Justice, Lawyering, Media

Andrew McCabe’s Bizarre CNN Interview

McCabeMany in the media have struggled mightily to ignore the highly disturbing evidence that has been released in the Flynn case and to paint the decision to dismiss the case as a raw political act by Attorney General Bill Barr.  CNN this morning even called former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe who proceeded to make statements about the record that were utterly absurd and untrue. Not only was McCabe not challenged on the statements, it was never mentioned that he was fired after being found by career investigators to have lied to them (the very charge against Flynn). Despite the fact that his false statements were related to this very case, it was not deemed relevant to raise by CNN with CNN’s senior analyst. McCabe however displayed the very bias and maliciousness documented by career investigators before he was fired. The interview reminds one of the recently released text of FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok to Lisa Page, the Special Counsel to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, remarking that “our utter incompetence actually helps us.”

CNN host John Berman interviewed McCabe.  CNN has long used McCabe to give analysis on a host of Trump-related stories despite being fired by Trump, ridiculed for his prior bias, and referred (by career officials) for possible criminal charges.

This interview, however, was even more remarkable.  The documents released in the Flynn case referred to McCabe and his alleged misconduct.  He was not asked about any of the specific allegations against him.  Instead, he gave a revisionist history that quickly crossed into fantasy.

McCabe told Berman that, in December 2016, they were considering the closure of the investigation involving Flynn but that it was a “close question.” We have previously discussed this history.  On January 4, 2017, the FBI’s Washington Field Office issued a “Closing Communication” indicating that the bureau was terminating “CROSSFIRE RAZOR” — the newly disclosed codename for the investigation of Flynn.  CROSSFIRE RAZOR was formed to determine whether Flynn “was directed and controlled by” or “coordinated activities with the Russian Federation in a manner which is a threat to the national security” of the United States or a violation of federal foreign agent laws.  The FBI investigated Flynn and various databases and determined that “no derogatory information was identified in FBI holdings.” Due to this conclusion, the Washington Field Office concluded that Flynn “was no longer a viable candidate as part of the larger CROSSFIRE HURRICANE umbrella case.”

After Strzok intervened to stop the closure of the investigation, he texted FBI lawyer Lisa Page “Razor still open. :@ but serendipitously good, I guess. You want those chips and Oreos?” Page replied “Phew. But yeah that’s amazing that he is still open. Good, I guess.” Strzok replied “Yeah, our utter incompetence actually helps us. 20% of the time, I’m guessing :)”

So McCabe was left unchallenged in saying that at that time there was a close question as to whether to close Crossfire Razor when his investigators found nothing.  Nothing.  That made it a close question for McCabe whether to continue to investigate the incoming Trump National Security Adviser.

What McCabe stated next was truly incredible.  He told Berman that he then learned that Flynn has arranged “surreptitious meetings” with the Russians.  He explained that this was akin to investigating someone for drug dealing and then learning about his meeting with drug dealers. The problem is that there was no evidence of a crime of any kind against Flynn.  Moreover, this was not a “surreptitious” meeting. There was no reason for McCabe to know about the communications of the incoming National Security Adviser with foreign officials.  It was not “surreptitious.” Flynn reportedly told the transition team about the call and that the Russians wanted to talk after the newly imposed sanctions against them.  It is not “surreptitious” just because McCabe did not know about it and he did not reach out to the Transition Team.

It was perfectly legal (and unsurprising) that the Russians spoke to the incoming National Security Adviser after the imposition of sanctions.  Trump had stated publicly that he wanted to reframe the relations with the Russians and indicated that the review would include the sanctions.  The conversation was both lawful and consistent with the position of the incoming Administration.

He also stated that he still fears that Flynn was a national security threat.  Why? Because he spoke with the Russians about their opposition to the new sanctions?

The most surprising element of the interview however was not McCabe reinventing history but the complete absence of probing questions about these contradictions or the allegations against him personally in this case.  For example, while McCabe was saying that he would continue to stand up for career Justice officials, there was no question about his reportedly cutting off another high-ranking official who raised concerns about this aggressive pursuit of Flynn.  McCabe and James Comey were discussing the use of the Logan Act, a flagrantly unconstitutional law, to create a crime upon which to prosecute Flynn.  The law has never been used to convict a single person because it is viewed as a direct violation of the First Amendment. Was that raised? Of course not.

