Saturday, February 3, 2018

"Leaker" Comey

Had this to say about the Nunes Memo:

I was going to Fisk the tweet this morning, but then I saw that Neo-Neo Con has done a better job already:
“That’s it?” If the allegations seem like a nothingburger to you, Mr. Comey, then it’s only more reason to hope you never get near a government post again.

“Dishonest and misleading”—Which parts, and what is your evidence for claiming they are dishonest?

“wrecked the House intel committee”—in what way? Is it not still in operation? The vote was along predictable party lines, as so many things are these days.

“damaged relationship with the FISA court”—how, and whose relationship? If anything might have “damaged” that relationship, it would have been the alleged actions themselves, if in fact the FISA court was not informed of the extremely pertinent information about the origins of the dossier.
This was the point I would have stressed. Any damage to the relationship between the FBI, DOJ and the FISA court rests squarely on the hands of Comey and his anti-Trump henchpeople at the FBI when they decided to use the "salacious and unverified" Steele dossier to obtain a warrant to spy on an American citizen (Carter Page), while withholding evidence of its origins as a political hit job paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign from the judges. If I were a FISA judge I would be very hesitant to take any filing from this cast of characters again without a great deal more justification.

Carter Page has yet to be charged with any crimes.
“inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen”—If the investigation was begun through the use of partisan opp research, not only do Americans have a right to know, but that fact also provides the “excuse” for this “inexcusable” exposure. What’s more, virtually all of the information contained in the dossier and released was already in the public domain, having been revealed by internal leaks to the MSM. I don’t recall Comey being so incensed at that.

In fact, I seem to recall that a leaker of other classified information was Comey himself:
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is pressing the Justice Department for answers on whether James Comey violated bureau rules, saying it appears the former FBI director leaked “at least one” classified memo to a professor friend shortly after his firing.
Grassley, R-Iowa, penned a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein late Wednesday, saying he and his staff had reviewed the Comey memos which were “created purportedly memorializing his interactions with President Trump.” They did so in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the FBI and the Senate, because the FBI deemed the “majority of the memos” to be “classified.”
“Of the seven memos, four are marked classified at the ‘SECRET’or ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ levels,” Grassley wrote, adding that “only three did not contain classified information.”
. . .
Comey admitted in congressional testimony in June 2017 that he had given his friend, Columbia University Professor Daniel Richman, his memos about discussions with Trump in order to have his notes leaked to The New York Times — hoping to spur the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign.
This is the "friend" who is now claiming to be Comey's attorney, hoping to avoid prosecution, alnong with Comey, as a leaker, by asserting attorney-client privilege.
Somehow Comey’s faux outrage is unconvincing, despite his vehement language.

Comey’s tweet ends like this: “For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.” The answer to “for what?” should be obvious: to expose possible wrongdoing on the part of government entities tasked with protecting the law and keeping us safe. And the response to “DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs” would be doing their jobs correctly, not in a partisan manner or because they were fed information by one side attempting to do a hit on the other.

[ADDENDUM: A reminder from Ace:
When Comey “briefed” Trump about the memo, he also withheld from Trump the dossier’s partisan origins as well as the unreliablity (and firability) of its alleged author.
Note I always put “briefed” in quotes when I speak of this “briefing,” because this briefing was not for the President’s information, but for CNN’s: The plan was to make the dossier “reportable” by giving it a newsworthy angle (It’s so explosive the president was briefed on it!).
CNN was almost immediately leaked the news of this “briefing.” It should be pointed out that one of the four reporters pushing this leak to the public was Evan Perez, who is a best friend of Fusion GPS’ Glenn Simpson.
Moving right along, nothing to see here.]
Mueller should be investigating Comey for his leakage, and his obstruction of justice in the "Russia" investigation (actually an investigation promulgated by political opponents to discredit and oust Trump for any charge they can. Like "obstruction of justice" for firing Comey. It's quite clear that Trump had numerous valid reasons for firing Comey.

And more memo coverage via Wombat-socho's "In The Mailbox: 02.02.18":

Twitchy: MSNBC’s Katy Tur Caught Straight-Up LYING About The Steele Dossier
American Power: ... Memo Day
Da Tech Guy: My Memo/Prediction -Watch Dems/Media Suddenly Go Frank Drebin
Joe For America: FISA Memo Released – As Serious And Damaging As Advertised!
JustOneMinute: Watching The Sausage Factory
Legal Insurrection: Nunes Memo Alleges FBI Used Steele Dossier To Get FISA Warrant On Trump Campaign Member
Power Line: What The House Intelligence Committee Memo Says
Mark Steyn: FISA Friday Fever!

No comments:

Post a Comment