been good, but there were folks within our agency that were frustrated with the outcome of the Hillary Clinton case and some of those folks were very vocal about those concerns,” McCabe testified. So before you call the President a liar, let’s see if Jim Comey is the liar!
ReplyDeleteI have no love for James Comey because of his letter to Congress eleven days before the 2016 election. I am confident and convinced that without that letter, Hillary Clinton would be President of the United States today.
DeleteAs for the quote you noted above by Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, he was being honest by saying "morale's always been good" but when he said that "there were folks within our agency that were frustrated with the outcome of the Hillary Clinton case" that would be obvious since some FBI employees are Democrats and others are Republicans. Although the FBI as a Bureau is Independent, the people who work there are human beings with real feelings and, therefore, some were happy about the "outcome of the Hillary Clinton case" while obviously others would not be.
I take former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch at their word that there was no discussion about Hillary when they met on that airport tarmac. They did not "collude" with the Democratic National Committee, with the Hillary Clinton camp or with anybody else about anything.
Yes, Donald Trump can pardon former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. And when all is said and done, it may come down to that.
As for Donald Trump being charged with obstruction of justice, Comey's testimony, his memos and other evidence that I believe has been brought to Congress behind closed doors, along with whatever is discovered through Special Counsel Bob Mueller's investigation, will all come together to give the House of Representatives enough ammunition to impeach Donald Trump. Remember "impeachment" is similar to an indictment. When a President is impeached, it does not mean that he is guilty of any crime...as was proven with the impeachment of President Clinton. The Senate did not believe there was enough evidence to convict President Clinton and remove him from office. And there wasn't because he did nothing illegal as President. It was merely a witch-hunt by Special Prosecutor Ken Starr. However, with Trump, if the House impeaches him, Trump will not want to go through such an ordeal, even if the Senate had no thoughts of convicting him and removing him from office. Therefore, before Donald Trump would put himself through such suffering, he would resign. And that's all two-thirds of America wants...to see Trump out of The White House and back at Trump Tower...permanently.
Donald Trump IS a liar. And there is much more proof of that besides Jim Comey's testimony.
GBD
I inadvertently neglected one more point. As I noted in my column above...regarding James Comey's testimony about Donald Trump's use of the word "hope"...Comey told the Senators..."I took it as a direction" since he was alone with the President. Comey believes that Trump's words "I hope"...did not indicate a wish...or a request...but a command...and an order from the President. Comey testified..."I took it as this is what he wanted me to do." As Democratic Senator Kamala Harris of California noted..."When a robber" says "I hope you will give me your wallet...hope is not the operative word." Therefore, this entire matter with Donald Trump and his conversation with Jim Comey about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn...smells of obstruction of justice. No matter how you analyze it, the President of the United States did use words that suggested the FBI Director shut down an investigation in which he (Donald Trump)...or members of his campaign...or members of his Administration...are under investigation. When you combine the fact that Comey - who was leading that investigation - was subsequently fired...that adds up to obstruction of justice. GBD
DeleteGary, I guess you know more than a Harvard Constitutional Law Professor, you must know more than US Senators such as Lindsey Graham or Democrat Senator Joe Manchin who has said he has seen nothing in public or in behind closed door hearings that would come even close to obstruction of justice by the President. You bring up Bill Clinton’s impeachment and call it a witch-hunt but Clinton was impeached for lying to a Federal Court and Federal Judge held Clinton in contempt of court, saying he had willfully provided false testimony under oath, get your facts right. Maybe it’s time for the “progressive liberal left Democrats” to start acting like Americas instead of partisan jerks that care more about their party then they do about America or Americans!
ReplyDeleteThe Harvard Constitutional Law Professor who you named - Alan Dershowitz - is not the be all and end all. Other such legal experts and Constitutional scholars have stated that there is a very good case for obstruction of justice against Donald Trump. As for the Senators - whether Democrats or Republicans - I will wait for Special Counsel Bob Mueller to come to that conclusion and his recommendation to the FBI and to Congress.
DeleteAs for President Bill Clinton...the bottom line is...he was acquitted and found not to be guilty of any impeachable offenses. Those are the facts.
There you go name-calling. Saying that "progressive liberal left Democrats" are "partisan jerks" who "care more about their party than they do about America or Americans" is a disgraceful and evil comment from you. What a shame that you have so much hate in you.
GBD
It is not disgraceful or evil when it is a fact. Their actions prove me right. I have no hate, I just disagree with most if not all that they stand for.
DeleteBut since nothing you have said is fact then your words are disgraceful and evil. "Their actions" you speak of by progressive liberal Democrats is what America needs...and always will. I have no problem with you disagreeing with us as long as it doesn't hurt others. Unfortunately, much of what the current Republican Congress stands for is not at all good for the United States and it does hurt millions of Americans. And everything that Donald Trump stands for...is reckless. As for you...your language is indeed hateful...like Donald Trump's. GBD
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