Lazy Saturday Reads: tRump, Comey, and Kompromat
Posted: January 14, 2017 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Christopher Steele, DNC, Donald Trump, James Comey, Kompromat, Michael Flynn, Russian interference in 2016 election 55 Comments
Resistance, by Gianluca Zanna
Good Morning!!
It looks like one thing we won’t have many of in the tRump era is slow news days. We are on the brink of something big–much bigger than Watergate, Iran-Contra, or any other scandal in my lifetime at least. We must brace ourselves to stand firm in the face of autocracy and the threat of actual tyranny. Watergate began slowly until the dam broke and it began escalating rapidly. This isn’t even starting that slowly.
Already we can see that tRump is planning some kind of real takeover–he’s already signaled a purge of the diplomatic corps, the state department, and the energy department. He has even ordered the commander of the DC National Guard to step down in the middle of the inauguration.
The Army general who heads the D.C. National Guard and has an integral part in overseeing the inauguration said Friday that he will be removed from command effective at 12:01 p.m. Jan. 20, just as Donald Trump is sworn in as president.
Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz’s departure will come in the middle of the presidential ceremony — classified as a national special security event — and while thousands of his troops are deployed to help protect the nation’s capital during an inauguration he has spent months helping to plan.
“The timing is extremely unusual,” Schwartz said in an interview Friday morning, confirming a memo announcing his ouster that was obtained by The Washington Post. During the inauguration, Schwartz will command not only members of the D.C. Guard but also 5,000 unarmed troops dispatched from across the country to help. He also will oversee military air support protecting Washington during the inauguration….
A person close to the transition said transition officials wanted to keep Schwartz in the job for continuity, but the Army pushed to replace him.
Schwartz, who was appointed to head the Guard by President George W. Bush in 2008, maintained the position through President Obama’s two terms. He said his orders came from the Pentagon in the form of an email that names his interim successor, a brigadier general, who takes over at 12:01 p.m. next Friday.
I don’t know if the fact that Schwartz is African American had any role in this decision, but the question must be asked.
And then there is James Comey. Has this man been compromised by tRump, his fear of the New York FBI office, the Russians, or all three? As Scott Lemieux of Lawyers, Guns and Money wrote yesterday, it’s way past time for Obama to fire Comey for cause.
James Comey, who threw the election to Donald Trump by repeatedly violating norms and regulations to falsely imply that Hillary Clinton was a crook, refuses to be candid about the FBI’s investigation Trump’s relationship with the Russians even in private:
Embattled FBI director James Comey has refused to clarify whether his organization is investigating Donald Trump’s ties to Russia in a closed briefing on Friday for members of Congress, angering legislators who recall his high-profile interjections about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, the Guardian has learned.
Comey’s lack of candor in a classified setting, intended to brief members on the intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia interfered in the election to benefit Trump, follows a public rebuff this week to senators seeking clarification.
In that earlier hearing, Comey said he would “never comment” on a potential FBI investigation “in an open forum like this”, raising expectations among some attendees of Friday’s briefing that Comey would put the issue to rest in a classified setting.
But according to sources attending the closed-door Friday morning meeting, that was not the case. As such, frustration with Comey was bipartisan and heated, adding to intense pressure on the director of the FBI, whose conduct in the 2016 election itself is now being investigated by an independent US justice department watchdog.
Even in post-parody America, this is astounding conduct.
Revolution, by Borna Demel
After yesterday’s closed door hearing with intelligence officials, House Democrats stormed out, visibly enraged.
The Hill: Wasserman Schultz confronted Comey about Russian hacking.
The former head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) confronted FBI Director James Comey on Friday during a confidential briefing on Russian hacking that left many Democrats calling for Comey’s scalp, several lawmakers told The Hill.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who was forced to resign last summer as head of the DNC amid the hacking scandal, told Comey that he should have come to her directly once the FBI was aware of the breach, just as he had done with other hacking victims….
“You let us down!” one Democrat yelled to Comey during the tense exchange, according to one attendee.
