MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Days before he was fired, James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in money and personnel for the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election, according to three officials with knowledge of his request.
Comments
Also confirmed within minutes by WaPo, NBC, and others. Someone at the FBI must have leaked the news to multiple press outlets. So it begins.
by Michael Wolraich on Wed, 05/10/2017 - 12:40pm
It seems clear that Trump is afraid that an investigation into his campaign's contacts with Russia would uncover evidence of a conspiracy to engage in election fraud.
by HSG on Wed, 05/10/2017 - 3:37pm
we can draw a few inferences from Trump's clumsy attempt to sanitize his most flagrant obstruction of justice violation to date.
1. He has importuned Comey on three occasions to produce some anodyne characterization of Trumps personal liability. Trump, as is his wont, has recorded the conversations.
2. He thinks this will insulate him, by reifiying a putative innocent state of mind, which he would proffer to parry the charge of obstruction,
3. He is an ahistorical schmuck, who will have thus duplicated the very act which brousht Nixon down by eliminating the ambiguity which both of these goniffs use to slither out.
Indictment supersedes impeachment.
by jollyroger on Wed, 05/10/2017 - 3:52pm
But, Jolly -- who will indict him? He has the Supreme Court, both legislatures, and evidently, a significant number of (New York, at least). FBI. Who can, or will step up?
by CVille Dem on Wed, 05/10/2017 - 9:11pm
That Preet Bharara guy, oh. wait....never mind.
Edit to add: Actually, just after that post I was mulling over the same obstacle, and trying to parse whether or not there might be some state or local jurisdiction with potential overlap to rhe Federal crimes (Trump commits four episodes of obstruction of justice before breakfast--in his case, with the 6am tweets, this is not a mere metaphor...)
Maybe Scneiderman for NY securities law violations, maybe Vance for parking tickets, (The "Al Capone Rule".)
Actually, speaking of Al Capone, I bet there's NY State Income Tax Fraud waist high.
Edit to further add: (disclaimer: legal opinion from stripper who did not practice criminal law....) I bet there's a N,Y, State obstruction of justice beef that Trump has backed his fat ass into by being in NY State when he had the cited conversations with Comey, inasmuch as the obscuring of relevant facts might be argued as directed to obstruct State criminal proceedings as well as Federal ones.
by jollyroger on Thu, 05/11/2017 - 5:31pm
While Schneiderman could surely push for discovery in other ways, this simplifies claims of jurisdiction specifically for accessing FBI info (or anything whistleblower Comey walked out the door with, perhaps like Preet)
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 05/11/2017 - 11:05pm
There is a reason Comey was fired while out of town. No access to papers.
by Obey on Thu, 05/11/2017 - 11:07pm
And if he were in his office they would let him walk out of the building with a suitcase? Or he kept all the sensitive info he needed in his office? He was in New Zealand by charter airplane 3 weeks ago - I would have parked it with friendlyi ntel there, far from Trump's stubby fingers and jurisdiction. Along with Preet in the NY office.
In any case, Trump effectively perp walked Comey on national TV with no heads up while Comey was addressing his team. You do not want to piss off the FBI like that, whoever you are. They are known for grudges and rogue behavior.
by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 05/12/2017 - 2:15am
Preet apparently got all his docs over to Schneiderman the day he was fired. Can't remember where I read that
by Obey on Fri, 05/12/2017 - 2:28am
Great. So it looks like our one hope is the organization that put Trump in office because they hated Clinton too much and just had to interfere in the election. THAT is who we are counting on to sink this administration??
by Obey on Fri, 05/12/2017 - 4:39am
It's not monolithic, just like the military, the CIA, etc.
Giuliani and his likes stoked the discontent in a few rogue cells, but if you read the Deputy AG's paper on the matter, they know very well that Comey was over the line in July - it's just that using that paper 10 months later to fire the guy Trump had been praising in the meantime is absurd.
I don't think Comey is particularly smart and his logic is a bit weird, missing some key obvious points in various pronouncements. And he certainly isn't a liberal on FISA or surveillance or much else. But I do have a sense that he's relatively impartial, and that part of what happened in July and October were somewhat forced on him (the Lynch tarmac meeting wasn't the brightest idea, and I think a combination of rogue agents and possibly a catfished/compromised laptop made it look like there was more there than actually was & gave Comey the headache of how these rogue agents would treat the info in the weeks before election - e.g. an FBI-led Wikileaks-like drip-drip-drip would both damage Clinton and the FBI itself)
While you can't tell people just from looks, here are some FBI staff commended by Comey in the last few days. Not quite the Joe Friday/Efrem Zimbalist Jr. age.
by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 05/12/2017 - 8:03am
Senator Cornyn (R-Texas) called any implication Trump fired Comey to hinder the investigation a "phony narrative."
Cornyn spin: "It would be stupid so its impossible Trump would do it."
I guess that works on Fox News with the Trumpanzees.
by NCD on Wed, 05/10/2017 - 4:31pm
YEAH Mike follow the money. ha
I always follow Media Matters.
http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/05/09/trump-fired-fbi-director-no-journalist-should-believe-anything-white-house-says-about-it/216364
ABC asks: Where is the money?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fbi-director-comeys-firing/story?id=47318625
Time asks: Where is the money?
http://time.com/4774305/james-comey-fired-russian-probe/
Others ask: Where is the money?
Trump is all about money.
And where does Trump get his money except for taxpayers?
From golf carts:
Just do not give money to the FBI or anybody else.
hahahah
LET US ALL GET SOME MONEY AND GET RID OF TRUMP.
by Richard Day on Wed, 05/10/2017 - 11:55pm