Althouse: A Friday coincidence: 2 Comey stories break.

September 1, 2017

A Friday coincidence: 2 Comey stories break.

1. "Mueller Has Early Draft of Trump Letter Giving Reasons for Firing Comey" (NYT).

2. "Comey drafted Clinton exoneration before finishing investigation, GOP senators say" (CNN).

36 comments:

rcocean said...: Not sure why an existence of a Trump draft letter that was never used is big news. But the Comey draft letter simply confirms what everyone knows, the FBI investigation was rigged from the beginning.

Comey never wanted to find Hillary guilty of anything. Why? Ask him.; 9/1/17, 8:52 PM
rhhardin said...: A letter you don't send is not something you said.; 9/1/17, 8:54 PM
Sprezzatura said...: "A letter you don't send is not something you said."

If Fuhrman had stumbled on a letter from OJ that described his planning re murder, would we decide that if the letter ain't sent, OJ is innocent?; 9/1/17, 9:12 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Comey looks worse and worse. Glad he sunk Hilarys campaign, glad he was fired.; 9/1/17, 9:14 PM
Original Mike said...: These two things are not equal. It is my understanding that Trump has broad authority to fire Comey, but I doubt Comey has the authority to exonerate someone before he investigates them.; 9/1/17, 9:17 PM
retired said...: They keep investigating President Trump. And more dirt keeps showing up on 0bama and Clinton.; 9/1/17, 9:23 PM
Michael K said...: The trolls are out, I see.

Comey is a disgrace but any FBI Director should have history as an agent.; 9/1/17, 9:34 PM
Big Mike said...: What Original Mike said.; 9/1/17, 9:46 PM
Floris said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/1/17, 10:12 PM
Floris said...: How did Mueller get a copy of a letter written by the president? Obama used executive privilege to hide his wife's breakfast menus, but Trump can't draft a private memo without it being given to (or seized by) Mueller and leaked to the NYT?; 9/1/17, 10:13 PM
Jupiter said...: Comey has apparently been ransacking the umbras and penumbras of the Constitution (always a useful exercise), and has discovered that the Director of the FBI has the pardon power, even though the office is not mentioned in that document. One of the nice things about umbral dispensations.; 9/1/17, 10:17 PM
MikeD said...: 3rd grade dropout, OJ's case had an actual crime while Mueller continues flail about trying to find a crime!; 9/1/17, 10:33 PM
LYNNDH said...: And some wonder why there is distrust of the gov't.; 9/1/17, 10:38 PM
Equipment Maintenance said...: I wish someone would tell Mueller that, despite what he sees when he looks in the mirror, there's a good chance the people won't give a crap what he says he finds. And that's a best case scenario for him.; 9/1/17, 10:48 PM
Dude1394 said...: For someone who is supposed to be an honest man, comedy was a leaking sos.; 9/1/17, 11:11 PM
rcocean said...: "How did Mueller get a copy of a letter written by the president?"

Obviously Trump's lawyers gave it to him. No doubt they're all telling Trump to cooperate and to follow all the Legal "rules" because in the end he'll be found guilty of nothing.

Of course, that was Nixon's mistake. He trusted his legal counsel and followed his legal instincts. Guys like John Connolly were telling him to burn the tapes but Nixon thought "Oh, that wouldn't be legal & surely the SCOTUS will rule in my favor".; 9/1/17, 11:13 PM
The Vault Dweller said...: Comey might get dinged with perjury for this. At one of the congressional oversight committee hearings he apparently was asked whether he made up his to not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton, before or after the interview with her. He stated after. And apparently this draft letter was written at least a couple months before he interviewed her.; 9/1/17, 11:15 PM
MacMacConnell said...: The FBI is a corrupt piece of shit and why is Comey not in custody? We've been told Comey and Mueller are above board, impeccable ethics by all of the establishment, turns out criminals.; 9/1/17, 11:26 PM
heyboom said...: And no surprise, the local news only reported the first one.; 9/2/17, 12:04 AM
traditionalguy said...: Comey is an evil man who covers up by acting a pretend ethics game that the FBI seems to enjoy for no reason whatsoever. Mueller is another in a long line of old fashioned master liars like J Edgar himself.; 9/2/17, 1:07 AM
lonetown said...: We are at the point/counterpoint stage of leakage.; 9/2/17, 5:51 AM
Jaq said...: None of this makes any sense. There is some undisclosed fact or set of facts here that will tie this together. Of course it will be like pulling teeth to get to them, if it ever happens. One thing is certain, there is one Justice Department for Hillary and Obama, and another for the likes of Trump and the rest of us.; 9/2/17, 6:21 AM
Jaq said...: I doubt the leak from Mueller was a coincidence, given the stink from the Comey leak required a quick French bath.; 9/2/17, 6:23 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "If Fuhrman had stumbled on a letter from OJ that described his planning re murder, would we decide that if the letter ain't sent, OJ is innocent?"