Another Democrat described the scene: “Essentially Debbie asked, how was it that the FBI knew that the DNC was being hacked and they didn’t tell her? He gave some bulls–t explanation, ‘That’s our standard, we called this one, we called that one’ — [she said] ‘Well, why didn’t you call me?’ ”
Recall that the only notification the FBI gave the DNC was a phone call from an agent to an IT guy who didn’t know whether the call was legitimate or a prank.
Yesterday, we also learned that top tRump aide Gen. Michael Flynn has been in in “frequent contact” with the Russian ambassador. The AP reports:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. have been in frequent contact in recent weeks, including on the day the Obama administration hit Moscow with sanctions in retaliation for election-related hacking, a senior U.S. official said Friday.
After initially denying that Michael Flynn and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak spoke Dec. 29, a Trump official said late Friday that the transition team was aware of one call on the day President Barack Obama imposed sanctions.
It’s not unusual for incoming administrations to have discussions with foreign governments before taking office. But repeated contacts just as Obama imposed sanctions would raise questions about whether Trump’s team discussed — or even helped shape — Russia’s response.
Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly did not retaliate against the U.S. for the move, a decision Trump quickly praised.
More broadly, Flynn’s contact with the Russian ambassador suggests the incoming administration has already begun to lay the groundwork for its promised closer relationship with Moscow. That effort appears to be moving ahead, even as many in Washington, including Republicans, have expressed outrage over intelligence officials’ assessment that Putin launched a hacking operation aimed at meddling in the U.S. election to benefit Trump.
In an interview published Friday evening by The Wall Street Journal, Trump said he might do away with Obama’s sanctions if Russia works with the U.S. on battling terrorists and achieving other goals.
“If Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions?” he asked.
In the same interview, tRump said he is not “committed to the One China policy,” according to NBC news this morning.
A couple of updates on the James Bond-like spy who gathered information on the likelihood that tRump has been compromised by the Russian government:
David Corn at Mother Jones: The Spy Who Wrote the Trump-Russia Memos: It Was “Hair-Raising” Stuff.
Last fall, a week before the election, I broke the story that a former Western counterintelligence official had sent memos to the FBI with troubling allegations related to Donald Trump. The memos noted that this spy’s sources had provided him with information indicating that Russian intelligence had mounted a yearslong operation to co-opt or cultivate Trump and had gathered secret compromising material on Trump. They also alleged that Trump and his inner circle had accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin. These memos caused a media and political firestorm this week when CNN reported that President Barack Obama and Trump had been told about their existence, as part of briefings on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia hacked political targets during the 2016 campaign to help Trump become president. For my story in October, I spoke with the former spy who wrote these memos, under the condition that I not name him or reveal his nationality or the spy service where he had worked for nearly two decades, mostly on Russian matters.
“Someone like me stays in the shadows,” the former spy said.The former spy told me that he had been retained in early June by a private research firm in the United States to look into Trump’s activity in Europe and Russia. “It started off as a fairly general inquiry,” he recalled. One question for him, he said, was, “Are there business ties in Russia?” The American firm was conducting a Trump opposition research project that was first financed by a Republican source until the funding switched to a Democratic one. The former spy said he was never told the identity of the client.
The former intelligence official went to work and contacted his network of sources in Russia and elsewhere. He soon received what he called “hair-raising” information. His sources told him, he said, that Trump had been “sexually compromised” by Russian intelligence in 2013 (when Trump was in Moscow for the Miss Universe contest) or earlier and that there was an “established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit.” He noted he was “shocked” by these allegations. By the end of June, he was sending reports of what he was finding to the American firm.
The former spy said he soon decided the information he was receiving was “sufficiently serious” for him to forward it to contacts he had at the FBI. He did this, he said, without permission from the American firm that had hired him. “This was an extraordinary situation,” he remarked.
The response to the information from the FBI, he recalled, was “shock and horror.” After a few weeks, the bureau asked him for information on his sources and their reliability and on how he had obtained his reports. He was also asked to continue to send copies of his subsequent reports to the bureau. These reports were not written, he noted, as finished work products; they were updates on what he was learning from his various sources. But he said, “My track record as a professional is second to no one.”
