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Comey’s Tell-All Book Tells All You Need To Know About Comey

Below is my column on the Comey book and ABC interview.  Comey continues to paint the book as a calling for him to supply an account of ethical leadership — himself — as opposed to cashing in on a tell-all book.  The book and the interview speak for themselves.

 

 

The headlines could not be more enticing or salacious. One declared “Comey memoir claims Trump was obsessed with disproving ‘pee tape’ allegation” while others featured the fired FBI director questioning Trump’s marriage. In his book, as well as Sunday’s interview with ABC News, James Comey described Trump’s “slightly orange” face with “bright white half moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles” or discussed how he “made a mental note to check [his hand] size.” (Spoiler alert: Comey found them not unusually small.)

One could easily ask what any of this has to do with justice as an ideal, let alone the Justice Department as an institution. Comey’s book makes the answer plain: Nothing. Comey is selling himself with the vigor of a Kardashian and the viciousness of a Trump. While professing to write the book to protect the FBI as an institution, Comey is doing that institution untold harm by joining an ignoble list of tell-all authors.

Until this week, the very notion of a tell-all book by a former FBI director would have been a contradiction in terms. Past directors have been remarkably circumspect. That ended with Comey’s $100 a ticket book tour to get the nitty-gritty on Trump. Both the book and Comey’s sit-down with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News feature a carefully constructed image of Comey as the virtuous man thrown into the pit of perdition that is the Trump White House. Comey was largely unchallenged in the interview as he claimed to be the “guardian” of the FBI. If true, it is a curious way to go about that. Comey was the most senior person investigating the president, and that investigation is ongoing. Prosecutors and former prosecutors are not supposed to discuss active investigations in public. It cannot benefit this investigation to have Comey hold forth on the underlying facts or reference disclosed and undisclosed evidence, nor is it helpful to his role as a cooperating witness. Witnesses are generally asked to avoid public comments, let alone tell-all books.

Notably, figures like John Dean and even Monica Lewinsky waited for underlying investigations and proceedings to end before cashing in or telling their stories. Not Comey. Timing is everything in a tell-all book, and telling this tale now will make him an exceedingly wealthy man. Comey has a history of acting in his own interest at such moments. When he was fired, he took memos he prepared during the investigation.

These were clearly FBI material, and four of the seven memos are viewed as classified. Comey never informed the FBI, and he gave four to a friend to leak to the press. He could have given them to investigators or to Congress, but he leaked them to control the press narrative. He instantly went from being an unpopular director, particularly with Democrats, to being a wronged civil servant.

It is not just classified information that may have been compromised. Some people might wonder about sharing their own secrets with Comey. Just ask John Kelly: Comey writes in his book that Trump’s chief of staff called him to express support and to denounce Comey’s firing as “dishonorable.” He says Kelly intended to resign. If true, this was a personal and confidential call, but Comey revealed it at obvious risk to Kelly. And it worked. The Kelly story added buzz to the book’s rollout.

What is most telling is how Comey continues to commit the very violations that led to calls for his firing. Stephanopoulos questioned Comey about his controversial decision to disclose information on the Clinton investigation. Before Comey was fired, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote a memo that excoriated Comey for his “serious mistakes” as FBI director and noted that both Democrats and Republicans were calling for his termination.

Rosenstein cited former attorneys general, judges and leading prosecutors who believed Comey “violated his obligation to ’preserve, protect and defend’ the traditions of the Department and the FBI” and “violated long-standing Justice Department policies and tradition.” Rosenstein added that Comey “refused to admit his errors.”

The book and the ABC News interview show Comey is both unrepentant and unchanged. Comey is again discussing the evidence in an ongoing investigation against an uncharged person. He further alluded to still-undisclosed evidence involving former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s role in the Clinton investigation, evidence he suggested would support him. Comey went even further in the interview, declaring there is “certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice” by Trump.

Comey stated publicly that “I think it’s possible” the Russians have compromising material on Trump and made repeated reference to the possibility that Trump had prostitutes in a Moscow hotel urinate on each other and the bed once used by the Obamas. Rather than saying the allegation remains unverified, Comey said with signature wide-eyed shock that it could have happened. In that one statement, he showed exactly why so many thought he should have been fired on Inauguration Day.

