Monday Reads: Let’s talk about Comey and Culpability since he really didn’t
Posted: April 16, 2018 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: James Comey, Michael Cohen 48 Comments
Good Morning Sky Dancers!
Well, I watched the ABC interview of disgraced FBI Director James Comey by George Stephanpolous and came away underwhelmed. I really don’t feel any news was made. The only thing I saw was a good case study of the White Male Savior prototype who just refuses to embrace the idea that he’s done wrong, he didn’t save the world, and likely caused an assault on all he says he holds dear. Comey is fighting to stay in denial. His demeanor spoke volumes.
My basic question remains despite the supposed answer of because he was saving Clinton from entering the Presidency under a cloud. Why did he say he’d do it all over again? Why didn’t he listen to Yates and Lynch who said don’t do it? I mean sheesh… he had to know the Republicans would make hay with all of that. They were gunning for Clinton for years. Why ignore Yates and Lynch (read this Vanity Fair piece for a good reminder) and tell Chavetz of all pseudo people? One hint to Chavetz that both candidates were under investigation would have knocked the wind right out of Chavetz leaking shit. The finer points of game theory do not mean you’re putting your finger on a scale. It just directs responses to a more manageable path. If you’re going to play great white male savior at least set the chess board up right. My answer keeps coming back to the white male savior complex. He ignored the advice of the powerful women around him convincing himself he’d be able to rescue the powerful damsel in distress and save the country.
Anyway, the only heads exploding over this interview are in the FBI itself. I’m just gobsmacked by the level of hubris personally even though it was wrapped up in a body language and facially expression that suggested a lot of counselling is required.
FBI sources who did not support Comey’s decision to announce the reopening of the Clinton email investigation still stood by him at the time and were outraged at the way in which Trump fired the director. He learned of his dismissal after reading it on a television screen inside the Los Angeles FBI building where he was speaking to agents.
Those same current and former FBI agents and officials—and others—did not respond well to Comey’s interview Sunday night.
Support for Comey has dwindled as those who worked closely with him and initially supported him began to see his book and his public interactions—including Twitter selfies in Iowa—as self-serving and gauche, four sources said.
Their anger has grown in recent months as agents have come to see Comey as the reason for the “current shitshow… that is the Trump presidency,” one former official, who voted for Trump, explained.
Here’s Lanny Davis writing Op Ed for The Hill that portrays Comey as a liar. The White House has been screaming “Leaker” and “Liar” for weeks now. Frankly, I think the only one Come has lied to is himself.
On Saturday night, the great Wolf Blitzer interviewed one of his panelists about James Comey’s justification for violating over a half-century of Justice Department policies in Republican and Democratic administrations when he sent his October 28 letter to Congress in 2016, which cost Hillary Clinton the presidency.
Comey has repeatedly claimed that he was “obligated” to write his speculative letter because of a promise he had made to Congress to do so if “anything new” came up after his July 5, 2016, press conference announcing a new prosecutable case could be brought against Clinton.
…
When one of Blitzer’s panelists on Saturday night inaccurately repeated the Comey lie that Comey was “obligated” to send his game-changing letter to Congress because he had promised to do so, Blitzer should have interrupted and corrected the record. “No that is not correct — Comey only promised to ‘look at’ any new evidence, not to write his letter in the closing days of the election.”
Another form of a lie is by omission.
Comey knows — and knows that we all now know — that if he had done what in fact he had told Congress he would do, i.e., looked first before writing his letter, he and the FBI would have completed their review within six days, as we know happened between Oct 30, 2016, when they first began to look at Clinton emails on Anthony Wiener’s laptop, and Nov. 5, when they completed their review. And we know that they would have determined — as they announced on Nov. 6, two days before the election— that there was no “there” there in the Clinton emails, i.e., nothing new to change their July 5 non-prosecution decision. Thus, there would have been no need for Comey to write the history-changing Oct. 28 letter. And hence, Hillary Clinton, as all the data prove over the last 11 days in crucial battleground states, would be president today. During the interview, Comey also said that his decision to announce shortly before the election that the FBI was going to reopen the case was influenced by his belief that Clinton would beat Trump and his desire to make sure that the election During the interview, Comey also said that his decision to announce shortly before the election that the FBI was going to reopen the case was influenced by his belief that Clinton would beat Trump and his desire to make sure that the election results were viewed as legitimate.results were viewed as legitimate.
Of course the Trump Hate machine was locked and loaded this morning.
President Trump took fresh aim at fired FBI director James B. Comey on Monday, lambasting his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server and asserting again that Comey and another FBI official had committed crimes.
Trump’s comments on Twitter were his first since Comey’s high-profile television interview Sunday night in which he said he believes Trump is “morally unfit” to be president and that he hopes Trump will be voted out of office.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that Trump had watched “bits and pieces” of the interview but not the entire thing.
In his tweet, Trump complained that Comey “drafted the Crooked Hillary exoneration long before he talked to her” and asserted that in deciding how to handle the case, Comey “based his decisions on her poll numbers.”
This was the statement that galled me most. So, I’m calling it out again. This allowed the Trump Team venom to target Clinton again.
During the interview, Comey also said that his decision to announce shortly before the election9 that the FBI was going to reopen the case was influenced by his belief that Clinton would beat Trump and his desire to make sure that the election results were viewed as legitimate.
There is a lot of other news today. Cohen hasn’t released his client list and is headed back to court hoping a Trump-filed injunction will save his ass from its destiny in jail. The EPA chief is in serious trouble for all kinds of things.