Read the rest at the link.
The Guardian: Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele’s frustration as FBI sat on Donald Trump Russia file for months.
Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who investigated Donald Trump’s alleged Kremlin links, was so worried by what he was discovering that at the end he was working without pay, The Independent has learned.
Mr Steele also decided to pass on information to both British and American intelligence officials after concluding that such material should not just be in the hands of political opponents of Mr Trump, who had hired his services, but was a matter of national security for both countries.
However, say security sources, Mr Steele became increasingly frustrated that the FBI was failing to take action on the intelligence from others as well as him. He came to believe there was a cover-up, that a cabal within the Bureau blocked a thorough inquiry into Mr Trump, focusing instead on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
It is believed that a colleague of Mr Steele in Washington, Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who runs the firm Fusion GPS, felt the same way and, at the end also continued with the Trump case without being paid.
WTF was Comey doing? Was he trying to hold off long enough to find another excuse to hurt Hillary Clinton’s chances and get tRump elected? Comey has to go!
That’s all I have for you this morning, but there is plenty more going on. Please post your own links along with your comments in the thread below.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Great roundup, bb. I agree with your assessment that this is the biggest scandal of our lifetimes. Our democracy is at stake, pure and simple. Trump cannot be allowed to take power. I don’t know how he can be stopped but at the same time I feel it must happen. I just don’t see America rolling over for this. This country was formed by revolutionaries, it’s our history, it’s who we are. Even those of us whose ancestors came here more recently have rebellion and a low tolerance for tyranny in our blood. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.
I’m enjoying reading twitter and seeing the people who initially made statements critical of John Lewis for saying he doesn’t feel Trump’s presidency is legitimate, now pivoting saying, “Well, I don’t agree with what he said, but…” Bullshit. The second I read about what Lewis said I weighed in and said, “Yeah, me too.” I don’t give a shit how disruptive it is to say, how can anyone think that Donald Trump was legitimately elected?
Sometimes the truth is disruptive.
Do you realize Comey briefed Trump on the intelligence coming in about him on his Russian dalliances and still helped get him elected? Comey should be brought up on charges.
This is why I don’t want President Obama to fire him. I want independent investigations, a special prosecutor, rigorous questioning, and to see him indicted! No sweeping any of this under the rug. It may take time, yes, and in time the Greedy Oligarch Party will own this scandal with no place to hide. If he and they are guilty, “lock ’em up!”
At the very least, Comey should be fired!!!
And charged with a treasonable act
You nailed it, the truth hurts, and I’ve got family down my back for standing with John Lewis, and called me hateful. All of a sudden Trump voters, are crying out for the love of family and friendship, don’t hate us, join us in making American Great again………
I am reminded of a huge sign I read while traveling through rural American” Trump that bitch.
“Hateful” for standing with John Lewis??? Classic gaslighting.
I hate to say it Fannie, but you’re likely to have to tell your family to kiss your ass.
This isn’t about the peaceful transition of power anymore, it’s about the FACT that our election and our democracy has been compromised by the tinpot Russian dictator in collusion with Donald trump. Donald trump and Mike pence were not legitimately elected and must not be inaugurated. If they are I expect to see some sort of uprising as the facts begin to see the light of day. We can thank the UK Guardian, the BBC and all of those journalists here, including journalists at Buzzfeed and Mother Jones who are risking their careers and maybe their lives to get to the truth. The truth will come out. Let’s just hope that it doesn’t take major social unrest to bring justice BACK to our System of Government.
Patriarchal reversal if ever I heard one! Don’t let the crazed ones wear you down Fannie. Stay rooted!
Luna linked to this article in RS, downstairs. It’s a good one.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-russia-story-reaches-a-crisis-point-w460806
Predictably, tRump attacked John Lewis this morning–on MLK weekend. That’s not going to end well for the short-fingered vulgarian.
He cannot control himself!
Dog-whistling loud and clear that Lewis’ 5th district is a crime-ridden black urban one.