In one of the few challenges to Comey’s account, Stephanopoulos referred to the “previous attorney generals for President Bush, for President Ford, for President Obama, Justice Department officials for President Clinton. They all disagree with you.” Comey flailed around with a long-winded answer and basically said all of them are wrong. Stephanopoulos then offered an alternative rationale that everyone expected Clinton to win and “your concern that she wins, this comes out several weeks later, and then that’s taken by her opponent as a sign that she’s an illegitimate president?”

Comey immediately said that must have been his thinking: “I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been. Cause I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump. And so I’m sure that it … was a factor. Like I said, I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been. That … she’s going to be elected president, and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out.”

Where in the Justice Department guidelines is an FBI official given license to follow the polls and take actions to legitimize political figures? Comey seemed unfazed by the obvious contradiction when he declared, “If I ever start considering whose political fortunes will be affected by a decision, we’re done … we’re just another player in … the tribal battle.” So you can never “consider political fortunes” unless you are trying to legitimize the expected winner of the presidential election.

In the end, the book and interview tell more about the former FBI director than the president. In again reminding viewers that Trump may have engaged with Russian prostitutes, Comey feigns a pained expression and says, “It is stunning and I wish I wasn’t saying it, but it’s just … the truth.” And more importantly, it is all in his book.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

203 thoughts on “Comey’s Tell-All Book Tells All You Need To Know About Comey”

  1. Simply because Comey tried to spice up his book you find fault with his leadership. Lighten up Turley!

  2. Comey made gobs of money in private practice between 2005 and 2013. He’s already a very wealthy man. Whatever his motives are in flogging this book, it’s a reasonable wager they’re not altogether mercenary.

    James Comey has spent 60% of his time at the bar as an employee of the Department of Justice, Robert Mueller 70%, and Rod Rosenstein about 95%. From a distance, they all come off as bureaucratic gamesmen whose higher cause, if any, is to protect the prerogatives of their ilk. Most academics writing about the larger society give off the same vibe.

    To make the world a more just and sensible place, strip them of their privileges. Between now and then, if you can’t make it better, laugh at it.

  3. I can’t tell if Turley read the book. Seems that he’s quoting a lot from the interviews. Unfortunately, the interviewers focus almost entirely on the parts of his memoir that are about Trump. I’d be interested in a discussion about the other parts of it, as well, particularly his experience with bullying.

    And the most interesting things are what he knows but can’t comment on – things that might shed light on his decisions. Perhaps we’ll get that in the future.

    What makes him an interesting figure is that the Ds loved his first Clinton decision and the Rs hated it. And then that flipped with the second decision.

    Looking forward to reading the entire memoir.

    1. amyd – it seems that it is a slender volume. There is a little about Trump and a lot about what a great guy Comey is

  5. Comey threw da election to a debauched orange porn King that likes da wars and authoritarianism. Here we sit in Katostrophici Kleptocracy. Thanks Comey

    1. So how do you explain Trump’s 51% approval ratings? Obama only had 47% at the same time in his presidency.

      1. HaHaHa You are cherry picking da one one poll where Stormy’s lover has a lead.

      2. This specific polling organization is always an outlier. Better to look at all the polls for a more accurate picture.

        1. Tuesday, April 17, 2018

          Here they go again.

          The anti-Trump media in its typical pack fashion has begun criticizing Rasmussen Reports in recent days. Why? Because President Trump likes the job approval numbers we’re reporting.

          It’s true that our Daily Presidential Tracking Poll often finds Trump’s public job approval several points higher than other national pollsters do. The same thing was true during the latter years of Barack Obama’s presidency, but for some reason the big media didn’t have a problem with that.

          Now it’s true that if we only surveyed the newsrooms of The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, Trump’s job approval ratings would be lower than low. Fortunately for our readers, however, we survey the real America outside the newsrooms and beyond the Beltway that girdles the nation’s capital. They give the president higher marks for his job performance out there.

          The criticism from the anti-Trumpers is nothing new. Rasmussen Reports was constantly criticized throughout the 2016 election cycle for showing that Trump and Hillary Clinton were in a neck-and-neck contest much of the time. We were branded “outliers” because our findings didn’t show Clinton leaving Trump in the dust on a fast train to the White House.

          Two days before the election, a prominent Democratic operative sent us an e-mail asking when we were going to apologize for being so wrong all year. But a funny thing happened when Americans actually got to vote. Trump defeated Clinton in perhaps the greatest electoral upset in U.S. history, and our polling nailed the exact margin between the two candidates.