In this story, McCabe is not a new analyst. He is news.  Instead of pressing him on these conflicts and allegations, he was allowed to rage against Trump, Barr, and Flynn.  It is a new twist on echo journalism.  McCabe the CNN analyst was echoing his own false account and calling it news analysis.

285 thoughts on “Andrew McCabe’s Bizarre CNN Interview”

  1. From February:

    The National Review Explains Why McCabe Wasnt Charged

    The Justice Department stood to take some hits if McCabe had been charged. Focus on McCabe’s leak would have drawn attention to pressure DOJ officials had put on the Bureau over the Clinton Foundation investigation (which, reportedly, is likely to be closed without charges). It would also renew interest in the question of whether the FBI improperly allowed McCabe to play a role in Clinton-related investigations when his wife, as a political candidate, got major funding from Clinton-tied sources.

    Moreover, new Freedom of Information Act disclosures — made to meet a deadline set by District Judge Reggie Walton, which may explain the timing of the non-prosecution announcement — indicate that the Justice Department and FBI did not comply with regulations in what appears to be the rushed termination of McCabe, adding heft to the former deputy director’s claim that he was being singled out for abusive treatment, potentially including prosecution, because of vengeful politics.

    On that score, Judge Walton took pains to decry the fusillade of tweets directed at McCabe by President Trump. I must note here that if a district U.S. attorney publicly labeled as a liar a suspect the Justice Department had indicted for false statements, that U.S. attorney would be sanctioned by the court. The U.S. attorneys, like the rest of the Justice Department, work for Trump. The president is correct when he insists, as he did this week, that he has the constitutional power to intervene in Justice Department matters. But that means he is subject to the same legal obligations that inhibit his Justice Department subordinates. Those obligations include protecting McCabe’s right to a fair trial — a duty the president may chafe at, but which is part of the deal when you take an oath to preserve the Constitution and execute the laws faithfully.

    If you envision Judge Walton as part of the Obama-appointed robed resistance, check your premises. He is a no-nonsense jurist originally named to the D.C. Superior Court by President Reagan, and then to the federal district court by President George W. Bush. As Politico reports, he had this to say about President Trump’s commentary on the McCabe investigation:

    The public is listening to what’s going on, and I don’t think people like the fact that you got somebody at the top basically trying to dictate whether somebody should be prosecuted. . . . I just think it’s a banana republic when we go down that road. . . . I think there are a lot of people on the outside who perceive that there is undo inappropriate pressure being brought to bear. . . . It’s just, it’s very disturbing that we’re in the mess that we’re in in that regard. . . . I just think the integrity of the process is being unduly undermined by inappropriate comments and actions on the part of people at the top of our government. . . . I think it’s very unfortunate. And I think as a government and as a society we’re going to pay a price at some point for this.

    If you want to know why Attorney General Barr was warning this week that the president’s tweets are undermining the Justice Department’s pursuit of its law-enforcement mission, Judge Walton’s words are worth heeding. I have been making this point since the start of the Trump presidency. If you want people held accountable for their crimes, you have to ensure their fundamental right to due process. When the government poisons the well, the bad guys reap the benefits.

    Edited from: “Why Wasn’t Andrew McCabe Charged?”

    The National Review, 2/15/20

    1. So What Racist? People see right through you people attempting to stir up race wars the last 60/70 years yet you people never say next to anything about black on black crimes or the Spanish/Indian mix crimes on each other.

      And if it’d been all white guys a person would likely be banned off youtube/facebook/twitter if they posted anything about the subject.

      How about we as a nation focus on all these Commie/Fascist Blue State Dem sh*tholes they’ve created like Chiraq/Chicago & clean them out?

      Put them on Grizzy island Ak? lol

      Ouch! 17 shot dead & the month has a lot of days left to run.

      https://heyjackass.com/

    2. Here’s a comment that was posted to a NY Times op-ed, yesterday:

      “I’m from the town this happened in. This isn’t the first time this has happened. The police department is corrupt. They sweep events under the rug often, just as they tried to do with this one. I hope the police department gets investigated thoroughly because they’re a small-town department who all know each other and are power hungry. They do not care about the lives of the citizens.”

      The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery

      Another black man falsely assumed to be a criminal is dead.