I have lived and worked in Atlanta all my adult life and the 5th district – even as it’s drawn now represents the heart of the city. Crime has dropped 30% since 2009.
Nice racist tweet to start off the MLK Holiday weekend. Classy!
Thanks Enheduanna………….Trump thinks all black communities are infested, that why he sent Ben Carson over to wipe them out.
I bet Trump didn’t even know what district he was from, I bet someone told him.
It was one of the proudest events of my life… the day in early October that I mailed in my ballot voting for both Hillary Clinton and John Lewis! I can’t imagine any other candidates for whom I could have more respect and admiration.
So very proud!
Oh Dak – thank you! God how I love that man.
And here’s the puppy-love picture again ICYMI:
Sorry I don’t know how to post pictures. Such a contrast with animal-hating tRump.
Oh and I don’t consider tRump legitimate either – I’ll never believe he won Michigan fair and square. For that matter a lot of the states thanks to vote suppression.
His district is pretty unhappy with Twitler’s comments too. http://www.ajc.com/news/local/john-lewis-fifth-district-residents-respond-trump-comments-with-photos-neighborhood/o9pmQet0wy8s9ucB8vi1GI/
From one of the twitter feeds in that article, under the picture of a beautiful, unpretentious, inviting house:
And what about members of the Electoral College who said they’d been threatened with harm to their families if they didn’t vote ‘the right way’ how true is that?
Now there is a great man! A fighter with a heart and a brain, who is loved and respected. Of course Der Twitler hates him.
As I cat lover and owner (2 Siamese cats, brother and sister), John Lewis playing with his tuxedo pair make me smile and like him all the more. A light moment that took me out of the disgust I have for the P-e.
I’ve reread Lewis’ bio and, as a Southerner, although young, I saw the violence in MS over voting rights. It brings tears to my eyes as to the near fatal attacks this man took. He is an American hero.
For what it is worth, this is my take on all of this:
Flynn, Page and Manafort are “paid” Russian agents. The idea of propping up Trump had been sizzling for several years. A stupid, ill informed, narcissistic man who proved he was easily manipulated. The “perfect” candidate to carry out their interests.
The FBI began to receive the information provided by ex agent Steele. It was explosive. For fear that it would eventually get out Comey was used by the NY FBI as a diversion. Targeting Hillary the focus shifted while all the time they held the cards regarding Trump. Guiliani almost admitted as much.
Her poll numbers began to slide and Comey then “exonerated” her only days before the voting date to cover his own sorry ass but the damage was done. Comie, Giuliani, Flynn, along with “fake news” created by Breitbart (Gannon) were in collusion to topple her. Russian hacks sought to embarrass her through Wikileaks thus once again directing focus elsewhere to cover the “dossier” they were all aware of.
The bottom line are the lifting of those sanctions which stands to make all involved very, very wealthy. It is less ideology than greed. Tillerson was hand picked as SOS in order to facilitate the lifting of sanctions.
What is likely to be revealed is the involvement of the FBI, the Russian government, and the assistance of the Trump team who formed a triumvirate to place Trump as the leader of the free world who can almost be guaranteed to accommodate the interests of all.
Treason is the operative word if and when this all becomes public and there is enough there now to go full steam ahead. This election is suspect in that it is an illegal operation which calls into question of its illegitimacy.
The press is now responsible for seeing this through as I doubt the GOP will step forward on its own.
Treason pure and simple.
The more you think about it the more horrible it becomes.
Trump could not be a “better choice” if you are searching for a less educated, ignorant, unqualified candidate to seek the office of POTUS considering how much in debt he appears to be, his lack of morals, an ability to lie so effortlessly, and a serious personality disorder to go along with everything else he lacks.
A dangerous man who in less than a week is handed the nuclear codes in a volatile world already on edge.
We are at the mercy of a mad man in league with other crazies who mean nothing but harm.
Did you see what John Dickerson said last weekend? http://mediamatters.org/video/2017/01/11/cbs-john-dickerson-trump-trying-define-all-news-fake-news/214987
Trump expects to be “worshipped”. After all he went through the primaries basically unchallenged by the press and was covered from the beginning as if he were a person of substance.