          Who got it right? The three daily tracking polls – Investor’s Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times and Rasmussen Reports. We’re the ones who were taking the temperature of the electorate every single day, not dropping in for a handful of days like the others – usually after a controversy – for a snapshot of popular opinion

          The rest of the polling industry was way off on the 2016 election results and spent the next several weeks apologizing for its worst performance since Dewey-Beats-Truman. Despite all the mea culpa-ing and public breast-beating, though, nothing much changed in the way they count their numbers.

          http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/commentary_by_fran_coombs/the_liars_say_we_re_outliers_again

    2. And if you don’t think Trump has something to do with this, you’d be wrong….

      “North and South Korea are discussing plans to make a stunning announcement at their leaders summit next week: a permanent end to the 68-year state of war between the two, according to reports.

      North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in may release a joint statement saying they will seek to end military conflict, an unidentified Seoul official told the Munhwa Ilbo newspaper, Bloomberg reported.”

      https://nypost.com/2018/04/17/koreas-expected-to-announce-end-of-68-year-war/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

      2. TBob,

        That would be a remarkable accomplishment. It’s disgusting how many people will secretly hope it fails so that it doesn’t happen on President Trump’s watch.

        1. Hope it succeeds so T rump won’t start a nuke war and blow up da world.

        2. If North and South Korea end the war between them I will give lots of people credit, including president Trump.

          1. And perhaps even Nobel Peace Prizes all around — for actually achieving something worthy of the recognition –as opposed to getting a prize just for “being” biracial Baby Jesus Barack Obama.

            1. Sorry, meant to say, biracial Barry from Honolulu…the Nobel committee gave the prize to Barry from Honolulu….just for being Barry…

  6. Given a choice, between Comey or the Orange One…..
    Comey, wins every time. !!!

      1. I’ll take the Godather anyday. You can have emotive/hurt mean girl Comey.

        1. I’ll take the Godfather anyday. You can have emotive/hurt mean girl Comey.

    2. good god, yes. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with either of Comey’s decisions – he was in a no win situation particularly in the one closest to the election.

      But in terms of character, thoughtfulness, and intelligence, Trump isn’t even in the same stratosphere as Comey.

      But Trump wins out on the “character as defined by Roy Cohn” index.

  7. Interesting part of Comey’s ABC interview that ended up on the cutting room floor:

    GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Dig into that. Why could the attorney general not credibly announce the results of this investigation?

    JAMES COMEY: Well, for a bunch of reasons. And it sort of built over the course of the investigation. First of all, we had the problem that President Obama had twice publicly basically said, “There’s no there, there.” In an interview with– on Fox, an interview on 60 Minutes I think, both times he said that. So that’s his Justice Department.

    GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Did that surprise you?

    JAMES COMEY: It really did surprise me. He’s a very smart man and a lawyer. And so it surprised me. He shouldn’t have done it. It was inappropriate–

    GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Did you think he was trying to color the case?

    JAMES COMEY: I don’t know. I don’t think so. He didn’t have any insight into the case, at least as far as I know, more than anybody reading the newspaper did, which was zero ’cause there were no leaks. I think he felt a pressure in the political environment because he wanted Hillary Clinton to be elected, to give her a shot in the arm. And so he spoke about an investigation. And he shouldn’t have done that. But that, as you can imagine, created this drumbeat that the Obama Justice Department, the fix is in because the president has told them what result they should reach.

    GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So that’s one reason that the Justice Department is compromised. What’s reason number two?

    JAMES COMEY: Reason number two. And I have to talk about it very carefully. Classified information came into the possession of the U.S. intelligence community in the early part of 2016 that indicated there was material out there that raised the question of whether Loretta Lynch was controlling me and the F.B.I. and keeping the Clinton campaign informed about our investigation.

    Now, I don’t believe that. And I don’t believe that’s true. But there was material that I knew someday, when it’s declassified, and I thought that would be decades in the future, would cause historians to wonder, “Hmm, was there some strange business going on there? Was Loretta Lynch somehow in — carrying water for the campaign and controlling what the F.B.I. did?”

    http://abcnews.go.com/Site/transcript-james-comeys-interview-abc-news-chief-anchor/story?id=54488723

    1. “President Obama used an undisclosed pseudonym to communicate with then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her private email server – shocking her top aide Huma Abedin when she learned of it.

