Bizarre, Criminal law, Justice, Politics

Report: Comey Asked Sessions Not To Leave Him Alone With Trump

donald_trump_president-elect_portrait_cropped440px-Comey-FBI-PortraitIt appears that President Donald Trump’s instilled a virtually phobic reaction in former FBI Director James Comey after his allegedly inappropriate pitch to terminate the investigation of former National Security Advisor Micheal Flynn.  According to the New York Times, Comey asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to leave him alone with Trump.  If true, the request for a type of chaperone in the Oval Office would represent a new low for the White House.  In the meantime (and equally embarrassing if true), ABC reports that Sessions actually asked Trump if he should resign due to his own deteriorating relationship with the President (who was reportedly still angry at Sessions for recusing himself from the Russian investigation). Notably, the White House declined to say whether Trump still has faith in Sessions at the White House press conference.

The report quotes various officials as saying that they could not guarantee that Trump would not try to talk to Comey alone again.

If Sessions were to confirm the report, it would support Comey in establishing that he did indeed reach out to not only Main Justice but the Attorney General himself after Trump allegedly sought to persuade him to drop the investigation.

The accounts of Trump berating Sessions over his decision to recuse himself is particularly worrisome.  As I discussed earlier, Sessions’ decision to recuse himself was not only clearly correct but, if anything, belated.  Moreover, in the same week that Trump lambasted the Justice Department, the Sessions story would indicate a worsening situation between the White House and the DOJ.  I said earlier that Trump cannot be at war with every institution from Congress to the courts to the media.  If he is now sparing with his own Administration, the situation is reaching an acutely dysfunctional stage.  Trump cannot be an outsider in his own Administration.

I assume that Comey will not testify that he believed that Trump had engaged in actual obstruction of justice in his conversations. Otherwise, his own failure to act would be problematic.  Yet, the account of his request to Sessions (if true) would indicate that Comey was sufficiently concerned to request help directly from the Attorney General.

129 thoughts on “Report: Comey Asked Sessions Not To Leave Him Alone With Trump”

    2. Comey only went as far as Mueller would let him go. The groundwork for the case is being carefully laid. Flynn will be the first one in an orange jumpsuit and after that who knows.

  3. Excerpt from article linked below:

    “Another interesting contradiction from the pre-released James Comey congressional opening testimony statement surrounds a part of his explanation for not informing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, about the content of a February 14th oval office discussion with President Trump about Mike Flynn, against the backdrop of the timing.

    Consider the Timeline:

    February 8th – AG Jeff Sessions confirmed
    February 14th – Comey meets with President Trump (oval office above)
    March 1st – AG Sessions and Ambassador Kislyak controversy begins. (link)
    March 2nd – Sessions recuses himself from the Russian Investigation. (link)

    See the problem? At the time outlined by FBI Director James Comey, February 14th, there was nothing to indicate Attorney General Jeff Sessions would recuse himself.

    Why, on February 14th, would the FBI leadership team and James Comey be saying:

    “we concluded it made little sense to report it to AG sessions, who we expected would likely recuse himself from involvement in the Russia-related investigations”

    …when it wasn’t until more than two weeks later that the entire reason, the origin for the recusal consideration itself, became known – March 1st.

    Obviously this current statement was written by James Comey post-facto with a paramount need to justify the action taken by himself the team that was conducting the counterintelligence investigation.

    However, that said, unless the FBI leadership team also carried some psychic skill at looking into the future there’s no way they could have known on February 14th that Jeff Sessions would recuse himself on March 2nd.”

    ———————–

    article continues….

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/06/07/james-comey-timeline-on-not-informing-jeff-sessions-doesnt-add-up/

  4. When does Mueller begin the investigation of “unmasking,” “wiretapping” and surveillance of political opponents by Obama, Rice et al.?

    When does Mueller begin the investigation of the felony leaks committed against General Flynn?

    When does Mueller being the investigation of the abuse of the power of government against the People by Obama?

    1. Food service: a job even Hillary can perform adequately without compromising national security.

      No tipping please.

      1. Trump’s approval rating is now at 34%. Y’all need to work harder 🙂

    2. Comey “Mr Integrity” never resigned either. If he had so much discomfort about working for Trump, why not resign? Nothing about Comey adds up, IMO.

    1. So the Tennessee GOP thinks Comey has already testified. Fake News.

      1. Actually the tweet tells us what Tennessee GOP thinks. He thinks the countdown clock was removed because the released statement doesn’t hurt Trump. This doesn’t make what he thinks correct; this is not news, this is opinion.

        You on the other hand have Fake critical-thinking skills.

      1. LOL,

        Mespo,

        I’d rather laugh at things, but I got a call from Sen Lankford’s office, who sits on the committee question Comey tomorrow. I was explaining the incomplete rap sheet against Comey put together by Jerome Corsi at Infowars.

        Remember the Clinton crimes around Whitewater?

        If I recall correctly the govt’s case against the Clinton’s where in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma when it was blown up.

        The bombing killed 168 people, 15 were kids, injured more than 680 others, and destroyed one-third of the building.

        They keep 1st responders away from the injured inside for 2 1/2 hours while ATF/others gathered up papers and other stuff.

        American people need to get/stay pissed until these criminals, Clintons/Comeys/Bushs/etc have to be brought to justice or this country will collapse.

  10. Here’s the prepared testimony of former FBI head Jim Comey:

    A summary:
    No investigation of Trump for “Russia-gate.” And yes he confirmed it 3 times per Trump.
    No allegation of Trump obstructing an investigation of Flynn (just some mild discomfort and teh guys agreeing that “Flynn is a good guy,” too.)
    No nothing

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/06/07/full-text-james-comeys-prepared-remarks-congressional-testimony/

    Another Waterloo for fake news.

