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Report: Comey Asks Justice Department To Deny Trump Allegations As Untrue

Jcomey-100donald_trump_president-elect_portrait_croppedIn a virtually unprecedented move, FBI Director James Comey has reportedly asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s claims that former President Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower before the election.  Since the FBI is part of the Executive Branch headed by Trump, it is a truly bizarre moment if true.  If this continues, the unitary executive will become the binary executive with the White House in uneasy relations with the rest of the executive branch.

The New York Times is reporting that Comey wants a public denial of the Trump allegations. Trump created a firestorm over the weekend when he used Twitter to accuse his predecessor, Barack Obama, of wiretapping Trump Tower. “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Various news outlets have noted that Breitbart just ran a story on the use or attempted use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to investigate connections to Russian banks. The story was covering allegations voiced by radio host Mark Levin.  He also directly criticized Obama: “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

It is extremely rare for a president to ever discuss FISA operations publicly due to their highly classified character.  Moreover, the allegations raised over the weekend raised highly disturbing analogies to the Watergate period.  These are not the type of allegations that should ever be made casually — or frankly through social media.

The report that Comey wants a public denial of the President represents a rather disheartening low in the relations and operations of our Executive Branch.  If there is no support for the Trump allegation, officials face some troubling question of how such national security and policy issues are to be address.  The President is after all the head of the Executive Branch and can gain access to any classified program or demand answers to any questions of alleged impropriety. If the allegation was made on Twitter without such an inquiry, it would be particularly disturbing.

74 thoughts on “Report: Comey Asks Justice Department To Deny Trump Allegations As Untrue”

  1. “Wiretap”. Out of date term? Wiretap means that some person directly attaches a wire to a phone wire and thence can listen in and indeed record the words spoken.
    To read, not listen, to an email is a horse of a different color. No “wire” involved. No tap into a wire is involved. Cell phones are also not “wiretapped”. No. A cellphone is in the air like a radio wave.
    One does not wiretap a cell phone.
    Cloud 9. Many things transmitted by email go to Clouds. Cloud 9 happens to be a popular bounce and storage place. I can find emails on Cloud 9 without the help of some government spy agency.
    When an email goes up it has a landing spot like a car parking lot. If I am able to get someone to email me then I have a trail to follow. We who do this call this The Trail of Tears. When we follow our lead, so to speak, we can land on the same parking lot that we were on before when we had an email from Joe Blow. One simply employs a device called saddle bag and one can pick up emails on the same parking lot on Cloud 9. Oh, I know you think that this is all melarchy.

    Beauty and The Beast will be discussed today by Melania. How do I know? Let me count the ways.

    Trump Tower did not have to be “wire tapped”. Ask Jake Tapper. No. Trump talks on cell phones and he emails people. Two different strokes for similar folks.

    Private email servers are no less safe than servers run by the federal government with security enveloped. A private email server may be more difficult to find on Cloud 9. But if you had Chelsea’s email then you might be able to track Hillary’s emails– all of them.

    Trump and the notion of Obama “wiretapping” the Trump Tower: kind of like saying that Putin affected the outcome of our election. I can tell you that Putin did not vote. The laid off steelworker in Michigan voted. And he did not vote for Hillary The 8th.

  2. Call me what you want, however, I am a strong believer in the Constitution, the Rule of Law and what The US was founded upon.

    The 25th Amendment has a provision that allows succession if the president is declared unfit and unable to fulfill the role.

    A sane person does not use twitter to express disagreement with previous administrations, it’s a recipe for disaster.

    I never really cared for George W. Bush, however I would take him over Trump any day of the week.

    I always thought the US would be attacked from the outside. Apparently it’s going to be an implosion.

    Citing Briebart as a credible source of news since Bannon is a part of it is scary and creepy.

    1. WIB,

      As a strong believer in the rule of law and the Constitution, why did I never hear your call for the impeachment of Obama? Mass surveillance and extrajudical killing, along with indefinite detention and immigrant raids which took children and incarcerated them in cold rooms are all illegal under US law. Strange how I never heard you say Obama was deranged for doing any of these things (and dozens of other illegal and horrific acts), nor did I hear you call for his removal as a president.

      It makes your claim to value the rule of law and our Constitution extremely difficult to take seriously.

    2. Jill,

      I wasn’t around when Obama was president, so please 9750064859 me that you know what I think.

      As to your point of substance, I agree. Enough said. Enjoy the day.

      2. WIB,

        You have been around for a while now, even while Obama was still president. You could speak to Obama’s actions. You were alive when they occurred. I never heard you speak up about them, even when they occurred in the recent past.

