Comey vs. Trump, it is not going to be pretty

I have to say I admire AFM on one aspect: he insists on defending Trump despite his lack of arguments, and keeps getting his ass kicked on debate after debate... and still, he comes for more again and again.

He might not have much to say, but boy... can he endure pain!

 

As I said, I was disappointed. Because Trump was mad at Sessions for recusing himself from the Russian investigation, and Trump had to turn down Sessions' request to resign, I thought we might see something interesting. No, it was your run-of-the mill hearing when a Republican Senate committee is questioning a staunch Republican concerning the activities of a Republican President.

 

Yes, I would agree, and the rest of Trump's friends on this forum has thrown him under the bus. From Trump's viewpoint, some very damaging information is coming out on this thread, and AFM is the only one defending Trump. The rest have given up and for good reason. It's hard to argue with facts.

 

Ah, yes - the Alinsky rules for radicals in action. Putin appreciates your efforts.

 

Part of Comey's testimony has been overlooked. A most telling exchange came when Republican Senator Tom Cotton asked Comey whether Trump personally colluded with Russia. This is a different question than whether the FBI was investigating Trump personally at the time the two spoke, and it produced a very different answer:

Cotton: Do you think Donald Trump colluded with Russia?

Comey: That’s a question I don’t think I should answer in an opening setting. As I said, when I left, we did not have an investigation focused on President Trump. But that’s a question that will be answered by the investigation, I think.

Keep in mind, the issue of whether or not Trump was himself being investigated was brought by Trump in the letter notifying Comey he was fired. "I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation." Prior to that, no one had said he was under investigation.

Trump has continued to aggravate the situation with his statements and tweets. So, while Comey could truthfully tell the Senators Trump was not being investigated on his watch, he wasn't about to let Trump off the hook now that there is an independent special prosecutor.

 

That's funny. Putin appreciates your efforts - every little bit helps.

 

And it keeps getting better and better. Putin appreciates your efforts. Keep the high comedy going.

 

Marc Kasowitz suggested that Comey might have committed a crime when he “unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President.” The statement closed with an ominous warning: “We will leave it [to] the appropriate authorities to determine whether [these] leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated.”

I think that is just great. Bring it on. The justice department should arrest Comey forthwith for leaking privileged information and committing perjury, as was also suggested by Kasowitz. Let's have a trial. Of course, as the aggrieved party, Trump would be the star witness and he would have to explain how Comey lied about him.

AFM, as the only one holding water for Trump, how do you feel about that?

 

Comey broke the law by not obtaining Trump's permission to release his memo. The only testimony required is to substantiate that fact.

 

True, and now that he is President, he is calling the Russian investigation a hoax.

President Donald Trump is calling investigations into his campaign's possible ties to Russia's election meddling a "taxpayer funded charade" and a "total hoax."

https://www.usnews.com/news/politic...the-latest-trump-distances-himself-from-flynn

You keep giving me more and more material for others to read. Thank you.

 

Deleted

 

Thank you. You answered my question.

 

What's the crime and where is the evidence ??

 

Happy to educate on Pres Obama's Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009.

 

As I predicted soon after the Comey hearing last week, Trump is now being investigated by special prosecutor, Robert Mueller.

The Washington Post reported, "The special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election is interviewing senior intelligence officials as part of a widening probe that now includes an examination of whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice, officials said.

"The move by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Trump’s conduct marks a major turning point in the nearly year-old FBI investigation, which until recently focused on Russian meddling during the presidential campaign and on whether there was any coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Investigators have also been looking for any evidence of possible financial crimes among Trump associates, officials said."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...28ba60fbb98_story.html?utm_term=.2cdc2d13ff26

The strange thing is Trump brought every bit of this on himself. Omitting the Comey testimony for the moment, we know these facts.

Mike Flynn, a private citizen in December, spoke with the Russian ambassador about Obama's sanctions commencing that very same day. The very next day, Putin declared he would deal with the matter with the incoming Trump administration and did not retaliate.

Later, in January, Flynn became Trump's NSA. He then lied about the phone call and was fired.

While working with the Trump election campaign and as the NSA, Flynn had financial ties to Russia and Turkey.