      By Charles M. Blow
      Opinion Columnist

      https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/opinion/ahmaud-arbery-killing.html

    3. For those who don’t want to sign in on YouTube:

      ‘“A Lynch Mob”: After Months of Inaction, 2 White Men Are Charged with Murder of Ahmaud Arbery in GA’

      https://www.democracynow.org/2020/5/8/ahmaud_arbery_murder_benjamin_crump

      Excerpt of transcript:

      AMY GOODMAN: The two White men who were caught on film shooting and killing Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African American man, in February, were arrested and charged with murder, two days after the video was shared with the public, sparking widespread outrage. Retired police officer Gregory McMichael and his son Travis were both charged with murder and aggravated assault, and booked in Glynn County, Georgia, where the killing took place more than two months ago. Their arrests follow days of protest over the details of the case and the fact that the two men walked free for months after slaying Arbery.

      The disturbing video that emerged Tuesday shows Ahmaud Arbery jogging down a narrow road in Brunswick, Georgia, in broad daylight, when he’s confronted by the two armed men. As Arbery jogs, Travis McMichael can be seen waiting for him in the road with a shotgun while his father stands in the back of a pickup truck with a revolver. After a brief confrontation, Arbery is shot at three times. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said in a news briefing Travis McMichael is the one who shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery.

      The video was filmed by a third White man, William Bryan. Journalist Shaun King said on Twitter Friday Bryan is also being charged but has not yet been arrested. The Brunswick police reportedly had a copy of the shocking video since February, but before Thursday no charges had been filed against the McMichaels, who claimed they chased Arbery because he looked like a burglary suspect. Gregory McMichael is a former officer with the Glynn County Police Department, who also worked as an investigator in the District Attorney’s Office there.

      1. It appears a decent black man was murdered by two other men. Take note that those men will prosecuted and convicted no matter the color of the jury if what we are seeing is the full story. I am glad Amy Goodman brings this up. I only wish that she would be as concerned about the thousands of black males killed every year in cities like Chicago and Detroit.

        1. I’d suspend judgment until more details emerge.

          1. DSS, take note of my words: “It appears … if what we are seeing is the full story.”

            1. Allen:
              The kid had a theft crime conviction and a gun charge. He is on video trespassing on an unfinished home site where fishing gear was stolen and fit the description of the thief. He was known to the defendants through their work in law enforcement and a citizens’ arrest is lawful in Georgia. The previous and now recused prosecutor ruled it a righteous shoot given the struggle over the shotgun. Lots if facts both ways here so things may not be as they appear. Let the grand jury sort it out.

                  1. “Director: GBI finds probable cause for arrests within 36 hours of taking Ahmaud Arbery case”

                    1. “After the killing, according to a Glynn County Police report, Gregory McMichael told police he thought Arbery, 25, looked like a person suspected in a series of a recent break-ins in the Satilla Shores neighborhood.

                      “But according to Glynn County Police Lt. Cheri Bashlor, just one automobile burglary in the neighborhood was reported when a 9 mm pistol was stolen January 1 from an unlocked truck outside the McMichaels’ home.”

                      https://www.channel3000.com/men-accused-of-killing-ahmaud-arbery-thought-he-was-a-burglary-suspect-but-no-burglaries-were-reported-in-the-month-before-the-shooting/

                2. “Georgia Killing Puts Spotlight on a Police Force’s Troubled History”

                  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/us/glynn-county-police-ahmaud-arbery.html

                  Excerpt:

                  “It’s small-town America,” Mr. Merritt said in an interview on Thursday. “Those counties, the law enforcement community there they know each other well, they recycle officers in between themselves — it’s a very tight-knit community.”

                  Over the years, Glynn County police officers have been accused of covering up allegations of misconduct, tampering with a crime scene, interfering in an investigation of a police shooting and retaliating against fellow officers who cooperated with outside investigators.

                  The police chief was indicted days after Mr. Arbery’s killing on charges related to an alleged cover-up of an officer’s sexual relationship with an informant. The chief, John Powell, had been hired to clean up the department, which the Glynn County manager described last fall as suffering from poor training, outdated policies and “a culture of cronyism.”