      1. Nobody turns down federal money so Mueller is still at it but Comey won’t vary much from the script he wrote and that Mueller obviously approved.

        1. Mueller is hiring attorneys that specialize in prosecution of mobsters.

          1. Hard to find lawyers who specialize in prosecuting politicians so that makes sense. We have some in Richmond but they didn’t exactly kill it in US v. Bob McDonnell.

          1. But they own you 24/7. If you work for the gubment you can pretty much do a 9-5 job and have a life. It’s a trade off.

    2. Would not be so trusting that Comey sticks to that script during q and a tomorrow.

    3. The problem with serving up nothing burgers to the anti-Trump crowd is they aren’t very filling.

  11. I believe this post is written by one of JT’s ghost writers. He doesn’t usually have this many posts in one day. It’s click bait, and it worked.

  12. Comey is a bizarre and confused individual.

    The “Russia” investigation is a farce.

    Putin is not a communist and not an enemy.

    Putin was the first head of state to call Bush after 9/11.

    Putin helped America in Afghanistan.

    Russia is a friend of America.

    Obama threatened to place NATO in Ukraine

    on Putin’s doorstep – how stupid is that?

    Russia should have been allowed into NATO.

    Obama was anti-American and did his best

    to destroy American sovereignty.

    Obama “wiretapped” political opponents during elections

    and should be in prison.

    President Trump has been inordinately “transparent”

    through his use of Twitter and has made great

    decisions for the benefit of America,

    I give you Neil Gorsuch and Christopher Wray.

    Wake up, Ameirca!

      1. George sounds like a Putin Trump troll that is spreading disinformation.

      2. Vlad told Bush Jr. that Iraq had no WMD and that the rehabilitated Saddam Husein, who was in the process

        of acquiescing and accommodating, had a positive aspect which contributed to regional stability and was

        distinctly in the interests of the U.S.

        Vlad helped Bush in Afghanistan.

        Vlad told Hillary that the rehabilitated Qaddafi and a stable Libya should not be tampered with.

        Hills destroyed them both and the ancillary beneficial “stability.”

        Russian is not communist.

        Putin is not an enemy of the U.S.

        Putin is a friend of the U.S.

        For crying out loud, America and Russia have co-operated the ISS for two decades.

        Obama unnecessarily and provocatively placed an existential threat on Putin’s doorstep in Ukraine.

        How would the U.S. react were enemy ICBM’s placed in Tijuana or Ciudad Juarez?

    2. Wake up the preppy ivy leaguers are still in charge. No news that elites rule…..

  13. “I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign. I could be wrong, but I took him to be focusing on what had just happened with Flynn’s departure and the controversy around his account of his phone calls. Regardless, it was very concerning, given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency.”

    Comey was concerned by the tone and implication of the request but didn’t think it an explicit obstruction, to a point where it required a more formal complaint to the Justice Department.

    Such wiggle-room means that, at the end of all this, illegality seems less likely than bad optics (in spite of the corrupt intent from the orange faux dictator).

      1. Don’t you think the action will occur during the questioning? Forget prepared statements or faulty analysis of them.

  15. This is an important story:

    “A former U.S. intelligence contractor tells Circa he walked away with more than 600 million classified documents on 47 hard drives from the National Security Agency and the CIA, a haul potentially larger than Edward Snowden’s now infamous breach.

    And now he is suing former FBI Director James Comey and other government figures, alleging the bureau has covered up evidence he provided them showing widespread spying on Americans that violated civil liberties.”

    http://circa.com/politics/accountability/james-comey-sued-by-intelligence-contractor-dennis-montgomery-over-spying-on-americans

  17. Maybe Comey not wanting to be alone with Trump wasn’t a case of autophobia but rather about Comey wanting to “cover his a*s” (literally). Because, you know, in the animal kingdom, the alpha male of a group will sometimes mount another male as an assertion of dominance. President or not, Trump has always seen himself as the alpha male. Perhaps one potential consequence of that is what Comey wanted to avoid.

      1. Comey is a Clinton fixer with a load of baggage. There’s a reason Obama appointed Comey. (and Holder….and Lynch.)

          2. I thought it was the Russians? Can’t you people make up your minds?

          2. Bush appointed Comeu, pesky facts.

            Pesky fact: To deputy AG
            Pesky fact: Obama nominated Comey in 2013 for FBI Chief

    1. Comey also tried to ‘blend in’ with the blue curtains at the White House.

  19. From “The Big Fat Compendium of Russiagate Debunkery” by Caitlin Johnstone:

    https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-index-of-russiagate-debunkery-f5b6f4101dd0

    “Debunking Russiagate, Part 1

    1. There is no proof.

    2. The NSA could at any time provide public proof of Russian hacking without compromising any intelligence sources, and yet they don’t.

    3. This is all coming from the same people who told us, incorrectly, that Russia hacked the French election.

    4. The “17 intelligence agencies” narrative was a lie.

    5. The CrowdStrike report on the alleged DNC hack is extremely suspect.

    6. There’s no good reason to believe the Russians (or anyone) hacked Podesta’s emails, either.

    7. Many experts are highly doubtful of the hacking narrative.

    8. Also worth noting: the CIA is known to have actively cultivated the ability to forge signs of Russian cyber intrusions.

    9. The Democrats are flat-out lying when they say the WikiLeaks emails didn’t contain anything incriminating.

    ———–

    ….continue on to read “Debunking Russiagate…”

    https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/the-big-fat-compendium-of-russiagate-debunkery-4278a753a3af

    1. You are working hard at it Mueller has more resources than Caitlin does, however. We shall see what he comes up with and whom he decides to prosecute.

  20. Does it occur to you that recycling poorly sourced tales from news outlets which are auxilliaries of the Democratic Party marks you as a chump?

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