        1. Maybe Jill, we did not have a daily or more Twit. Obama, though not my choice is clearly better than the present. Bush as well.

          You know something that really bothers me is the Trump family is costing taxpayer dollars for private personal business gains. I think the government should send a bill to the trump brand.

          Another thing, Bush and Obama did, was accept the controversy without blaming someone else.

  3. Here’s an interesting take from Prof. Glenn Reynolds:

    Hypothesis: The spying-on-Trump thing is worse than we even imagine, and once it was clear Hillary had lost and it would inevitably come out, the Trump/Russia collusion talking point was created as a distraction. Now it’s being rowed back because the talk of “transcripts” supports the spying-on-Trump storyline.

    Will we ever know? Maybe, if there’s a proper investigation into Obama Administration political spying.

    Meanwhile, the rumors being floated about Trump are being retracted, and once everyone from Comey to Clapper has denied that he was ever under investigation, future “leaks” will come pre-discredited.

    1. Even if wire air intercept happened, if you make calls in the US to Foreign numbers you can be listened to. Homeland Security Administration can do anything it want within 100 miles of any international border. Trump has more things to worry about than this garbage.

    1. Good, keep it there. Trump is clearly not “hinged” to this massive bureaucratic state and that’s a good thing.

        1. If he’s saying to dismantle this bureaucracy then thank you. Do you believe the bureaucracy is a good thing?

  5. Progressives have created a very large and deep swamp. The creatures in that swamp are going to fight back. The Swamp People will say things like, “the government institutions seem to be well balanced enough to reign in idiots like this,” because they want to preserve their creation. If Trump seems unhinged, it is because he is not of the system. He is not on the side of the Swamp People. He is disconnected from the swamp and that is terrifying to all those accustomed to having a President that is part of the swamp. Turley uses the term “classified” when talking about the FISA court but the swamp people hear that word as a good thing, everyone else hears “secretive” or “don’t tell the American people”. I say expose it all and be done with it. This will turn out to be our House Divided moment.

    1. Trump Tower is one of the dirtiest swamps in the country. Many shady oligarchs live there along with more than a few mobsters.

  6. Every govt. official involved in this needs to present evidence. If Comey has no record of or no knowledge of Trump Towers being bugged, then he needs to say this to the public. He then needs to say it to a Congressional hearing, under oath.
    Likewise, Trump needs to present his evidence.

    Likewise, Clapper needs to present his evidence. BTW Democrats, your new loved one, Clapper, said their was no relation between Trump and Russia in the same interview where he said their was no bugging. I’m going to guess you’ll say your new loved one lied about the Russians and told the truth about the wiretapping?

    Actually we know the NSA collects everything on everyone. There is no reason to believe members of the oligarchy are actually spared the collection of their data. Because every govt. official involved in this mess is a known liar it is impossible to know what happened without someone bringing forth actual documentation or real proof. I’m not taking any of these liar’s word! They can all shut up until they provide public evidence to back up their statements.

    The real scandal is this– The US is a surveillance state. Trump is shameful for continuing that while having the nerve to object to its use against himself. It’s a great crime against all our people. You can believe Obama put the surveillance state on steroids, even more of them than Bush. I care nothing for Trump’s personal surveillance except as it pertains to the surveillance state. He can stop the whole thing right now by reverting to the rule of law.

  7. OK, so here we have a 70 yr old born into wealth, connections, privilege, and the momentum of a mega successful father; a 70 year old who has been obsessed all his life about being something he isn’t-real; a 70 year old who is a pathological liar, megalomaniac, wears an awful rug, dyes his skin, etc; married to a 46 yr old who made it on her back and is the only one of the bunch who realizes it is better to stay out of sight and stay quiet.

    OK, so here we have a 70 yr old one liner with next to no concept of the reality that exists outside of his privileged life, with opportunistic wannabes flocking to him as advisors, feeding his ego and inserting their own perverse ideals.

    OK, so here we have a 70 yr old President who is so obsessed with his popularity-or lack thereof, that he stays awake at night like a prepubescent teenager twittering accusations, comments, and picking fights.

    It’s not that the US can’t support this sort of circus; the government institutions seem to be well balanced enough to reign in idiots like this, as was seen with the redesigning of the immigrations dictates. The US survived eight years of the three stooges which left the world a worse place, a million dead, economies sewered, etc. America will survive this buffoon and his mob.

    The questions that seems to never make it into the minds of the eager to be pleased is, Why do we have to go through this nonsense in Washington? Why can’t this simply be another TV show, a show with DDT as host, the only position where he makes sense, entertainment, where you can turn it off and go outside for a breath of fresh air? Why is this nutcase in the White House?