      “How is that not classified?” Abedin “exclaimed” to investigators when shown a copy of the 2012 exchange between Clinton and Obama, according to a trove of 189-pages of FBI documents dumped Friday night into Clinton’s use of the private server.”

      https://nypost.com/2016/09/24/obama-used-pseudonym-to-talk-with-hillary-on-private-server/

    2. And just to emphasize the comment that ABC left on the cutting room floor….Comey said Obama was “wrong” and “inappropriate” to do what he did. Wonder why ABC left that part out?

      “He shouldn’t have done it. It was inappropriate…” said Comey about Obama.

  10. Perhaps professor you have not had much personal dealings with the FBI. Comey is the FBI, what it always has been, is today and always will be. Perhaps not as quite as despicable as DEA crooks but in the running. I’ve had personal dealings with the FBI as both a political prisoner of the tricky dick criminal cabal for speaking truth to the power about the illegal, immoral, unethical, unneeded war in Vietnam as a USMC Sgt-Vietnam 1966/67. Later in life I dealt with them in a different way, as a certified/commissioned law enforcement officer. While some could be very nice if they thought you were on their side, don’t ever think they aren’t above using any trick in the book including intimidation, lying, planting evidence, destroying evidence (also see CIA destroyed torture tapes) going to your employer to get you fired, harassment that doesn’t end for years even with the intervention of real attorneys. I had the “privilege” of attending a 40 hr. course on Interrogations and Interviews. It was not an eye opener because I was already well aware of their “techniques”. Remember COINENTEL? I do all to well, think it ended, bull crap it just morphed. In VVAW we called them the fumbling bureau of idiots. Hell, we used to pop out the back of our house, over the fence, go buy them coffee and donuts and come up behind them without them even knowing we were there. They were dealing with Vietnam Vets. Scared hell out of them, but I bet they still drank the coffee and ate the donuts. Surveillance, what a laugh, they’ve hundreds of pics of me taking they thought without my knowledge, 99% shooting them I’m shooting the bird. I also taught a class on how to deal with the fbi, ID yourself if asked, it’s the law, and tell them to f**k off. Never, ever, talk to them or let them in the door. Call the local police if needed. Always call your attorney. Simple class. Oh, that’s the Reader’s Digest version of my dealings with the fbi.

    Ordinarily I’d say good riddance to bad rubbish with Comey, but in this case perhaps the end will justify the means. The orange fascist needs to spend the rest of his days along with his crime cabal in GitMo, the sooner the better and I don’t give a damn how they get that traitor there, hopefully along with the Koch (John Birch Society) traitor brothers.

    1. Oops, spell check works, but gramer…? “they’ve hundreds of pics of me taking they thought without my knowledge, 99% shooting them I’m shooting the bird. ” Wrong!

      Should have read “taken they……..99% them I’m shooting…….”

      Sorry about that.

    2. Sgtsabai:

      Funny that every post of your ends with you being the hero over a vanquished foe. But I do agree with one thing, nothing good ever comes from a voluntary chat with the FBI. Maybe Trump will take your advice.

    4. sgtsbai, I see those who haven’t been there are quick to criticize. Hang in there. You’re not alone. I agree that Cointopro is still happening after the morph.

    5. I agree with you about the FBI and other LEOs often being a pack of stupid jerks, and lying jerks, and incompetent jerks, and even criminal jerks. Heck, why do you think the term, “testalying” got invented???

      Unfortunately, being various kinds of jerks comes with the law enforcement territory. Think of it like this— would you expect a pious vegan Sunday School teacher to make a good sniper in the military, or a SEAL??? Somebody to sneak up behind another human being and stick a knife in their throat and hold their hand over their mouth until they bled out???

      I wouldn’t. Similarly, LEOs and the FBI have to deal with criminals and savages and downright human trash on a regular basis. What kind of people sign up for that duty??? Mostly, people who think they have a responsibility to bring justice and stability to the community and aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty in the process.

      The “answer” to over zealous LEOs is a jury, and a good lawyer. Not just b*tching about the LEOs.

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

  12. I found a word in the dictionary…..Pettifogger

    Definition of PETTIFOGGER

    1 : a lawyer whose methods are petty, underhanded, or disreputable : SHYSTER

    2 : Someone who quibbles over trivia, and raises petty, annoying objections and sophistry. An unscrupulous or unethical lawyer, especially one of lesser skill.