                  The Glynn County force was the sort of department where disciplinary records went missing and where evidence room standards were not maintained, leading the state to strip it of its accreditation. -NY Times

                  2. Ahmaud Arbery murder raises long-standing issues with Glynn County DA’s handling of cases

                    https://www.wsbtv.com/news/georgia/ahmaud-arbery-murder-raises-long-standing-issues-with-glynn-county-das-handling-cases/CZNCBJJY35HDLOFQGQYYNACCG4/

                    Excerpts:

                    1)

                    ATLANTA — The Ahmaud Arbery murder case is bringing back some faces and agencies that have been the subject of Channel 2 Action News and Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigations over the years that have centered around corruption and misconduct investigations.

                    For the past five years, we have done some deep reporting in the same place Arbery was murdered. It involves the same players, the same problems and now, growing outrage.

                    “When I first saw with this case happening in Glynn County, I immediately thought back to other cases where the DA’s office and police department collaborated a little too closely with each other to cover up for some of the officer’s misconduct,” attorney and legal analyst Esther Panitch said.

                    “My reaction was simply, ‘Here we go again,’” said attorney Bill Atkins, who represented the family of Caroline Small, an unarmed woman killed by two Glynn County police officers. Much of the evidence in the case was made public by the joint investigation between Channel 2 and the AJC.

                    2)

                    Misconduct and Corruption Probes

                    In 2015, our investigation revealed a deal that Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson made with the officers responsible for the 2010 fatal shooting of Caroline Small, an unarmed woman shot through the windshield of her car by two Glynn County police officers.

                    Four former prosecutors from Johnson’s office said she protected those officers.

                    “It has affected me very deeply in that regard, in that someone was very brutally killed, unnecessarily, and nothing has been done about it,” former senior prosecutor Keith Higgins said.

                    “You would think given their history they would have immediately called in the GBI for any shooting related to law enforcement at this point, whether they’re present or former,” Panitch said, referring to Gregory McMichael’s longtime role in Johnson’s office, and career with the Glynn County Police Department.

                    2. Any idea why they sat on this until last week? Things that make you go, hmmmmm.

              2. “Lots if facts both ways ”

                That’s the problem. I draw no conclusions one way or the other. I have seen limited evidence and yes video’s can be deceptive based on the angle of the video. I’d like to know more of the forensics.

            2. That may be. These evaluation of these events often turn on granular details. The salient details tend to dribble out bit by bit because reporters stink at their jobs. The appearance of a trio of known grifters (Benjamin Crump among them) should give everyone pause as well.

      2. This video was edited and false and I apologize for posting it. Someone – apparently not KImmel – edited it to make Pence look like he was delivering empty boxes, In fact, he was told there were empty boxes in the van and he joked “Can I carry them in?” and then closed the van door. Someone spliced the video so it looked like he then delivered those boxes.

        1. “This video was edited and false and I apologize for posting it.”
          *******************
          Confessing to a speeding charge won’t give you credibility on capital murder. We’ve seen you around for too long.

    2. Hey Dumb Bunny, it could be we as a nation 1st Arrest people like Obama/Dr Fauci/Bill Gates & the people working in all these Bio Level 3 & 4 Labs under the current US Bio-Weapons Laws & finally close those labs down where these Obama/Wuhan Chicom type virus Bio-Weapons start out being MFG’D.

      Phk’in Morons!

  4. OT: I don’t want to stay in an LA hotel.
    —
    LA Threatens to “Commandeer” Hotels That Won’t House the Homeless
    May 7, 2020

    The crusade to wreck the country’s major blue cities is proceeding nicely. By 2030, will San Fran, NYC, or LA even be habitable? I wouldn’t place the best odds on it. The pandemic may just be the tipping point for a wave of horrible policies that will double down on the destruction. Here’s what the Los Angeles City Council is busy doing, courtesy of the great Bill Melugin.

    The Los Angeles city council voted on Wednesday to identify any hotels refusing to house the homeless as part of Project Roomkey, to investigate if any of those hotels have gotten tax breaks from the city in the past, and suggested these hotels may need to be “commandeered”.

    The city’s goal has been to house 15,000 homeless through the project, but only 1,582 have been housed as of Wednesday, and the city has gotten frustrated with hotels that aren’t participating.

    I wonder why.

