Comey confirms FBI probe into Trump-Russia collusion

Yes, WMD was the justification that Bush and Cheney, not the intelligence community, used to sell their war. They had already settled on starting a war, and were busy going around looking for a way to sell it. One of their primary sources was an Iraqi exile named Ahmed Chalabi. The intelligence community in the US (and all over the world for that matter) warned Bush and company that Chalabi was a con man. Cheney wasn't interested. When intelligence officers told the Bushies that their case was flimsy, they were ordered to go back and try harder. Eventually, they prepared a National Intelligence Estimate that weakly supported Bush's claims, and which was heavily edited by the White House to re exaggerate those claims before it was sent to Congress.

Back in those days, it was unthinkable for staff to call the President of the United States a liar in public.

That dynamic actually survived the first few weeks of the Trump Adminstration, in spite of a flurry of Twitter claims by the new President that were ridiculous, petty. demeaning (to the office of the Presidency) and false.

It was only when he attacked his predecessor with a blatantly false claim, doubled down on it, and caused a minor international incident by trying to enlist British intelligence as a source, that he had to be called out in public. Nothing like this has ever happened before in US history. And Donald Trump owns 100% of the responsibility for demeaning the Office of President of the United States with these irresponsible carnival barker antics.

I am assuming that your last point is your rationalization for ignoring the growing mountain of circumstantial evidence taht the Trump campaign may well have been colluding with the Russians. The idea that the Russians mounted a major psy ops operation against the Untied States with the express purpose of trying to undermine American political institutions, and later to install a weak, vain, and corrupt little man in the top job is no longer in much doubt. The remaining issue is whether Trump and his associates were in on the plot.

Comey's job was not to present a legal case. But from his testimony yesterday, you can expect subpoenas to start flying all over the Trump Adminstration (they are already looking for Manafort). He made it clear that suspicions have been swirling around Trump since before the GOP Convention last summer.

There will be a lot more hearings. There is no question that this will be the dominant issue in the US for at least the next year, and probably longer.

We don't know where this will lead yet. But it has been moving steadily on one direction for a while now, and the evidence is growing, just as it has become all too obvious that Trump's efforts to conceal his business dealings may have a more sinister explanation than the idea that Trump was simply be trying to hide the fact that he's not nearly as rich or successful as he constantly claims to be, as I had always assumed (not that anyone cares now).

I lived through Watergate. I watched that unravel slowly, one thread at a time, over the course of two years. The major difference was that then, the idea was really almost unthinkable, and the mountain of circumstantial evidence that exists now, did no exist then.

But otherwise, this is very, very similar.

,

 

In failing to demonstrate evidence and in charging a POTUS(but not in court), they have already profoundly compromised their credibility. I honestly believe our intelligence agencies are due for a long overhaul, but the careerists in that field will utterly refuse it, and call it Stalin-esque if I touch it.

As proof, maybe the most outlandish(and true) statement spoken by Comey yesterday was when he said he couldn't promise an investigation into the Classified Information leaks. I was STUNNED. Someone leaks classified information, but you wouldn't charge it? Now I know that guy they charged(and surprise, haven't heard much of his case since) was a ruse, meant to give some credibility to an agency that's long since lost it.

If the agency were really legitimate, Comey's answer would have been "As we continue our investigation into the leaks and find whose responsible, we'll lever the proper charges." But that wasn't his answer, because the so-called intelligence community is full of careerists.

'I scratch my back, you scratch mine'. Here's what I believe: Since only 20 people could have access(including former AG Lynch). I think Comey knows DAMN well who leaked the information. That also means that he's lying under oath to Congress, but then again it's not like that pathetic "committee" is ever going to question anything.

Now, I stated it's my belief. It might not be true. There's my disclaimer. But I believe based on Comey's statements and half-statements, that he(obviously) knew more than he was willing to share with committee. Whether in public OR the classified setting.

 

Next time.....don't make things up just because you can't handle the truth.




Almost lost among the many revelations is the fact that Russia’s biggest bank uses The Podesta Group as its lobbyist in Washington, D.C. Though hardly a household name, this firm is well known inside the Beltway, not least because its CEO is Tony Podesta, one of the best-connected Democratic machers in the country. He founded the firm in 1998 with his brother John, formerly chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, then counselor to President Barack Obama, Mr. Podesta is the very definition of a Democratic insider. Outsiders engage the Podestas and their well-connected lobbying firm to improve their image and get access to Democratic bigwigs.


Sberbank (Savings Bank in Russian) engaged the Podesta Group to help its public image—leading Moscow financial institutions not exactly being known for their propriety and wholesomeness—and specifically to help lift some of the pain of sanctions placed on Russia in the aftermath of the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine, which has caused real pain to the country’s hard-hit financial sector.