So when he is challenged or questioned now he is unable to come to grasp the sudden departure from those “adoring” crowds who filled his events to a more substantive inquiry about who he is and what he stands for.
However, it is too little, too late by the press in exposing this empty suit which grates on his nerves. It is he and he alone who must direct the narrative. When that fails he strikes back by accusing them of “lies”. This coming from the champion “liar in chief”.
The press could not get enough of him at one time. Hillary’s events were barely covered and the same could be said of Bernie. The GOP candidates barely got their message out and were only covered when Trump said something derogatory against them.
The media is as much responsible for this monster as is the Russian government. It is no longer “amusing” to watch the Trump Show but it is becoming exceedingly frightening to watch it further unfold as the reality sets in.
This should never have happened. Ever.
Totally agree. Colluding with a foreign government to undermine the U.S. election process is treason. So, where’s the military tribunal?
Pat, I posted this summary on my FB page (yes, I FB!) and it is getting attention and positive comments. Thank you!
I called my Senators again and one of the voice mailboxes was full. 🙂 Called their DC offices too. Today my message was about how alarming it is that Gen. Schwartz was told to leave his job at 12:01 pm Jan 20th.
Keep calling and fill the mailboxes!
Good work, Luna.
You’re inspiring me.
ICYMI, a funny example of just how tender-skinned Der Twitler is:
https://www.apnews.com/b2159d51ff7b47cc97a03c10d0954994
lol
But the blue tape reminds me of his hairdo!
It’s probably better. There would be golden showers all over the place if people thought they were Don’s johns.
Another pic:
….tho I bet a lot of that tape somehow keeps coming off!
Bought two sets of “March” for my older grandkids today. Hurt my soul to hear our 13 yr old said this week, “I’m black and a woman, I have no future now.” I get incensed when I think about what this has done to our young.
http://westport.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/cops-greenwich-republican-insulted-town-worker-then-pinched-her-groin/696124/
Good grief!
The obvious problem is that we may not have a person in power or an entity who is brave enough or patriotic enough to do something. If Trump is inaugurated, he will do what Russia is now urging him to do, purge the entire CIA and the rest of the Intelligence community. The Republicans aren’t going to do anything. The FBI is not. Obama didn’t. So where is the hero or heroine to do it?
Of course the CIA realizes this. They know that if Trump gains power, he will start firing them all, maybe trying to jail them, it’s what they do in Russia and Turkey, the regimes ours will now begin to resemble.So are they going to act now? The media is simply hoping this all goes away. I guess President Putin is better than President Hillary for them. Trump, with Putin’s help, is very possibly going to get us into a war with China Trump is like an automaton regurgitating Putin’s posiitions. Now he says that he is not committed to the “One China” policy, something that we haven’t heard since the ’50’s. Is Trump actually brainwashed, or is he just abysmally stupid, or afraid of what Putin can do to him>. In the meantime,t the Republicans just can’t let go of their opportunity to get trillions in tax breaks, plus destroy the New Deal in its entirety. We are at a point where some extra-legal action is necessary. The system will not save us. Either the CIA is going to have to, or the military, or something. Try impeaching Trump when he’s sitting there with the nuclear weapons., It should never have gotten to this point, even with all the corruption and selling out of the country that the FBI and the Republicans have colluded in. But in my view, ever single bulwark we thought we had built in this so-called democracy was either too evil, too corrupt, or too cautious and they all failed us.
https://twitter.com/drumbeats4peace/status/820491290240516097
I’m not surprised. Trump wants to be Putin.
https://twitter.com/ezlusztig/status/820228478142390273
Can’t say I disagree. In fact – the way they tried to destroy Hillary Clinton alone – over decades – is just one of my many grievances.
https://twitter.com/ucla_007/status/820121930648797184
Excellent post BB. I’ve avoided the news, and had hints of just how bad things were. I’ve save lots of the articles to read later but I’m thankful you have put them here. What the fuck is going to happen to us?
Is there any way this illigetimate fool can be stopped, the Repugs can be stopped?