Comey was investigating Flynn.

Comey was also the lead investigator into the relationship, if any, between Trump's staff and the Russians who had interfered in our election.

On May 9th Trump fired Comey.

Twice, Trump admitted the Russian probe was behind the firing of Comey. Once to Lester Holt in a television interview. The second time when he boasted to the Russians in the Oval Office. “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Trump told Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov and the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

Trump added solemnly, “I’m not under investigation.”

That has now changed.

The irony is overwhelming. There might not be any collusion between Trump's staff and the Russians, but Trump, because he could not keep his nose out of the controversy, may be guilty of obstruction of justice.

This is very much like the Nixon scenario. Nixon didn't break into the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate complex. But Nixon was going to be impeached on the charge of obstruction of justice because he was guilty of the cover-up of the incident. For the sake of the country, Nixon resigned rather than putting our nation through impeachment and Senate trial proceedings.

The very same thing may happen again with Trump.

Those who forget history are condemned to relive it.

 

More of the same from the PUI's. Thanks from the Kremlin.

 

Trump-friendly Fox News had an interesting reaction to this shocking news story on their noon news programs. Bill Hemmer filled in for Shepherd Smith in the 12 noon segment (CA time). There was no mention of this shocking news story.

Stuart Varney was filling in for Neil Cavuto at one. After the umpteenth coverage of the wounded Republicans shot yesterday by a nutcase from Illinois, Varney brought up the tarmac meeting a year ago between Clinton and Lynch, addressed the private server issue, and speculated as to whether or not Lynch would be called to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. At the end of the hour he finally brought up the Post story by characterizing it as "another leak from the FBI." His guest commentator was a pretty young thing, a lawyer, who mostly ridiculed the notion that Trump could be impeached for obstruction of justice.

In the wake of yesterday's shootings, both programs paraded out a bunch of Republicans urging unity. At this point, they are praying for it, literally. They ignored the fact that the Republican President is largely responsible for the widespread disunity because he keeps the controversies alive by not keeping his mouth shut and his twitter device off.

Right on cue, Trump provides an excellent example of what I am talking. One can be rather certain that against his lawyer's advice, Trump just couldn't help himself. He tweeted this morning, "They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice"

Trump then foolishly adds, "You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA"

That's exactly my point. How can the nation heal and become unified when it is the nation's leader responsible for the division?

 

Who are the sources for the WAPO story ?? Shocking news story ??

And of course more lunatic conspiracy theories from the PUI's amongst us.

Carl Rove posed an interesting question in his WSJ OpEd this morning - 'If JFK had asked J. Edgar Hoover to end his investigation into Martin Luther King Jr, would that be obstruction of justice?'

And again a reminder of super lefty Alan Dershowitz - if a President acts within his Constitutional powers there is no obstruction of justice.

 

Jesus that was lame.

So Clinton shouldn't have been impeached?

Nixon?

No President can ever obstruct justice??

 

You should easily be able to answer your own questions. BTW, Nixon was not impeached.

 

The sources are anonymous just like all the stories about Trump are. Now why is that? Because nearly everyone around him from the White House staff to members of the DOJ and FBI, to Republican lawmakers detest him. They detest him for his naiveté, total incompetence, abject stupidity, and unwillingness to learn the job and his responsibilities.

Take for example those harmful tweets. No doubt about it, his personal lawyer, Klasowitz, has advised him to keep his mouth shut and stop tweeting. Does he do that? He!! no. He just keeps right on tweeting. His unwillingness to learn translates into serious gaffes on both domestic and foreign issues, many of them chronicled on this forum.

It is no wonder that his administration leaks like a sieve.

Rove? I don't deal with "if's."

Dershowitz is all you got, and the White House is probably paying him for his opinions. Many legal scholars disagree with Dershowitz.

Admit it. Your boy is in serious trouble.

 

And these anonymous sources cannot be found - which is what the NYT stated.

Rove's question cannot be answered by those who claim that "hoping" is obstruction of justice. Alan Dershowitz has correctly pointed out that there can be no obstruction of justice by a President exercising his Constitutional powers. Dershowitz is being paid by Donald Trump's White House ?? The PUI's are working overtime.