    Perhaps hotels don’t want their beds defecated on, their toilets stuffed full of rags, and blood and urine on their walls? Maybe they don’t want their hallways filled with marijuana smoke, heroin being shot up in their lobbies and guests threatened by paranoid schizos?

    Maybe they want people to actually pay to stay there?

    “If hotels are making a distinction among people classifying housed and unhoused differently in terms of accommodations that they’re going to be repaid for, that the city and county will pay for with reimbursements, then I think there’s a potential civil rights violation,” Councilman Mike Bonin said. “If the problems are on the hotel end, the public should know why, and then we should consider commandeering as they’ve talked about in other cities.”

    The public, any member of it with a working brain, knows why.

    And if hotels refusing to house crazy violent junkies, paid for by the city, is a civil rights violation, remedied by seizing the hotels, there will only be two kinds of hotels, low-end motels catering to junkies and prostitution, and hotels where rooms are priced too high for the government to afford them.

    Enjoy the impact of $1,200 a night room hotels on LA tourism.

  5. Professor Turley, thank you for your even-handed analyses of the issues erupting in these unsettling times. I normally think change is good, but I am at times a bit un-anchored by the forces swirling around us. Thank you for your steady adherence to the Constitution.

  6. From February:

    DOJ Abandoned Charges Against McCabe After Judge Admonished Prosecutors 

    The Justice Department has decided to abandon its efforts to seek criminal charges against former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, according to a letter sent to his attorneys.

    McCabe’s lawyers were told last September that he should expect to be indicted on charges stemming from inaccurate statements he made to FBI investigators about his actions around the time of the 2016 election. However, no indictment was ever returned, leading to speculation that the Washington-based grand jury probing the matter took the rare step of rejecting charges.

    Prosecutors had been cagey since that time about the status of the investigation into McCabe, who has been a frequent subject of public attacks from President Donald Trump. In theory, they could have presented the case to another grand jury, but on Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington informed McCabe’s attorneys that it was giving up its quest to charge the FBI veteran.

    The Justice Department watchdog report released in April 2018 found McCabe was not forthcoming with former Director James Comey and with FBI investigators about McCabe’s involvement in the FBI’s handling of media inquiries about an FBI probe into the Clinton Foundation during the 2016 campaign.

    The inspector general report said McCabe led Comey to believe he did not authorize disclosing that politically-sensitive investigation and that McCabe affirmatively denied any role in that to internal FBI investigators. McCabe has denied any intentional effort to mislead, but said he was preoccupied with other weighty matters at the time and may have failed to remember some conversations.

    While Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s review found McCabe was less than candid, he referred the matter to federal prosecutors to consider whether criminal charges for perjury or making false statements were appropriate.

    The decision to drop the criminal probe into McCabe’s actions will not mark the end of legal wrangling over his actions. He is suing the Justice Department, arguing that officials short-circuited long established FBI and DOJ procedures to rush him out in order to appease the president.

    The timing of Friday’s letter to McCabe’s lawyers may have been driven by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a non-profit watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics Washington. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton, who is handling the FOIA case, had publicly pressed prosecutors to make a final decision about the McCabe prosecution and had set a deadline Friday for them to disclose previously-secret records related to the FOIA litigation.

    The newly-disclosed files showed that in private, Walton was even more stern with prosecutors, warning them that Trump’s complaints about McCabe would taint any decision they made.

    “The public is listening to what’s going on, and I don’t think people like the fact that you got somebody at the top basically trying to dictate whether somebody should be prosecuted … I just think it’s a banana republic when we go down that road,” Walton told government lawyers behind closed doors in September. “I think there are a lot of people on the outside who perceive that there is undo inappropriate pressure being brought to bear … It’s just, it’s very disturbing that we’re in the mess that we’re in in that regard.

    “I just think the integrity of the process is being unduly undermined by inappropriate comments and actions on the part of people at the top of our government,” added Walton, an appointee of President George W. Bush. “I think it’s very unfortunate. And I think as a government and as a society we’re going to pay a price at some point for this.”

    Edited From: “DOJ Drops Probe Into Former FBI Director Andrew McCabe”

    Politico, 2/14/20

    1. “The newly-disclosed files showed that in private, [Judge] Walton was even more stern with prosecutors, warning them that Trump’s complaints about McCabe would taint any decision they made.”
      **************************
      Gee, and I thought he was just supposed to be the impartial referee between the parties not de facto counsel for the forces of darkness or swami as to what the jury might do.