    DDT getting into the White House was a masterful tactical move, the result of the wrong opposition more than the right choice. Even with ‘Crooked Hillary’ he still failed to get the majority vote. The result of all this is the glaring reality that the American system of electing its representatives is more than broken. It is of a state that services oligarchs-review DDT’s appointments-and represents the decline of American democracy. So sad, pathetic, and all the other over worked adjectives and adverbs that make up the bulk of the vocabulary of our Buffoon in Chief. The sooner DDT is gone and some semblance of pride can be returned to Americans, the better.

    1. Q: Why do we have to go through this nonsense in Washington?

      A: Because we had eight years of Barack Obama

      1. No,…It is because you elected an insane man with no impulse control. He poured gasoline on the fire because of a talk radio report and now the investigations about his connections to Russia will be never ending.

        1. I won’t speak for Bob or anyone else here but your comment…”It is because you elected an insane man…” is nonsense. It took several million individuals to elect our current (or any) Prez. Not one person. And I would agree with Bob, Obama is one of the reasons (among many) that we have a Prez Trump. Remember “Hope and Change”? How’d that work out? The middle east continues to be a mess, the Bankers got away with $Trillions and not a single prosecution. Race relations? well I’d say he did nothing to improve race relations. So I ask…you this, from Obama, what did he change?

          1. The Rule of Law. Truth. For Obama, truth became whatever he said it was and his Justice Department redefined what is lawful. If it wasn’t prosecuted it was lawful, case closed.

          1. He’s long been dependent on Jarrett as a substitute mother and the short list of ordinary friends BO and Mooch have consists of people to whom they were introduced by her. Also, Mooch was apparently a bust as a working lawyer (for whatever reason), and it was Jarrett who acted as her patron, hiring her for a vaguely-defined position in the mayor’s office and then taking her to the planning and housing department with her when she (Jarrett) was appointed commissioner thereto. She’s nearing retirement age, so rounding out her time in the workforce as an employee of a donor-funded wheel-spinnning operation may look attractive. If she ever practiced law, it was over 30 years ago and all the positions she held over the period running from 1987 to 2009 appear to be a mix of political patronage and leveraging connections. She appears to know something about real estate development (or, more likely, contending with municipal bureaucracies on behalf of real estate developers), but may not have a berth waiting for her back in Chicago.

          1. That sort of thing is now SOP for the media. I think it was Glenn Reynolds who once provided a catalogue of those of the national press corps who were married to administration officials or 1st degree relations to them. They couldn’t cover the administration because a fat chunk of them were in households drawing a paycheck from the administration. Not to mention that a number of journalists are indubitably hoping to move from journalism to public relations when their economically failing employers finally give them the axe. The Democratic Party is the obvious place to go for employment.

            1. Couldn;t properly cover the Administration.

              It’s amazing to consider that 30 years ago David Broder saw fit to complain about opinion journalists cycling between jobs in government and jobs at newspapers and magazines, with a particular swipe at Pat Buchanan. Buchanan began his career in 1960 as an editorial writer, then joined the Nixon White House, then landed a syndicated column which later incorporated broadcast commentary. After 1974, he had one modest tour (1985-87) as chief of pr for Ronald Reagan. He’d never worked as a reporter or written one impartial word, but Broder still thought it violated the media’s integrity (and, if I am not mistaken, some newspapers ca. 1980 did have policies regarding spousal employments). Around about 1993, it became apparent that the major media did not care anymore. See

              https://newrepublic.com/article/116338/jacob-weisberg-clincest

          1. Obama should be suing the fool for libel. Of course, he did not on the birther episode so doubt he will now.

            1. BO was never defamed by Trump re his birth certificate. That aside, he’d have to prove actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth even if Trump had said anything defamatory. Unless the courts gave BO a special benefit (and they might), he’d have no case. The courts have insulated the media almost completely since 1967 (and the media return the favor by leaving judges alone).

  8. I hate to be the one to tell you, Mr Trump, but all electronic communications today are captured and archived for later databased searches. If you use electronic devices, your communications are available to those who have access to them.

    1. I meant….your communications are available to all those who have, or can gain, access to the databases now and in the future.

  9. Comey is riding a tortoise. The tortoise is 70 years old and too old to throw Comey off. The tortoise wants to go home and have some fun with his young wife but can not do so until the rider is unthrowned. Perhaps the tortoise should give up his thrown. Before he gets thrown out.