I will likely watch the Consigliere match up this afternoon.
Withstanding the hearing is only the beginning of what could be an ugly legal situation for Cohen. No charges have been filed against him, but prosecutors asserted that he is under criminal investigation. Cohen, who professes a devout fealty to his boss, has spent more than a decade working alongside the Trumps, devoting his professional life to protecting them. He may now be in a position where he could be forced to choose between continuing that line of defense, or putting himself and his own family first. In my interviews with Cohen, he has always stated plainly, repeatedly, and in a Godfather-esque lingua franca, how unfailingly loyal he is to the president and to the Trump family. Over the summer, Cohen told me that he would take a bullet for Trump. In February, as the Stormy Daniels controversy heated up, he told me that he would do it again today for Trump and again for him tomorrow. “No question,” he said. Last month, he told me that it was his job to protect his client—his friend—and the Trump family.
Maybe, I’ll just take a nap instead.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Just pulled this from down thread on Sunday … yup NW Luna!
9
Agreed, but I’m still not going to read his book.
Seems much of it is self-serving philosophical gibberish.
So? That’s Comey’s a better human than Trump — an incredibly low bar — does not excuse him from making Trump President*.
Dump should be on his knees kissing the hem of Comey’s pants, because for all Putin’s efforts on Liddle’ Donnie’s behalf, he wouldn’t be sh*tting all over the White House today if Comey hadn’t given him that last push that got his orange tush over the finish line on a technicality.
Teele, remember the wet smack tRump putnon Comey when he first saw him after the inauguration?
Sorry the orange turd blew a kiss:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-james-comey-air-kiss_us_58857527e4b096b4a232b942
NOTHING excuses Comey from writing that damn letter, not even that he thought some non-Hillary supporters in the FBI were ready to leak the reopening of her investigation. There was a precedent set by Janet Reno: nothing reported publicly in the election season. He should have followed that example and not promised Congress anything. He’ll never be able to convince anyone that he acted correctly. Somehow he missed how easily sure-bet polling winners can lose on a comment, especially Hillary.
That’s what Lynch and Yates told him!! That’s what others in the FBI told him! But, noooo, he thought Daddy knows best!!!
What was that comment about millions of women (and men) wanting to greet Comey with bricks…
Hannity fits right in with the others.
Folks are implying it has something to do with the Seth Rodger’s scandal but Hannity actually tweeted no to Nicole on MSNBC during her show.
Seth Rodger?
sorry Seth RICH
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/142854/fox-news-finally-retracted-seth-rich-story-will-sean-hannity-follow-suit
Folks said he was threatened by folks who were running boycotts. Cohen might have hired PIs to find out about folks like Media Matters. Hannity thought it was a Soros conspiracy.
Oh, right. Sorry.
Needs to be an “All of the Above” answer.
WaPo:
Trump puts the brakes on new Russian sanctions, reversing Haley’s announcement
I need a week of primitive camping in a place with no cell phone reception. Sheesh
Lol. I was just coming here to post that!
Donny wasn’t going to upset Vlad with more sanctions anyway, but what a clusterfck that White House is!
I really think Haley should quit. Sheesh. How many times can he undermine her and she goes back to face the world?
Oh, many, many more times or until she’s fired in a tweet. Agree, she should quit. His treatment is cruel.
Sean Hannity! Goody goody! Now let the investigative reporting begin! “When the bite falls on the right bait.”
https://twitter.com/MrDanZak/status/985964588586979328
I only have one newspaper subscription, the Washington Post. I like it very much, especially in this time of Trump vs Mueller, etc.
Trump is bigly pissed that the “failing” WaPo gets prizes!
https://twitter.com/Rob_Flaherty/status/985959982779781120
Another woman comes forward. This one had an affair with Trump when Marla Maples was pregnant.
The Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: ‘We just went at it like she just didn’t exist.’ Former Playmate reveals she had sex with Donald Trump in front of her friend during a steamy six-month affair while his then-fiancée Marla Maples was pregnant with Tiffany
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5614141/Playmate-says-six-month-affair-Trump-Marla-Maples-pregnant-Tiffany.html#ixzz5CsZYZWfY
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Of course. Pregnant women aren’t sexy. What did Marla expect anyhow?
There’s got to be more like that woman out there. I want all hundreds of them to come out now.
I cannot bear to watch the Comey interview. He is such an arrogant righteous SOB, enjoying being kingmaker waaayy too much. I do want to read his book (because he’s a meanie to Trump), but I refuse to pay for it. So, I am 96th in line on hold for the one library copy coming in tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get to read it during the next administration.
I also am on hold at library. I doubt I will give it a close reading.
I’m *not* going to read his self-serving sanctimonious book. I’d be hurling it at the wall every few pages.
Read it in the company of a Trumpster, and when you get mad throw it at him. Two birds you know…
lol
https://twitter.com/PolitikMasFina/status/985717907555483648
https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/985910021396549632
Holy Mother Goddess.
This alone should trigger sanctions. (Ras)Putin kills our witness?!? Again?!? WTF
So, an American woman wins the Boston Marathon for the first time in thirty odd years and there’s hardly a mention of it in the Press? Too bad Stormy Daniels didn’t run; maybe, there’d be some coverage.
I did see a front-page article on this in today’s WaPo. Haven’t checked other papers.
Shit. There was no mention anywhere.