  15. Comey is a bitter, disloyal, disgruntled, dishonest, self righteous, supercilious, self absorbed, petty and dishonorable man.
    It is clear he broke the law with his taking of his memos and leaking them to spark the appointment of a Special Counsel. It also seems he lied under oath and was less than candid with Congress. He must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law regardless of what happens with Trump.
    It is essential that he be held to account in order to preserve what is left of the reputation of the FBI and Department of Justice.

    1. Well, that’s your opinion. My opinion is that there will eventually be a medal named after him, as well as schools, highways and scholarships.

      This is to “Hannity is my truth whisperer” titi

    2. Agreed — and that’s just a fraction of Comey’s misconduct. The FBI that Comey was supposed to be directing also provided private contractors (one of which is believed to be Fusion GPS) with unlawful and unsupervised access to raw, unmasked intelligence, as extensively referenced in the FISC (FISA Court) Memorandum that was declassified around this time last year.

      https://www.scribd.com/document/349454375/2016-Cert-FISC-Memo-Opin-Order-Apr-2017#fullscreen&from_embed

      Behind much of the blacking-out in the FISC Memorandum are pages and pages of information concerning the FBI providing unlawful access to NSA intelligence to private contractors. This conduct is believed to be how Fusion GPS came up with the information about Michael Cohen visiting Prague, as referenced in the Steele “dossier.” The problem is that it’s the wrong Michael Cohen, not the one that works for Trump, who’s already provided his passport as proof he was in the US when the Steele “dossier” claims he was in Prague.

      So what’s believed to have happened, and might be verified by the Inspector General, is that Fusion GPS took its unlawfully-accessed NSA intelligence and gave it to Christopher Steele, who then put it in his “dossier” under the pretense that he got it from contacts in Russia.

      As Director of the FBI, Comey is responsible for all of that — the unlawful access to NSA data by private contractors, the fraud and unauthorized disclosure of NSA data related to giving the information to Christopher Steele, and the fraud of receiving the information back from Steele under the pretense that he’d gotten the information from Russians.

      That should result in a number of people — including Comey — doing some serious prison time

  16. James Comey and Barack Obama. Two people when faced with the errors of their ways, refuse to admit fault.

    But they can sure spout their philosophical ways.

    Good riddance.

    1. Trump blusters, lies, blames others and won’t admit he’s wrong because he lacks all capacity for self-reflection.

  17. How embarrassing this man is.

    And, the wife and daughters actually showing up to a resistance march the day after the inauguration? And, they are supposed to be educated?

    Oh, and her husband at the time, worked for the President she was resisting!

    Can’t make it up.

    1. Knowledgeisgood – And Comey listens closely to his wife. Their pillow talk must be fascinating. He was trying to blackmail the President with the dossier and the President would not let him.

      The reaction of CNN’s Republican focus group was very funny. What the women said about him was devasting. 🙂

      1. Hey Paul — you posted a reply to one of my replies to another reply — and it’s all disappeared from the site. It was about Grant’s memoirs (should be below, but it’s not there). Anyway, I’ve always meant to read it but haven’t.

        Meanwhile, in the reply to the reply that I was replying to, I was trying to remember where I’d read the information about Twain publishing Grant’s memoirs, and it finally occurred to me that it must have been in the hardcopy Introduction to either Life on the Mississippi or Roughing it. I’m thinking it was the Intro to Life on the Mississippi, because that was a pretty extensive intro. Now all I have to do is find my copy of the book.

        If I remember correctly, not only was Twain the driving force behind publishing the Grant’s memoirs and getting it sold so that the widow Grant would get the money (and probably so that so many out-of-work former Union soldiers could make some money selling the book), and not only (if my memory is correct) did Twain not accept any profit from doing all of that, but I believe he was having his own financial difficulties at the time. They just don’t make people like that anymore — a huge contrast to the Comey Ego Tour, as Darren pointed out.

        As for the Travelers Abroad — do you mean The Innocents Abroad? — or maybe A Tramp Abroad?

        I’ve read The Innocents Abroad many times over the years. Whenever I feel like getting out of town but don’t have the time or money, I reread The Innocents Abroad to take a vacation in my mind if not with my body — where he went on the first pleasure cruise in history — across the Atlantic and through the Mediterranean, stopping at various ports of call — sneaking ashore in Greece because there was a quarantine and people weren’t allowed ashore — going over land in Syria (most of the middle east was all Syria at that time) — lots of pretty politically-incorrect cracks about the catholic church — etc.

