Just The News is reporting that “Person 3” in the Comey indictment is not former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe but rather Columbia Professor Daniel Richman. According to the outlet, Richman is the former FBI employee in the indictment who allegedly leaked information about “Person 1,” who is believed to be Hillary Clinton. The report continues the long uncertainty over Richman’s role in these controversies. Richman has described himself as a friend, an FBI special employee, and the lawyer representing Comey at different times. He has also been a columnist and commentator, including for the site Lawfare run by Comey’s friend Ben Wittes. What Richman was doing at any given time remains strikingly uncertain. Professor Richman is not himself charged with any crime.
Richman’s fluid and changing roles are reminiscent of the debate over the role of Hunter Biden’s friend/lawyer/patron Kevin Morris. There was an evolution in the roles that Richman played over the years that left some of us confused as to his specific status at certain times.
At various points in the investigation, Richman alludes to being Comey’s lawyer, as well as a former aide and a friend. Comey used Richman as a conduit to the press and admitted that he was the means by which Comey leaked the contents of a memo that Comey improperly removed from the FBI after being fired.
The respected veteran investigative reporter Catherine Herridge reported on a June 2017 memorandum that documented a phone call with Richman and the so-called “Comey memos,” which detailed his conversations with President Trump.
According to sources, five days earlier, on June 8, 2017, Comey “asked Professor Richman to disclose the content of at least one of those memoranda to the press…”
In interviews, sources said that Richman was dismissive over the violation of federal rules stating “something to the effect of, ‘You do things by your rules’ and ‘I do things by my rules.’” Richman seemed to claim that he was serving as counsel and allegedly insisted that “there is a substantial extent to which I would raise attorney-client issues.” The suggestion was that, after leaving his position as a Justice Department adviser to Comey, he may have assumed the role as private counsel to Comey.
Richman admitted to media contacts but reportedly said that he did not think that he confirmed classified material from Comey to New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt.
Comey designated Richman as a Special Government Employee (SGE) at the FBI and subsequently utilized him as a conduit to the media. He gave him access to top-secret information, and Richman seems to have floated between Comey and other offices, such as the FBI’s General Counsel’s office.
The FBI said that “Comey instructed the FBI to hire Richman as a Special Government Employee” in 2015 and “to grant him a Top Secret clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information.” It also said its investigation “revealed Comey also hired Richman, so Comey could discuss sensitive matters, including classified information, with someone outside of the FBI’s regular leadership. Comey also used Richman as a liaison to the media.”
Comey’s use of Richman shows how obsessed he was with his image and framing news stories about his tenure as director. Richman would serve as both an unnamed source and a named source in articles.
Richman admitted to agents that he routinely communicated on behalf of Comey with Times reporter Michael Schmidt, who published some of the non-public information that was the subject of past investigations.
According to FBI memos, Richman explained that his role was “to correct stories critical of Comey, the FBI and to shape future press coverage” outside the bureau’s official press office.
The different roles eventually seemed to cause Richman to resign. He sent an email to FBI officials in early February 2017 saying that “I am resigning my SGE status, and will thus not, as of today, be formally working for the Bureau in the immediate future.” He added that “my SGE status is limiting what I can do in my extracurricular life.”
Richman later joined Wittes, who has described himself as a friend of Comey as well as figures like Peter Strzok, at Lawfare. With Wittes, Richman has written highly critical columns of the Trump Administration.
Comey admitted to being a leaker through Richman. He was accused of being a leaker in other stories through other individuals. Andrew McCabe said that he leaked information on behalf of Comey. Likewise, an FBI memo said that a prior investigation “revealed [FBI General Counsel James] Baker to be one of the two sources” in a leak and “revealed Baker disclosed USG classified information to the NYT under the belief he was ultimately instructed and authorized to do so by then FBI Director James Comey.”
Just in the News reported that a “newly-unredacted portion [of a report] added that ‘Baker indicated FBI chief of staff James Rybicki instructed him (Baker) to disclose the information to the NYT, and Baker understood Rybicki was conveying this instruction and authorization from Comey.’”