Among the Sberbank subsidiaries that the Podesta Group also represents are the Cayman Islands-based Troika Dialog Group Limited, the Cyprus-based SBGB Cyprus Limited, and the Luxembourg-based SB International. As reported this week by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a consortium of journalists exploring the Panama Papers leak, Sberbank and Troika Dialog are used by members of Mr. Putin’s inner circle to shift public funds into sometimes questionable private investments. In other words, this is top-level money laundering of a brazen kind. As the OCCRP stated plainly, “Some of these companies were initially connected to the Troika Dialog investment fund, which was controlled and run by Sberbank after the bank bought the Troika Dialog investment bank. Troika and Sberbank declined to comment.”

Adding to shadiness of all this, the Podesta Group is playing along with the useful charade that Sberbank is simply a private financial institution, rather than the state-owned bank that it is, since that would require the lobbyists to register as agents of the Russian government under the Foreign Agent Registration Act......snip~

http://observer.com/2016/04/panama-papers-reveal-clintons-kremlin-connection/


The biggest victim of the so-called Panama Papers scandal, that mass of 11 million documents referring to 215,000 offshore entities created by the Panamanian law firm of Mossack Fonseca, may turn out to be Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Perhaps the most immediately relevant fact to emerge out of this mass of files, which have been transmitted by person or persons unknown to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung of Munich, is that Tony Podesta, the brother of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, is currently serving as an unregistered lobbyist for the Russian bank Sberbank, even as Hillary Clinton and other unscrupulous Democratic Party politicians engage in totally unprincipled Russophobia attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin.......snip~


http://tarpley.net/panama-papers-sh...-are-involved-in-mossack-fonseca-tax-evasion/


Now did you need to see where Comey stated that the leakers will be prosecuted? Truly Tom.....you should study up before bringing me BS.....You can't back up.

No charge for the learning I just gave you.

 

In all fairness, Republicans have been known to throw around some bullshit justifications based on national security from time to time.

 

Absolutely spot on - and jobs-for-life careerists and jobsworths who have a lot to lose if they should start backtracking now. This is the 'swamp' DJT should have concentrated on draining before any others.

 

I dare say you're right; when it comes to self-interestedness and career survival there are no depths to which any politicians won't sink to.

 

OR when he is found guilty righties will be crying he was set up.

 

You can't be found guilty of a crime that you aren't physically linked to. This case would be thrown out in five minutes in a Court setting. What has yet to be demonstrated is any physical proof. If you see my post on my questions, we don't even definitively know if it was the Russian Government, mandated by the Russian Government or individual Russian Hackers. I can literally come up with several theories on the hackers with what little information we have.

 

And the BBC 100 Days program is bigging up the Russia Connection for all it's worth. Looks likewe're back to the good old days when America's poodle starts yapping in support of its master.

 

This is the biggest load of bullshit apologism statement I've ever read. A david against goliath?

I could get behind this theory had Trump not injected himself into politics decades ago by donating to the vacuous scum.

Trump is no David. He's just a Beelzebub in a line of Mammons. A different type of devil to suit your tastes.

 

From that neurotic pile of **** I suspect I've hit a nerve!

 

No, no nerves hit. I just find it hilarious you people actually believe this guy gives a **** about you, like, on a personal level. It's hilarious. It's like the same sort of pseudo intellectual BS that prompts someone to believe in a personal Jesus.

I tend to look more at the Jungian thing, the duality of man, and how idiotic it can be especially given that these politicians claim to give a **** and we tend to believe them depending on their social or economic stances.

None of them give a ****. Never have. Never will.

 

The amount of politics Comey plays is off-the-charts.
On Hilary Clinton? He made a statement ripping her up, then declared there was no prosecutable crime - also then escalating himself to also being the AG. IF there was no prosecutable case that is all he should have said, not attacked Clinton.

Now? Total hypocrite. After publicly announcing the FBI is investing Russia possibly interfering with the election AND announcing the FBI is investigating Trump's people in relation to Russia - he then declares over and over he is strictly prohibited from discussion any investigate or even whether not that there is an investigator or going to be an investigation.

Comey is an attention whore continuously injecting himself declaring he is a demigod who demands people just believe him, no evidence necessary, and that he decides what questions he will and won't answer before Congress SINGULARLY upon whether not he wants to. - giving diametrically oppose reasons why he will or won't answer a question that is the same question: "Is there an investigation into..."