        That’s a really fun read.

        1. William Bayer – you are correct, it is Innocents Abroad. All the guides are named Guido or something. They all have the same name. 🙂 Twain supported Grant writing and publishing his book at a loss to himself. Grant died shortly after the final pages were turned in.

          1. Thanks for confirming my memory — although I only remembered that he didn’t make money. I didn’t remember that he lost money, but that might not be the way the account I read was written.

  18. Mr. Comey is a man without honor.

    The Book Deal: often a form of forward-corruption which serves as the end-game of years of putting one’s self ahead of public duty and the spirit of their office, thereby bypassing oversight prohibiting acquiring wealth as a reward. Generally the evidence of how unseemly such a deal might be could be found in revealing the purpose the author has in seeking the deal.

    Probably a good example of an opposing approach to the intents of Mr. Comey’s book hawking compares with President Grant’s memoirs.

    President Grant, through various failed investment ventures exasperated by his inner duty to repay creditors or those who otherwise lost money, elected to write these memoirs to provide for his wife and family. Having completed the memoir, he succumbed to cancer just days thereafter.

    Contrasting the two men’s books, Grant’s memoirs received great acclaim and provided much historical insight and perspective that served the public interest. From our host’s review of Comey’s book it is rather apparent it is just another example of a self-serving, tabloid quality embellishment having attributes that will never survive the test of time.

    1. Grant’s memoirs — published by Mark Twain, for those who didn’t know that Twain was a publisher as well as a writer (and steamboat pilot, miner, reporter, first stand-up comedian, etc.).

      To assure that the two-volume work would sell to the largest extent possible and thereby leave Grant’s widow well off, Twain had former Union soldiers — 10,000 of them, most wearing their old uniforms — peddle the volumes door-to-door, in the end netting Mrs. Grant nearly a half million dollars.

    2. it’s the SECOND time I’ve drawn Darren’s attention to your violation of the Civility Rules, and in this instance I’m pointing out that you’ve gone far beyond violation of the Civility Rules and entered into the realm of conduct which is actionable in a court of law.
      Maybe you don’t understand what that means, but I’m pretty sure Turley does.

      1. You can’t sue me without violating my privacy. I’m certain that Turley knows that, as well. Moreover, your posted replies to me and others on this blawg would be no less admissible in a court of law than any of my replies to your posts. Your bluff is yet another instance of your pathetic twerpitude.

    3. That’s a great story–forgot how poor of luck Grant fell on after the war–nice reminder Darren, thanks for that. I guess we just see here the results of generations of non-merit based and quota-driven government in action. This is what we are getting for our tax dollars? I’ve personally not heard anything good about the FBI from those who deal with it. Just defund it and get rid of it.

  19. “Hurry, hurry! Gather ’round Comey, the Eighth Wonder, anomaly in human form, as he heads from town to town, network to network, high-profile interview after high-profile interview, to bewilder hearts and minds further! The FBI’s beautiful ogre of contradiction has forged a book from the fire of his abnormality that will hurl the unfit president who Comey himself helped defeat Hillary into a rage for the ages! For in the world of Comey, justice must fail in order for justice to be done, just as one must be the villain that gets Drumpf elected in order to be the hero that gets Drumpf impeached! Come one, come all, liberals who dare submit to the riddle of intentions that is Comey, the beast of enigmatic loyalty to all and none!”

    https://www.clickhole.com/step-right-up-and-feast-your-eyes-on-the-unfathomable-c-1825329399

  20. Missing from this piece, any mention of the issue of whether it is right for a president to ask for the loyalty of an FBI director or whether a president should be asking an FBI director to “go easy” on someone being investigated. Perhaps you have commented on that elsewhere.

    2. You can take any issue you want out of context.

      Missing from your comment is the fact that Comey had secretly launched a counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign without notifying Congress as required, and the FBI had provided Fusion GPS unlawful access to raw NSA intelligence data which they put into the fabricated Steele “dossier” under the pretense that it had been gathered by Steele. One bit of that unlawfully accessed raw intelligence relates to Michael Cohen and his alleged trip to Prague. The problem is that that information was obtained through unlawful access to NSA data. The search query was for information about Michael Cohen, and it turned up information about someone named Michael Cohen who’d visited Prague, but it wasn’t the right Michael Cohen — it was someone else entirely. Not knowing this, Fusion fed the information to Christopher Steele, who then put it in his phony “dossier” and claimed in came from Russian sources. Some of this information was referenced (with names redacted) in the 99-page FISA Court Memorandum that was declassified in April of 2017 — almost exactly one year ago.