The question is what Richman was at any given time in this scandal. Ethics rules tend to reinforce clear lines in the roles played by lawyers. Richman has been described as a “friend” by Comey, but Richman has suggested that he was at times serving as his personal lawyer. During his time as an SGE, Richman also seemed to shift in his focus. Richman’s first term as an SGE ended in 2016 and then Comey brought him back to work as a “consultant” for the FBI’s Office of General Counsel. A good portion of his portfolio at times seemed to be running interference for Comey with the media and protecting his image in the press.
Richman has not been charged with any crime or accused of any ethics violation in any of these dealings or positions. Some of us, however, are concerned by the fluidity of these roles over the years as government employee, private counsel, and friend.
Comey appeared to select Richman in part for his loyalty and Richman has continued to defend Comey. Now, Richman has a new role as the main witness in a criminal prosecution against Comey. It may be the only time in this scandal that his role as been singular and clear.
One should remember that, when resigning his Special Employee post at the FBI, Richman claimed that it was interfering with his extra- curricular activities. Anyone who has ever held a security clearance will confirm that there is no way to know what is impermissible to reveal or to be able to differentiate between 1) classified information as defined by the Executive Branch, 2) the sensitive information defined by the Espionage Act, and 3) not-for-public-release information defined (one hopes) by the FBI. The distinctions are not merely “fluid” as averred by Prof. Turley, they are pure vapor.
The fact that Michael Schmidt supposedly said that something Richman said was probably classified does not turn either fluid or vapor into a “leak”.
A free speech blog populated by devils who discourage free speech with something akin to “prior restraint”. What a farce. You people don’t know the first thing about free speech.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_restraint
Populated by devils – yes, the leftist cult trolls. But why do you say “prior restraint”? What are you referring to that the devils do?
Wow, maybe the christian jihadis, aka devils, can save maga?
Rabble:
Please, point us to any example of “christian jihadis.” the only jihadis i’ve seen is democrats sacrificing themselves to keep the reign of terror going.
Atheist here. I’m with Hayek on this, nonbeliever who understands all of this will not work without religion. And by the way, I’d love for you to experience life under actual jihadis and then get back to us with your report.
“discourage free speech with something akin to “prior restraint”. ”
What is “something akin to prior restraint” ?
Either FORCE AKA Govenrment is being used to discourage speech before it occurs”
Or it is not.
There is no “akin” to prior restraint.
“What a farce. You people don’t know the first thing about free speech.”
Certainly you do not seem to
Regardless if you think you know better – please enlighten us.
About the big meeting of generals in Virginia today.
For those who didn’t watch it, he is a brief summary:
A former talk show host who got in a drunken altercation with a hotel staffer at a conference before allegedly assaulting a woman who was not his 2nd or 3rd wife is announcing that soldiers can no longer have beards in order to guarantee higher standards.
It’s funny, but no such drunken altercation occurred at the hotel. This is more proof that some of our blog commenters drink too much and have blackouts.
and sit in their their cellars and watch kiddie porn.
Secretary of War Peter Brian Hegseth
And you are?
I had my doubts about Hegseth early on but no more. His 45 minute address (sans teleprompter) to the command staff was impressive. I wish DJT was as good. In politics you seldom get everything you want.
I have reservations about nearly all of Trump’s apointments.
But those are all small compared to their predecessors – nearly any of their predescors in the 21st century.
No, he doesn’t have time to address Democrat Trannies who were just told they cannot use our military for their Cultural Marxism Sandbox.
You had your chance… it’s gone.
And a summary for normal Americans;
An officer who finished several degrees at prestigious universities then put his private life aside to serve multiple tours in our war in Afghanistan. There he was decorated for bravery in leading his men in combat.
Today, he announced that Democrat Trannies who Biden injected into the military to weaken it, who are more interested in getting into your daughters’ changerooms to put their junk on display than they are interested in following that decorated officer into combat, will no longer be allowed to use the US military as cultural Marxist freak show and laboratory.
Numerous Trannies who had no interest in really serving in the military, swiftly ran to forums to repeat lies about that decorated officer. Lies that couldn’t even win them a day in court if they were attempted against that officer. Not a single one of the generals or Admirals who committed Article 88 violations with their claims about Trump stepped forward to endorse the accusations of these Democrat Trannies.
Sources say these Democrat Trannies needed a few hits off Hunter Biden’s crack pipe before they could screw up the courage to post their slander here.
This could have been done with an e-mail to 800 recipients. Millions of dollars could have been saved by using a free Gmail account.