A bit OT, but my view has always been that his going over the fence was a illegal search, not supported by probable cause, and w/o any, real exigent circumstances, allowed by a judge who wanted the national limelight of a national trial, the that he would have lost if he had (IHMO properly) excluded all of the evidence garnered in or as a result of that illegal entry by Fuhrman. Why were 4 detectives "sent" to OJ's, when normally that would have been the job of one or two uniforms? Why not just stake out the house until they could get a warrant? (Because they had no probable cause?) And, of course, that means that any such letter should have been suppressed as the fruits of an illegal search.

Still - a false equivalence, since OJ killing his ex wife would have been illegal, if he, indeed, had done it, but Trump firing Comey was, of course, completely legal. So, you are trying to equivalence a letter showing intent (one of the required elements of the charged crimes) to commit capital felonies to a letter showing possible intent to execute a completely discretionary act (guaranteed to be such by the first sentence in Article II of our Constitution).; 9/2/17, 6:30 AM
Ralph L said...: Bruce, did you forget the blood trail on the driveway and the thump Kato heard against his wall? For all they knew, OJ (or someone) was bleeding to death in his own backyard.; 9/2/17, 6:43 AM
Jaq said...: I guess if the letter says "I had to fire Comey because he was on to my collusion with the Russians and is getting too close!" it might mean something. If it says he is a fuckup and the FBI has lost all credibility on both sides, that's a far better reason than required by law to fire him, which is none whatsoever. Comey served at the pleasure of the president.

Interestingly, when Obama illegally fired that Inspector general investigating the mayor of San Diego's apparently illegal use of stimulus funds, nobody whining about the firing of Comey achieved even low dudgeon, or even a modicum of shame. The reason hypocrisy matters is that it demonstrates that when a side is screaming at full volume about some "moral" or legal principle that they care deeply about, and they ignored it completely where their side did it, it shows that it is all about partisan power and nothing else.

Even the arguments made, without any basis in logic or philosophy, that "whataboutism" is wrong, were about partisan power.; 9/2/17, 6:43 AM
Jaq said...: Like Unknown waxing on about the Fourth Amendment" when it came to discovering illegals in Arizona, but not giving a flying fuck about Obama's apparently rampant use of the NSA against political opponents. Or his use of the power of the IRS to investigate political enemies like "True the Vote," against which the IRS used their powers to squeeze True the Vote for information handed over then to Democrats like Elijah Cummings, who actually sat on the committee investigating the IRS and used his position to disrupt the investigation as much as possible.

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings' staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.

Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Darrell Issa, along with five Subcommittee Chairmen are demanding Cummings provide an explanation for the staff inquiries to the IRS about True the Vote and for his denial that his staff ever contacted the IRS about the group.

Link to email.
http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/FN-Combined.pdf

This is why the trolls here will never answer questions, it's too embarrassing for them once they get into a back and forth. But Unknown can yammer on about the Fourth Amendment and Arpaio as if he didn't think the First Amendment and Second Amendment were negotiable.; 9/2/17, 6:55 AM
Jaq said...: Wierd that the press was all over Nixon for just suggesting the IRS do what Obama "Yes We Can!" just went and did. Nixon was shot down by his advisors right away before anything even happened.; 9/2/17, 6:57 AM
Jaq said...: Mr. McGahn met again that same day with Mr. Trump and told him that if he fired Mr. Comey, the Russia investigation would not go away. Mr. Trump told him, according to senior administration officials, that he understood that firing the F.B.I. director might extend the Russia investigation, but that he wanted to do it anyway.; 9/2/17, 7:35 AM
Achilles said...: The first letter agreed with Democrats who were also calling for Comey to be fired.

The second letter shows Comey should be in a jail cell across from Hillary.; 9/2/17, 7:45 AM
narciso said...: In fact they called walpin a confused old man, and once absolved Michele Rees husband could dispose of Donald sterling's property like a good she because thought crime.; 9/2/17, 7:51 AM
narciso said...: They forced out the previous stAte depattnent if, because he was the brother of the deputy company official, so they had none for the entire time red queen was secretary of state.

Comeys mo is not new, if one looks at plamegate, the whole kerfluffle around ashcrift, the kangaroo case against Stephen hatfull, engineered by nick kristof. Etc; 9/2/17, 8:06 AM
Hagar said...: Trump talked to Comey and decided he did not like him and did not trust him so he fired him, which is his privilege. But that was not enough "reason" for the WH lawyers so they drafted a letter with bureaucratic "reasons" for Trump to sign.
And that's all there was to it.; 9/2/17, 8:18 AM
narciso said...: I think that ridiculous performance on capitol hill sealed his fate.

www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/09/new-york-times-undercuts-claim-that-trump-obstructed-justice.php; 9/2/17, 8:20 AM
PackerBronco said...: =================
Blogger tim in vermont said...
Mr. McGahn met again that same day with Mr. Trump and told him that if he fired Mr. Comey, the Russia investigation would not go away. Mr. Trump told him, according to senior administration officials, that he understood that firing the F.B.I. director might extend the Russia investigation, but that he wanted to do it anyway.
=================

Which proves PROVES that Trump was interferring in the Russia investigation because he did something that ... uh ... would actually extend the Russia investigation ...; 9/2/17, 9:14 AM
Jim said...: "FBI. Couldn't find Joe Lewis in a bowl of rice. " David Mamet; 9/2/17, 9:54 AM