      The list of crimes committed by Comey is quite lengthy, and NSA Director Roger’s surely told Trump about some of what had been going on. So there were good reason to question Comey’s loyalty.

      Comey has peddled his fiction without mentioning that part of the story concerning what he was up to, so as to make it sound as if there was no reason for Trump to wonder about his loyalty. Everything we’ve learned since and, more importantly, everything that is yet to be made public, indicates that it was correct to question Comey’s loyalty.

      And Comey testified under oath that Trump had never put pressure on him for the purpose of influencing any investigation — so your “go easy” nonsense is just that — nonsense. Given Flynn’s service to the country, there’s nothing wrong with Trump voicing his opinion that he HOPED Comey could take it easy on Flynn.

        1. I’ve read an article about it, but I can’t seem to get that website to open up the letter for me to read. I’ve tried dozens of times already. I even downloaded a new PDF reader just to get to read that letter, but I haven’t succeeded yet. And it REALLY bugs me. There’s an article at the Daily Caller with a link to the letter, and there’s an article at The Hill with a link to the letter. And I did a search directly for the letter without going through any other website. It always indicates that the letter is a desantis.house.gov and I can’t get that stupid letter to open.

              1. Best sentence of the letter is the last:

                “Accordingly, we refer to DOJ all DOJ and FBI personnel responsible for signing the Carter Page warrant application that contained unverified and/or false information for possible violation(s) of: 18 USC 242 and 18 USC 1505 and 1515b”

                That will put Rosenstein under investigation, and that should remove him from his oversight of Mueller. Then someone can be put in place — whoever #3 is at DOJ — to ask Mueller what the heck he thinks he’s doing.

                I could think of dozens of other statutes to cite and people to refer for criminal investigation, but this is a start.

                Thanks again for getting me that letter. The Conservative Treehouse article is the best of the ones I’ve read so far.

                I wonder how Comey’s book tour will handle him being under criminal referral. Since the DOJ/FBI neither confirms nor denies an investigation, Comey will have to assume that referral = investigation. It will be hilarious to see if he keeps flippantly shooting his mouth off.

                  2. McCabe’s lawyer has previously claimed (immediately after McCabe was fired) that McCabe has emails that prove Comey knew all about his contacts with the WSJ. Can’t imagine what legal basis McCabe would have to possess such emails, since he should have been using a government-issued device and a government account, and McCabe’s access to that account would have been cut off when he was canned, and his device should have been turned in, probably when he was sent on terminal leave well before he got canned.

                    So I don’t think McCabe can save himself, but if he actually has any of the information that his lawyer has previously claimed he has, or if anything in that tweet is true, it will go a long way toward tacking years onto Comey’s sentence.

                    Yeah — I haven’t even remotely been paying attention to Comey’s Nonsense Tour, except what I’ve been reading about at various websites — so I don’t know what he has scheduled for tonight or tomorrow — but if Comey doesn’t cancel, he’s a bigger fool than he’s proven he is already.

                    This should get really interesting really fast. I think the FBI raiding Cohen’s files made everyone wake up to the realization that this really is a war and it’s time to start fighting instead of sitting around waiting to find out what someone else does.

                    Thanks for the tweet.

                  3. “I really cannot believe he is out running his mouth ”

                    I’m happy he is running his mouth. Let him take pot shots at everyone so he can boost his self-esteem. Maybe we will have angry mouths incriminating one another. In the meantime, I don’t think Comey damages Trump as the public is starting to see a self-serving former director of the FBI making a fool of himself.

                    1. Oh, I completely agree with you, Allan.

                      It is just astonishing he is exhibiting such poor judgment. I expect we will find many of the ‘masterminds’ behind this, along with the participating underlings, all enjoy bloated egos…….

            2. Yeah! That looks like it. I’d been hoping to find it at scribd.com
              And I’d also been checking the conservative treehouse every half hour but nothing. If it’s there now, they put it up in the last half hour.
              THANKS!

    4. Right or legal? It’s certainly not illegal as the head of the Executive Branch who has the prerogative to hire and fire and to investigate. Right depends on your philosophy of government.

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