      1. Mespo, Judge Walton was originally a Reagan appointee. He was appointed to his current seat by George W.

  8. Pingback: Turley: McCabe's "bizarre" defense notwithstanding, the FBI had no business targeting Flynn | Conservative-Politics.com | Everyday Conservative News
  9. Pingback: McCabe's "bizarre" defense notwithstanding, the FBI had no business targeting Flynn | Political Bomb Show
  10. Pingback: Turley: McCabes “bizarre” defense notwithstanding, the FBI had no business targeting Flynn – Right Rant

  11. The Obama Coup D’etat failed. John Durham is closing in. Democrats finally grasped that they were going to be overrun and annihilated in November. They were left with no choice. The democrats called in “Broken Arrow.” The democrats called for “danger-close” air/artillery support directly onto their position. Their higher headquarters command, One-World Globalist Communist China, came to the rescue of its allies. China fulfilled the democrats’ request for immediate fire support with the munition, COVID-19.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

    “In An Election Year”

    The democrats comprehensively grasped their destiny of loss in November, 2020. The democrats’ one-world, globalist, communist leaders are in Beijing. One call does it all. Was it Obama, Pelosi, Hillary, Schumer, Perez., the Globalist Deep Deep State?

    The “2020 China Flu” was deliberately released in an election year as a last resort against President Trump who was on his way to an historic, landslide, presidential election victory in November. The “2020 China Flu” was released from a secure, fail-safe, research lab which employed multiple redundant safety systems. The coronavirus could not get out. It was deliberately released in the 2020 election year.

    China has a long history of influenza “outbreaks” including the “1918 Spanish Flu,” the “1957 Asian Flu” and the “1969 Hong Kong Flu” in which 1 million people died – 100,000 of them Americans. China has long been securely “perfecting” viruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. China is capable of fully safeguarding facilities. China released COVID-19.

    America was not shut down during the “1969 Hong Kong Flu.” America has been shut down due to hysterical and incoherent demands by democrats in 2020 in order to take full advantage of the “crisis” the democrats created – in order to destroy President Trump.

    Fukushima was hit by two natural disasters. Wuhan was hit by none.

    The “2020 China Flu” was released…

    “In An Election Year.”

    1. Whoops. That was for BTB and everybody else living in fantasy land. Just as well. Greenwald is worth a double post.

  13. Trump Denigrates Jeff Sessions Today On “Fox & Friends”.

    Session Responds Suggesting Trump Lies

    President Trump on Friday denigrated former attorney general Jeff Sessions as a “total disaster” as he recounted during a television interview that he nominated Sessions for the position even though he did not think the former senator from Alabama was “equipped” for it.

    Trump said he felt obligated to give the top Justice Department job to Sessions because of his strong support during the 2016 presidential campaign.

    “I didn’t want to make him attorney general, but he was the first senator to endorse me, so I felt a little bit of an obligation,” Trump said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” “He came to see me four times, just begging me to be attorney general. He wasn’t, to me, equipped to be attorney general, but he just wanted it, wanted it, wanted it.”

    In a statement later Friday, Sessions said he remains a Trump supporter and plans to vote for him in November but took issue with his account of events.

    “I never begged for the job of attorney general, not 4 times, not 1 time, not ever,” Sessions said in a statement. “The President offered me the job, I took it, I stood up for the truth and performed at the highest levels. Doing the right thing is not weakness, it is strength. My foundation is built on rock, not sand.”

    Sessions drew Trump’s ire early in his tenure in 2017 stemming from his decision to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s investigation of possible coordination between Russia and Trump’s team during the 2016 election campaign.

    Because of his early support for Trump’s candidacy, Sessions said at the time that he should stay on the sidelines of the probe under Justice Department guidelines.

    In his statement Friday, Sessions said he “would have been breaking the law” if he hadn’t recused himself.

    During the Fox News interview, Trump was asked whether the Russia investigation would have proceeded if his current attorney general, William P. Barr, had been in place at the time instead of Sessions.

    “No,” Trump responded. “He would have stopped it immediately.”

    “Jeff was just very weak and very sad,” Trump added. “Instead of being a man and saying this was hoax, he recused himself.”