His answer is either YES, and he held a press conference or issued a press statement or "I can't answer that because I am not allowed to ever say whether not we are doing an investigation.

Increasingly, it is FBI Director Comey who is the real scandal - and not the Russians - but him - who is trying to manipulate the political system and elections. How many more times is he going to grab headlines with "I can not show you the evidence but believe me, _______ is a rotten person - but I also have decided based upon the evidence you can't see that s/he committed no prosecutable crime. I am making this public statement as head of the FBI to just to politically slam ________, but not over anything illegally done."

When said "I can't show you the evidence even in closed session," Goody should have said 1 of 2 things;
1. You will have a subpoena to provide the evidence in closed session tomorrow OR
2. If you can provide no evidence then you are excused because this committee makes it's decisions on facts and evidence, not hearsay claims by someone in law enforcement.

Imagine if trials were this way. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, while I won't provide you any evidence or witnesses, but I have our police chief who says the Defendant is guilty. While neither he, I nor anyone else can give you any facts or evidence to back it up as that would reveal our investigation capabilities, he is the police chief so that's all you need to know to make your decision. Besides, we could not find any proof that he is innocent and we looked really hard, though I can't tell you and details about that either."

That is the other clown car act of Comey. To say he found no evidence of Trump being wiretapped by Obama does not in the slightest establish that it didn't happen. That would only make sense of Comey was the omniscient god he apparently believes that he is. Of course, he also can't find out who released the classified information - so apparently no one ever since Comey has no evidence of who did it - and means no one did. Anything Comey doesn't know never happened in his opinion.

 

Spare me the pretentious psychological ****. I know none of them GAF about the common man, but some give less of a fcuk than others and I happen to believe that DJT is one of them.

 

That is so naive it is incomprehensible that anyone buys this. EVERY country tries to include the leadership, including selection process, of other countries.

This is about making more of the trillions of dollars off of the 70+ year old Cold War against the decades extinct USSR and Warsaw Pact. German and Great British officials went to great lengths to try to influence the election in favor of Hilary Clinton - and they are more of a competitor to us than is Russia, nor has Russia ever been an enemy.

 

So the FBI is investigating things that could amount to treason, and you think the real crime is bringing those under investigation into the spotlight?

I agree with you on one level. Leaking classified information is a crime. That should be investigated.

But the REAL (potential) crime is the Russian interference with the election, and possible collusion in that interference by one of the candidates (or his campaign organisation or supporters). That should be investigated and that - if it turns out to be true - is far more worrying than leaks.

 

Pretentious? Sorry. I'm not the one parading around here like a strutting pidgeon squawking and ******** all over the board how much I adore my david against his Goliath.

Hysterical. Enjoy watching your Icarus.

 

Pray tell what is this interference you keep referring to? Did the nation of Russia do anything that directly resulted in Donald Trump being elected president of the united states? Did they infiltrate the electoral colleges to insure that Donald Trump was elected at all costs?

 

For months Trump was braying that the election was rigged.. and then that 5 million illegals voted. This lack of confidence and confusion belongs to Trump. Chaos is what he does.

 

If we are to have a serious conversation with the anti-Trump.
You must acknowledge that the main stream media always reports Trumps Wiretapping allegation prefaced with no-proof in the footnote.
but doesn't preface the reports on the Russian meddling in the election with no proof of Trump collusion.
Certainly the reference in the allegation is
that Trump was involved.
the NO PROOF footnote under the reporting would be a nice non biased touch if you wanted to be taken seriously rather than witch hunt reporting.

 

Which does not answer the question. Pray tell what is this interference that is being referred to?

 

Hacking Podesta's emails and getting them published on Wikileaks would be one example.
Some of the allegations in the Steele dossier are pretty horrendous.

We will have to wait for the FBI report to come out. Maybe they will find there was nothing.

But - at the time of the election, a lot of Trump supporters on this forum were absolutely delighted about the things Wikileaks published. They thought that those publications would have an effect on the outcome of the election - an October Surprise. Now they seem to say they had no impact.

The races were tight in a few key states. If Russia did hack those emails and release them to Wikileaks, and those leaks resulted in enough people changing their votes and voting for Trump (or not voting for Clinton and just staying home), then Russia did influence the outcome of the election.

Frankly, even if their actions did not change the outcome, every American should be worried that Russia did what it did.

 

I asked the same question yesterday viz. 'in what way could Russian hackers - or any other hackers for that matter - have materially influenced the result of the presidential election', but apart from one simplistic theory, answers came there none.

 

Maybe Trump knows.. He claimed for months that the election was rigged.

 

Her meant rigged by the Washington 'born-to-rule' elitists, not the effing Russians.