The leaks are Obama holdovers. Mueller pledged to stop the leaks but there is no evidence of that.

This conspiracy theory just keeps getting more and more funny. Trump paying Dershowitz is classic TDS.

 

Trump just confirmed the WAPO story.

You know, it is very difficult to understand Trump. He has to be giving his lawyers fits with his big mouth. He never stops making things worse for himself.

What is the latest act of enormous stupidity? His advisors and supporters have one legitimate argument regarding the Post story that revealed that Trump himself was being investigated. Their argument was the sources of that story were anonymous. Thus the story itself was highly questionable.

So, what does Trump do? He confirms the Post story. He tweeted, "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt."

Prior to that tweet, the White House had not acknowledged that Trump was being investigated. Readers are reminded of what the White House spokesman said. Trump's tweets are official statements from the President.

Incredibly, in that same tweet he attacks his own deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein.

His lawyers have to be tearing their hair out.

Rosenstein got on Trump's bad side by appointing the special prosecutor, surprising Trump by doing so. The attorney general himself, Jeff Sessions, angered Trump by recusing himself from the Russian probe. Sessions wanted to resign, but Trump would not accept his resignation. It is entirely possible that a member or members of the FBI leaked the story to the post. They are the usual suspects, at any rate. All this leads to speculation that members of the DOJ and FBI are not particularly fond of Trump.

They have good reason. Members of the DOJ, lead by a staunch supporter of Trump, Sessions, have done their level best to protect the President, only to have the President indict himself and throw them under the bus.

How long are you going to continue making a fool of yourself by protecting this guy. You haven't caught on yet? He doesn't deserve your protection. He is just too stupid.

I actually feel sorry for you. I can't imagine trying to defend Trump. He is indefensible. Over and over again he indicts himself.

 

He didn't necessarily confirm it, you have to read between the lines with Donald. What Donald is really saying is: "This is STUPID, why would I be investigated for something in which OTHERS in my own cabinet approved of?" It's nonsensical, and Mueller is clearly out of bounds with the order Rosenstein gave him.

We need to have government employees actually CAPABLE of obeying the orders they're given. The only lawful reason for disobedience is if it's against the law and that hasn't been proven.

 

I will answer Rove's question. It would not be obstruction of justice. Why? Because the President is not himself involved in the investigation. This is what Rove knows because he is a smart guy, but he is not about tell this to the listeners of Fox News.

As you just read, Trump himself just admitted that he is being investigated.

I am really tired of hearing that the President can shut down any investigation he wants. Are Trump supporters really that dense or are they grasping at straws?

The President can't fire someone who is leading an investigation in which the President himself is involved. In this case, the investigation is centered around Trump's staff and his fired NSA and their relationship, if any, to the Russian interference in our election. This becomes even more apparent when the President keeps making himself look guilty.

Proof of that statement is Nixon. Here is that history, the short version.

The Saturday Night Massacre refers to U.S. President Richard Nixon's orders to fire independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox, which led to the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus on October 20, 1973, during the Watergate scandal.

Less than a week after the Saturday Night Massacre, an Oliver Quayle poll for NBC News showed that, for the first time, a plurality of U.S. citizens supported impeaching Nixon, with 44% in favor, 43% opposed, and 13% undecided, with a sampling error of 2 to 3 per cent.[11] In the days that followed, numerous resolutions of impeachment against the president were introduced in Congress.

But the House Judiciary Committee did not approve its first article of impeachment until July 27 the following year – more than nine months after the Saturday Night Massacre – when it charged Nixon with obstruction of justice. Two more articles of impeachment quickly followed.

Nixon resigned less than two weeks later, on August 8, 1974.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

American voters are not buying the White House’s version of events. A plurality of voters, 49 percent versus 41 percent, say President Donald Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice, as indicated by a Public Policy Polling survey released Monday.

More voters than not also support the impeachment of Trump, 47 percent compared to 43 percent. And a majority of people questioned for the poll, 53 percent, responded that they consider the president to be a liar.

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-impeachment-obstructing-justice-liar-625126