Suddenly leftists are all a-twitter about costs after wasting hundreds of billions on Ukraine and useless green scam energy projects. Spare us the crocodile tears, a’h0le.
BIDEN gave away BILLIONS to his friends/donors on his way out!!! Which is higher ANON?? Millions or billions?? Too Tough?
Pretty sure this needed to be done face to face.
Most of the ranks in the military are patriots. They keep their politics to themselves.
But the officer corp is by its nature political – as are many many other things.
That is neither inherently good or inherently bad.
But military politics is NOT supposed to have anything to do with ideological politics regarding government – that has no place in the military.
Further the people best at climbing the ranks are not necescarily the best at fighting a war – the US has had to relearn that in pretty much every war we have ever fought.
Modern US wars tend NOT to last the years it takes to get the right people in the right positions – therefore the modern US military work out how to promote those who will make the best decisions in a crisis that may last moments, hours or days. We will not have years to find and groom a Ulyses Grantnext time we need one.
Would not have had the same impact. The dims spent years running their cultural Marxist dog and pony show in the open to show the people who’s in control. The counter revolution is forced to use the same tactics.
Recruitment is up
morale is up
readyness is up
What is not to like.
we hope the shit never hits the fan. But if it does this will prove critical.
The military is not an ordinary job.
If you can not cope with rigid hierarchies, rules and chains of command,
don’t join the military.
BINGO John.
This is not a play grown for children.
And he’s still a million times better than the clown Slo Joe Putin there.
Our resident legal beagle George, made this idiotic claim today:
“Anonynous, anything that was said or done before the SOL expired cannot be USED once it has expired. That is how it works.”
So, according to George, if Comey threatened to kill Cruz in 2017 (a crime, with a SOL of 5 years), that statement could not be USED as EVIDENCE, if Comey were on trial for murdering Cruz in 2024.
The citation he gave for this nonsense was “thats how it works”.
Is Svelaz/George/X even worth addressing anymore? Is this the best Act Blue can send us???
George is wrong. That’s not how it works. Statutes of limitation have nothing to do with the admissibility of evidence.
I told him this 4 times. He just kept repeating “thats not how it works”
Yes, that is the MO – say something stupid.
Get your a$$ handed to you for that stupidity.
Repost the same stupid thing over and over.
One of the measures of intelligence is the ability to learn.
Not only are you correct – but in an ongoing criminal conspiracy the clock does not start until the last act in the conspiracy.
When Comey testified in 2020, he restarted the clock on his 2017 testimony.
Not only is it admissible as evidence. It is also a criminal act part of conspiracy that is still subject to prosecution.
i would further note – that though I do not agree with all the courts efforts to relax SOLs,
The FACT is that SOLs today are quite complicated, myriads of things can reset the clock.
Unearthed Biden note cards reveal he had bios, photo reminders on Hillary Clinton, Schumer BIDEN SURELY WAS NOT IN CHARGE!!!
This sheriff cannot be real. Is this AI? (Notice the guy over his left shoulder suppressing a laugh multiple times)
https://x.com/iAnonPatriot/status/1972132808836690133
No, he’s for real. He has very hilarious meetings.
This one was particularly funny. Must be a hoot to work in his office.
He sure is… He crackes me up. Tells it like it is.
Holocaust museums are still stuck on the Hitler thing, too.
Maybe they should just get over it.
That was real.
Lmao u are so clever arent you??? Until.
Ian Roberts is a registered Democrat, for 12 years???
Crap! Wrong link. Being crawled on by cats and Peanut, where I can barely type. Anyway, lots of details here:
Daniel Richman: Deep Deep States “Swamp” Synapse
OT
Hegseth as declared war on fat generals. Usually I like what he does not not sure on this.
Item: General Leslie Groves
Young,
I am split on this one.
On one hand, as we all get older, our metabolism slows, we are not nearly as fast as we were in our prime, there needs to be some degree of compensation for age and time. We called this weight allowance and were given additional time and still rate a first class PFT score. I had a Major who was in his early 40s and could beat me in a three mile run and I was cranking out eighteen minute three miles.
On the other, there is lead by example.
I think if our military forces were a bit more disciplined not just physically but all around, it would make US military forces a more effective fighting force. DEI and wokeness undermines a cohesive, effective fighting force.