  11. Third parties would be involved with wire tapping. Trump Towers uses a carrier, AT&T, Verizon, Optimum, Time Warner, etc.

    If Trump’s allegations are false: 18 U.S. Code § 1343 – Fraud by wire, radio, or television

    Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.

  12. Comey is a liar. Clapper is a liar.Both of these facts were known before Trump was even elected.

    We have a serious problem and it isnt Trump. Its a shadow government that doesnt answer to anyone. I am not even sure Obama had strong control over the Deep State.

    This is the danger of the growth of Federal govt with difficult to remove bureaucrats combined with Orwellian technology.

    Trump was wiretapped. We know this for fact. The media keeps telling us how there are recorded phone calls. Yet they never question where or how those recorded calls came about.

    Trump is not the problem.

    Obama, the Deep State , Neo-Cons, Globalists, The Unhinged Triggered Left and quite frankly, a corrupt media is the problem.

    True hypocrisy is on display when the Left is holding up Clapper as a weapon against Trump and on this very issue as well !

    The Left has become infected so deeply with rabid partisanship it cannot even tell what direction they are facing.

  13. Sir, I as an independent voter have come to the conclusion that Mr. Trump’s thin skin, huge ego, and immaturity is disgracing the office of the Presidency and his stupid mouth/twitter are disgracing or country.

    1. The US President is representative of the population who elected him. While most US voters voted against him, he IS the chosen leader of the 60 million or so who voted for him – about 27% of eligible voters.

  14. What is unfortunate is that the moral authority of the Presidency is being brought into question. After a good speech last week, it again went downhill again….so much for a “pivot”. Let’s see what the new week brings with the newest episode from the “White House Apprentice:–although this very reporting is masking some of the more disturbing moves being made right now (including the cuts to NOAA and the H1B rollbacks…)

    1. Awwww. Love the word ‘cut’ keep it up Pres Trump. cut cut cut cut…

  15. “This involves the New York Times, National Review, and the Washington Post, among others.” Now we know it’s crap.

    1. Tea leaves, chicken entrails, Rush Limbaugh and the National Enquirer are clearly much more reliable sources of information.

      1. This information came from The New York Times and The Washington Post. Where did they get such information, and if it is not true, why did they publish it? Is it Fake News? Lies? Leaks from inside the Government? Obama’s Political Appointees? Look at their timeline of events. They published this long before Saturday. Presidents may not be able to order a wiretap, but he can imply that he’d like one, and off the administration goes…. When a President ‘actively’ Campaigns for his choice to replace him… well … dirty politics are not a novel idea. The Media is the Propaganda Arm of the Left, and everyone knows it.

  16. Of course it is one of theose ‘reportedly’ stories meaning nothing to back it up….

  17. The following information came from the Media. If what President Trump is saying is ‘untrue’, why did the Media print this information, and where did the Media get this information if not from people leaking information to them from inside the government? This involves the New York Times, National Review, and the Washington Post, among others.

    Drawing on sources including the New York Times and the Washington Post, Mark Levin described the case against Obama so far, based on what is already publicly known. The following is an expanded version of that case, including events that Levin did not mention specifically but are important to the overall timeline.

    1. June 2016: FISA request. The Obama administration files a request with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to monitor communications involving Donald Trump and several advisers. The request, uncharacteristically, is denied.

    2. July: Russia joke. Wikileaks releases emails from the Democratic National Committee that show an effort to prevent Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) from winning the presidential nomination. In a press conference, Donald Trump refers to Hillary Clinton’s own missing emails, joking: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.” That remark becomes the basis for accusations by Clinton and the media that Trump invited further hacking.

    3. October: Podesta emails. In October, Wikileaks releases the emails of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, rolling out batches every day until the election, creating new mini-scandals. The Clinton campaign blames Trump and the Russians.

    4. October: FISA request. The Obama administration submits a new, narrow request to the FISA court, now focused on a computer server in Trump Tower suspected of links to Russian banks. No evidence is found — but the wiretaps continue, ostensibly for national security reasons, Andrew McCarthy at National Review later notes. The Obama administration is now monitoring an opposing presidential campaign using the high-tech surveillance powers of the federal intelligence services.

    5. January 2017: Buzzfeed/CNN dossier. Buzzfeed releases, and CNN reports, a supposed intelligence “dossier” compiled by a foreign former spy. It purports to show continuous contact between Russia and the Trump campaign, and says that the Russians have compromising information about Trump. None of the allegations can be verified and some are proven false. Several media outlets claim that they had been aware of the dossier for months and that it had been circulating in Washington.