    Despite his disappointment with Sessions, Trump insisted he did the right thing by not immediately firing him. Sessions resigned as attorney general in November 2018 at Trump’s request.

    “I learned a lot from Richard Nixon,” Trump said of the president who resigned during the Watergate scandal. “Don’t fire people. . . . I study history.”

    Edited from: “Trump Says He Nominated Sessions As Attorney General Even Though He Wasn’t ‘Equipped’ For The Job”

    Today’s Washington Post
    …………………………………………………………

    See that? Trump claims he ‘learned from Nixon’s mistakes’. Cynics might naturally ask, of course, what ‘moral lessons’ Trump takes from Richard Nixon.

  14. I believe Adam Schiff when he says (after releasing transcripts that show 53 witnesses all saying they had no evidence of collusion) that there was in fact collusion. He has been courageous and consistent throughout. I’m thinking about moving to his district just so I can vote for him.

    1. SteveJ, collusion is not a legal term and there was plenty of it right before our eyes, reported accurately by reputable news sources, and in intelligence agency reports. Criminal conspiracy is the legal term and Mueller declared insufficient evidence to charge the Trump campaign, though he held back from exonerating it, partly due to stonewalling.

        1. Make your argument SteveJ, or Greenewald’s if you prefer. I don’t read opinion pieces from people I don’t respect.

      2. Using your logic, is anyone not exonerated is still somehow guilty, but too slick to be caught?

        Mrs. Clinton was not exonerated either, nor was Mr. Bill Hickdude from Somewhere, Montana. He also did not exonerate Gen. Colin Powell, Richard Nixon’s third-cousin’s boyfriend, or the man in the moon. In fact, Mr. Mueller did not exonerate a single person, including you and I.

        From where I sit, Mr. Mueller didn’t exonerate *anyone*, because that is not a function of a Special Counsel.

        Was that also due to your imaginary, so-called stonewalling? Please list any single item of evidence Mr. Trump withheld, or witness he prevented from being interviewed or question–especially those he withheld due to any sort of privilege; executive, atty/client, priest/penitent, or otherwise.

      3. btb:
        “SteveJ, collusion is not a legal term and there was plenty of it right before our eyes, reported accurately by reputable news sources, and in intelligence agency reports. Criminal conspiracy is the legal term and Mueller declared insufficient evidence to charge the Trump campaign, though he held back from exonerating it, partly due to stonewalling.”
        ***************************
        Tell your son that “collusion” IS a legal term just not in this context. (See Sherman Act of 1890 §1). Explain to him that charging a near crime is the same as charging no crime at all and that turning over libraries of documents, making aides available and being leery of a bumbling, incompetent special counsel isn’t stonewalling; it’s prudence. And as a kicker to the obvious ignorance on display, no prosecutor has to “exonerate” anybody; we all start that way.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gUZU4LN5TM&feature=emb_logo

    2. Steve, show us an article supporting your contentions. I’d be interested in seeing exactly what it says. Those transcripts have not been released to the public yet. So I’m not sure how you claim to ‘know’ what you claim to know.

      1. here we go again,. i explained this recently., you guys make up BS and then say “refute me”

        then while the others are refuting you busily, you make up 5 more bogus stories

        2. Mr. K:

          “you guys make up BS and then say “refute me”

          then while the others are refuting you busily, you make up 5 more bogus stories”
          ****************
          Well, they are professional liars unworthy of anything but contempt. Bookworm might just be a mouthpiece He’s not bright enough for the recent lexicon.

  15. Trump Talked To Putin Thursday. Discussed “Russia Hoax”.

    On Thursday, Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin, afterward telling reporters that he had discussed with Putin how “the Russia hoax” had damaged his ability to work with Moscow.

    “They’re a very powerful nation. Why would we not be dealing with each other? But the Russia hoax, this absolute dishonest hoax, made it very difficult for our nation and their nation to deal,” Trump told reporters.

    Edited From: “Flynn Decision Cheered By Trump And The Right, As Critics Decry It As An Attack On The Rule Of Law”

    The Washington Post, 5/7/20
    …………………………………………………………..

