Tag: James Comey

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Kellyanne Conway: “You Always Want To Talk About Russia, Russia, Russia!”

Kellyanne Conway gets more air-time today with CNN’s Chris Cuomo in a 19 minute segment wherein she turns in her own “Jan Brady” performance arguing that “you always want to talk about Russia, Russia, Russia!”

Knowing that Trump watches cable news voraciously, and he must love seeing someone defend him so strenuously.

Watch the performance art by Conway below.

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BREAKING: President Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey

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Whoa.

President Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey just days after Comey testified on Capitol Hill about the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s election interference and connections between Russia and Trump’s campaign.

The firing comes at the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. See Sessions’ letter below,  along with Trump letter of termination to Comey.

It is odd that (but not un-Trumpian), in his letter to Comey, Trump co-mingles statements of “not being investigated” in the same sentence he fires the man leading that investigation. He wrote that for the masses, not Comey.

Every time someone gets close to Trump and Trump adviser’s ties to Russia, the president does something like this.

Rather Nixonian, no?

I wonder if Trump thinks this will end investigations into Russian ties…?

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FBI Director: “It Makes Me Mildly Nauseous To Think We Might Have Had Some Impact On The Election”

During his testimony today in front of a Senate committee, FBI Director James Comey said it makes him “mildly nauseous” to think his actions in October of 2016, when he reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, “might” have had “some” impact on the election.

Note to Comey: it’s not “might,” it’s “did.”

And “mildly nauseous” hardly encompasses the range of feelings his actions caused this nation.

Senator Dianne Feinstein asked him why he chose to announce, 11 days before the election, the FBI investigation: “Why wouldn’t you just do the investigation as you would normally,” Feinstein asked, “with no public announcement?”

Answered Comey: “I would have made the same decision. I sat there that morning and I could not see a door labeled ‘no action here.’ I could see two doors, they were both actions. One was labeled ‘speak’ and the other was labeled ‘conceal.’”

What he doesn’t bother to mention is the fact that the FBI was also investigating the Trump campaign for collusion with Russian agents.

Somehow, he found the door labeled “conceal” on that one.

Watch below.

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FBI Director Fact-Checks President Trump In Real Time During House Intel Committee Testimony

During today’s testimony by FBI Director James Comey and National Security Director Mike Rogers in front of the House Intelligence Committee, President Trump tweeted that the two directors had told Congress “Russia did not influence (the) electoral process” in the 2016 presidential campaign.

While the FBI Director had testified that he had no evidence that voting machines had been tampered with, he did not say the same regarding Russia having an “influence” on the election.

Watch below as Congressman Jim Himes asks them if that was the intent of their testimony.

Director Comey’s response: “It certainly wasn’t our intention to say that today, because we don’t have any information on that subject.”

And just to get a better look at the NSA and FBI director’s reactions when asked the question:

(h/t NCRM)

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FBI: Team Trump Under Investigation Since July 2016

Today we learned three things during FBI Director James Comey’s testimony at the House Intelligence Committee hearing:

1. There is NO evidence to support President Trump’s unfounded allegation that President Obama ordered a wiretap on Trump Tower.

2. The Trump campaign team has been under investigation for ties to Russian officials who may have have attempted to disrupt the U.S. election. The investigation concerning President Trump and those associated with his campaign has been ongoing since July 2016.

3. With both Clinton and Trump teams being investigated during the campaign, it’s worth noting that Comey announced to the nation 12 days before Election Day that Clinton was still under investigation but did not mention Trump. Think on that for a while…

Comey also shared that the FBI has found no evidence that Russian agents had changed actual votes in U.S. voting machines in swing states.

However, President Trump took to Twitter to spin that his own way, saying, “The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process.”

That not what the two intelligence directors said.

While they addressed the idea of “changed votes,” that doesn’t mean that Russia’s leaking stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee didn’t influence the election. As a matter of fact we know that the constant drip, drip, drip of emails had an effect on the election.

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FBI Director Comey: We Have No Information That Supports Trump’s Wiretapping Tweets

FBI Director James Comey testified this morning that neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice has any evidence to support President Trump’s allegations that President Obama ordered Trump Tower’s phones to be wiretapped during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Comey also acknowledged that the FBI is, indeed, investigating Russia’s actions during the 2016 election and the Russian government’s ties to the Trump campaign:

I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. That includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.

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FBI & Dept Of Justice To Be Reviewed Over Handling Of Clinton Email Investigation

FBI Director James Comey

In light of FBI Director James Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation ahead of the 2016 election, Comey, the FBI and the Department of Justice will now be the subject of an investigation themselves.

The review was requested by several sources including members of Congress and outside organizations.

Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz will be investigating these issues (via press release):

Allegations that Department or FBI policies or procedures were not followed in connection with, or in actions leading up to or related to, the FBI Director’s public announcement on July 5, 2016, and the Director’s letters to Congress on October 28 and November 6, 2016, and that certain underlying investigative decisions were based on improper considerations;

Allegations that the FBI Deputy Director should have been recused from participating in certain investigative matters;

Allegations that the Department’s Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs improperly disclosed non-public information to the Clinton campaign and/or should have been recused from participating in certain matters;

Allegations that Department and FBI employees improperly disclosed non-public information; and

Allegations that decisions regarding the timing of the FBI’s release of certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents on October 30 and November 1, 2016, and the use of a Twitter account to publicize same, were influenced by improper considerations.

FBI Director Comey issued this statement in response:

“I am grateful to the Department of Justice’s IG for taking on this review,” he said. “He is professional and independent and the FBI will cooperate fully with him and his office. I hope very much he is able to share his conclusions and observations with the public because everyone will benefit from thoughtful evaluation and transparency regarding this matter.”

I can’t imagine this going anywhere as of January 21st, the day after Donald Trump becomes president, can you?

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NY Daily News On Comey Flub: Now He Tells Us

The New York Daily News is just about as outraged as the rest of America over FBI Director James Comey’s late in the game intrusion into the election followed by an “oopsie.”

After nearly upending an already-raucous presidential election with an eleventh-hour reexamination of Clinton’s emails, Comey sent a letter to congressional lawmakers that left heads spinning once again.

“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton,” Comey wrote, referencing his recommendation to not press charges for Clinton’s use of a private email server. “I am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time.”

Comey’s letter came nine days after a controversial note to Congress revealed the FBI was at it again, probing Clinton emails after discovering new messages tied to the latest sexting scandal involving disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner — the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Comey’s last-minute meddling generated immediate calls for his ouster amid charges that he could have affected the outcome of a close presidential election. Indeed, polls showed Clinton losing support — some surveys showed her falling more than 8 percentage points — over the issue in the crucial final days before Election Day. Millions of people in early-voting states have already made up their minds and cast ballots, with the first Comey letter being their last impression before making their decisions.

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FBI Director: We Searched New Emails, Nothing There, Nevermind

Ten days ago, FBI Director James Comey shocked the nation when he broke standard operating protocol and shared information about newly discovered emails that “might” be pertinent to the Clinton email investigation.

Today, Comey pulled an “Emily Litella” by issuing a new letter which basically says, “Nevermind.” Nothing new was found, therefore the decision made in July to not charge Clinton is unchanged.

From CNN:

“Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July,” Comey wrote in the new letter to congressional committee chairmen.

Comey dropped a bombshell on the presidential race last month when he sent a letter to Congress saying the FBI had discovered emails in a separate investigation that could be connected to the now-closed probe of whether Clinton mishandled classified information. The move infuriated Democrats and emboldened Republican nominee Donald Trump.

It’s impossible to know before results are tallied what impact Comey’s actions — first raising a vaguely worded red flag 11 days out, and then lowering it two days from the election — will have on the contest. But the news could help Clinton put to rest a controversy that has dogged her in the 2016 race’s closing days, helping Trump narrow a polling gap nationally and in key battleground states.

Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, blasted Comey’s handling of the review.

“Today’s letter makes Director Comey’s actions nine days ago even more troubling,” Feinstein said in a statement. “There’s no doubt that it created a false impression about the nature of the agency’s inquiry.”
She added: “The Justice Department needs to take a look at its procedures to prevent similar actions that could influence future elections.”

You’ll recall that Donald Trump addressed the news ten days ago saying it was “worse than Watergate” when he knew NOTHING about what was on the laptop computer where the emails were found.

Trump’s followers keep asking how “650,000” emails could have been reviewed by Comey. But as it has been repeatedly reported – 650K was the total number of emails found on the laptop. The vast majority were personal/private to Anthony Weiner and estranged wife Huma Abedin. Only a few thousand seemed pertinent to Clinton.

Plus, there is a vast legion of investigators at the FBI. A few thousand emails searched by hundreds of FBI agents could easily be vetted.

The rest of the Twitterverse was equally appalled:

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President Obama On Comey Announcement: We Don’t Operate On Innuendo, Incomplete Facts Or Leaks

In a radio interview with NowThisNews, President Obama made his first comments after FBI Director James Comey made the unusual announcement that new emails possibly related to its investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had been found on a laptop computer used by Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

“I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don’t operate on innuendo and we don’t operate on incomplete information and we don’t operate on leaks,” Obama said during the radio interview.

Comey was noticeably vague on whether the emails were significant to the investigation or not. At the time, neither he nor his agents had obtained a search warrant to examine the emails even though the FBI knew of the emails for weeks.

Comey’s departure from normal FBI protocol in announcing the finding roiled the presidential campaign 11 days before the Nov. 8 election and drew heavy criticism from Democrats.

(source)