    6. January: Obama expands NSA sharing. As Michael Walsh later notes, and as the New York Times reports, the outgoing Obama administration “expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.” The new powers, and reduced protections, could make it easier for intelligence on private citizens to be circulated improperly or leaked.

    7. January: Times report. The New York Times reports, on the eve of Inauguration Day, that several agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Treasury Department are monitoring several associates of the Trump campaign suspected of Russian ties. Other news outlets also report the exisentence of “a multiagency working group to coordinate investigations across the government,” though it is unclear how they found out, since the investigations would have been secret and involved classified information.

    8. February: Mike Flynn scandal. Reports emerge that the FBI intercepted a conversation in 2016 between future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — then a private citizen — and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The intercept supposedly was part of routine spying on the ambassador, not monitoring of the Trump campaign. The FBI transcripts reportedly show the two discussing Obama’s newly-imposed sanctions on Russia, though Flynn earlier denied discussing them. Sally Yates, whom Trump would later fire as acting Attorney General for insubordination, is involved in the investigation. In the end, Flynn resigns over having misled Vice President Mike Pence (perhaps inadvertently) about the content of the conversation.

    9. February: Times claims extensive Russian contacts. The New York Times cites “four current and former American officials” in reporting that the Trump campaign had “repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials. The Trump campaign denies the claims — and the Times admits that there is “no evidence” of coordination between the campaign and the Russians. The White House and some congressional Republicans begin to raise questions about illegal intelligence leaks.

    10. March: the Washington Post targets Jeff Sessions. The Washington Post reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had contact twice with the Russian ambassador during the campaign — once at a Heritage Foundation event and once at a meeting in Sessions’s Senate office. The Post suggests that the two meetings contradict Sessions’s testimony at his confirmation hearings that he had no contacts with the Russians, though in context (not presented by the Post) it was clear he meant in his capacity as a campaign surrogate, and that he was responding to claims in the “dossier” of ongoing contacts. The New York Times, in covering the story, adds that the Obama White House “rushed to preserve” intelligence related to alleged Russian links with the Trump campaign. By “preserve” it really means “disseminate”: officials spread evidence throughout other government agencies “to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators” and perhaps the media as well.

    Faced with the above data, President Trump bypassed the media completely and used Twitter to speak to his supporters.

      2. You must mean all the intolerant, mind controlling, minions on the Left. If you disagree with them, they will beat you unconscious with pipe as they did to someone at Berkeley.

    2. Awesome, timeline Kathleen. Will copy this for future use.

      We now know the Washington Post is a CIA asset. The NYT is owned by an un-American… CNN… To hear the Establishment media whine that the President speaks directly to the people is rather humorous. But, what should scare all of us is Loretta Lynch calling for a violent uprising. Hopefully, at the end of today March 6th 2017, Lynch will be publicly condemned and Comey will be out.

      Unprecedented. My guess is the DC paedophiles are getting worried.

      1. You really outdid yourself this time, putting DDT and FDR in the same sentence. The bottom line is that Comey realizes, along with most Americans, that DDT is mentally unstable.

        1. issac – what if they cut the FBI out of the loop on the Trump wiretaps? Comey would think they weren’t done, but the DoJ would know they were done. Obama is not above throwing someone under the bus when needed.

  18. The bottom line regarding Comey is that he’s a professional liar. Trump only kept him on because he needed someone at the top who knows where the bodies are buried. But if Comey insists on inserting himself into the news based on his need to fuel his vanity and sense of self-importance, Trump should promptly give him the boot. There are already more than enough disloyal, lying, incompentent, traitorous moles that were installed by Obama or Bush roaming the Executive Branch.

    1. The FBI director is appointed for a standard term so not typically dismissed with a change in administrations, though they can be The thing is, his quite contrived insistence on allowing Hilligula to skate on the clintonemails server indicate he actually is not fit for the position he holds.

      The Department of Justice was badly damaged by the Obama Administrattion and cleaning it up is going to require a considerable purge.

  19. BS aside what we have is the FBI Director) had asked his boss the Attorney General to not honor the request – which means the investigations goes on regardless ….all the investigations…..and states the official chain of command in FBI sent any sucyh messages…which means FBI has got an internal problem and possibly the DOJ and they don’t wish to get involved due to other considerations which might mean they are referrng tthe WH holdovers or the Congress. Nice….nothing else:? Now back to the supressed San Francisco story.

    2. There is no justification for applying the 25th Amendment and the only body who could attempt to apply it would be Trump’s cabinet, who know perfectly well he’s not incapacitated even if you wish to operate under a fanciful notion that he is.

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