    Readers may recall that the day after Trump had FBI Director James Comey fired, Trump invited the Russian Ambassador to the Oval Office to assure him, as cameras rolled, that Comey was gone. And now we learn Trump talked to Vladimir Putin yesterday ‘before’ Attorney General William Barr announced the DOJ was dropping its prosecution of Michael Flynn.

  16. You and Alan Dershowitz are life time Democrats who will vote for Biden or whoever the DNC sneaks in at the last minute, but as a military vet, conservative, and Christian, I thank you both for being honest, fair, and balanced in your observations.

    It’s now crystal clear that high level officials in the Obama administration had weaponized the DOJ, FBI, CIA, and State Dept, if not the Office of Net Assessment and the IC IG against Trump and some of his associates.

    You and Alan have done a good job of bringing much of it to light, especially the legal aspects of what has happened.

    It pains me to say there are not many fair and balanced Democrats that are involved in this either on the inside or like CNN and others on the outside. It really does appear to me that the MSM has become nothing more than the propaganda wing of the DNC.

    Personally, I want an honest and unbiased MSM and I don’t care if the villains are Republicans or Democrats they need to be exposed and forced out.

    There are a number of Republicans who need to be expose and brought to justice as well. Swamp rats have no political affiliations, just hatred for those with whom they disagree.

    Anyway, thank you for your honest analysis without the political overtones. We need a lot more like you and Alan.

    BTW, most of the CNN crew are so biased and corrupt that it’s like watching a bad comedy skit. None of them do their homework before an interview. I have the same criticism of some of the Fox anchors. They are so biased that I don’t think they actually see it.

    Love your articles regardless of the subject. I always learn something from them.

  17. We need to break up the corporate media. Sadly us v. them is the constant theme of the “news.” It isn’t new, but, now seems more out in the open where one party’s shill goes on their media and another party’s shill goes on that party’s media outlet. Sadder still, the real issues of monopoly nickeling and diming the population over time get pushed to the side.

    1. Anonymous, should we have just one official news source run by a government ministry?

      1. AT LEAST YOU KNOW STATE MEDIA IS BIASED!~

        instead of hiding behind false objectivity and pretending they serve the common good instead of their private mass media corporate ownership

  18. Boom! Lock them all up

    🔥

    “Barack Obama and Joe Biden Implicated in Russian Collusion Hoax”

    “President Donald Trump said in an interview on Friday that former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden will soon be implicated in the Russia collusion investigation.

    “There’s more to come from what I understand, and they’re going to be far greater than what you’ve seen so far, and what you’ve seen so far is incredible, especially as it relates to President Obama,” Trump said while speaking with Fox & Friends about Obama’s role in the Russia “hoax.”

    “I believe he and Biden…Sleepy Joe was involved in this also, very much, and other people around President Obama were totally involved,” Trump said.

    Trump reacted to the news after House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) released 57 interview transcripts on Thursday from the committee’s probe to see if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

    The documents show that former United States Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates testified that she was surprised when Obama told her in an Oval Office meeting about the call that Trump’s campaign adviser, Michael Flynn, had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

    Asked in the interview if Trump would directly confront Obama or Biden, the president said he would rather have the truth come out in documents.

    “I’d rather have it come out in papers. Why would I call them up?” Trump asked. “They tried to take down the President of the United States.”

    Breitbart

  19. The recently released transcripts show that Clapper told the committee, I assume under oath, that he had seen no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with the Russians. Then he went on CNN and said the exact opposite for months.

    I believe the high bar set for public figures in a liable action is they have to prove that the defendant said things that the defendant knew were not true at the time the statements were made.

    If Clapper was testifying truthfully to the intelligence committee don’t his subsequent appearances on CNN indicate he knew he was dishing lies? Or if he believed what he was saying on CNN was true did he lie under oath to Congress?

    1. Well, there was at least one time he definitely lied to Congress when he was asked if NSA was doing bulk data collection on US citizens. His answer wasn’t “we need to discuss this in closed session” or “I’ll check and get back to you”. His answer was a definitive “NO”.

      He later admitted on TV that he lied.

      So why are Flynn and Papadopolous charged with lying and Clapper goes free to earn a lot of money for being a CNN analyst????

  20. McCabe is a weak link. The Trump DOJ should put the screws to him and he will sing like a canary and bring down the Obama deep state.

    1. “…the Obama deep state.”

      While I agree with your comment, our problems began long before Obama…

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