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 |
Comments
Curious member of Congress or journalist: Mr. Comey, were you are aware that there were Secretary Clinton emails on Rep. Weiner's computer 36 days before the election? As you know ProPublica has reported that Mr. McCabe communicated this to you 36 days before the election.
Mr. Comey: ?
CMC or CJ: (if Comey acknowledges this was the case): In that case, why did you refrain from taking action, and specifically from making the public announcement you said you felt compelled to make, for over 3 weeks?*(see note below)
Mr. Comey: ?
CMC or CJ: Mr. Comey, in explaining your reasons for making your public announcement concerning Secretary Clinton's emails 11 days prior to the election, you have acknowledged that you felt pressure to announce publicly from congressional Republicans in particular. Did you also experience pressure to make your announcement prior to the election from individuals working for the New York city branch of the FBI, with a non zero chance of having associations with Mr. Giuliani?
Mr. Comey: ?
CMJ or CJ: In explaining your actions why did you choose not to acknowledge this source of pressure you were experiencing?
Mr. Comey: ?
CMJ or CJ: Do you believe it is appropriate for employees of the FBI to seek to apply pressure on the Director of the FBI to make a potentially high-stakes public decision which could have influenced the outcome of a presidential election and ran contrary to FBI policy commenting on investigations in the three months leading up to an election?
Mr. Comey: ?
CMJ or CJ: You have stated in recent days, in response to Mr. Stephanopolous' questions, that you sent your Chief of Staff to speak with the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General's Chiefs of Staff on the matter of whether to make the 11 days before the election announcement or not? (** see note below) On a matter of this much import why did you decide not to speak directly with the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General? Did you believe it was incumbent upon them to speak with you about this matter rather than the other way around? Does this sort of understanding of lines of authority strike you as in any way unusual or potentially problematic?
Mr. Comey:?
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*This is what Comey said in his Stephanopoulos interview relevant to this question of the timing of when he acquired the additional information: http://abcnews.go.com/Site/transcript-james-comeys-interview-abc-news-ch...
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: At the same time, the Hillary Clinton email investigation comes back. When did you first know you were going to have to deal with this again?
JAMES COMEY: Really, October 27th. Somebody earlier in October, the b-- in the beginning of October sometime, mentioned to me that there may be a connection between emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop and the Clinton email investigation. I don't remember.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Was this Andrew McCabe?
JAMES COMEY: I think it was Andy McCabe, but I'm not certain. I didn't store that in any prominent place in my brain 'cause how could that possibly be true?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But how could that not be something you remember?
JAMES COMEY: That's a great question. I think the answer is because how could that possibly be true? How could there be a connection between Anthony Weiner's laptop and Hillary Clinton's emails? And so I think it was sort of a passing comment to me, and I'm sure I stored it away thinking, "Okay, well, that doesn't make any sense, but I'm sure they'll tell me if it does." And they did. They c--
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: It's l-- it's led your critics to say that the FBI, for several weeks, sat on the knowledge that they had several thousand Hillary Clinton emails.
JAMES COMEY: Yeah, more than several thousand, hundreds--
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of thousands.
JAMES COMEY: --of thousands on Anthony Weiner's laptop. And I don't know the answer to that criticism. I don't know whether the Bureau team could have moved faster to-- to bring it to me for a decision. All I know is that they did bring it to me on the morning of October 27th. And so, there's an inspector general investigation going on-- about our work on that investigation. I'm sure they'll say, which I think is great. But I don't know the answer to that now--
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So th-- and-- and-- and-- and to be clear, between that first mention and October 27th, you didn't hear anything about Hillary Clinton's--
JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I don't--
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: --emails?
JAMES COMEY: --remember hearing anything else about it until I walked into a conference room early in the morning on October 27th. So we're now less than two weeks from the election. The deputy director emailed me at about 5:30 in the morning and said, "The midyear team," which was the code name for the Clinton email investigation, "needs to meet with you."
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** And this is what Comey said to Stephanopoulos recounting whether he spoke with the Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General in deciding whether to make his 11 days prior announcement (source is same transcript as linked to above):
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Senior Justice officials weren't convinced that you actually had an obligation to tell Congress that at that time. What was their argument, what was your response?
JAMES COMEY: Their argument was that it was not consistent with our policy, and that we don't normally comment on investigations, all of which I agree with. And that they would advise against it. Actually never spoke to me about it personally. I had my chief of staff call over to the leadership's chief of s-- staffs of th-- the attorney general and the deputy and say, "The director thinks that is between speaking and concealing.
by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 04/19/2018 - 11:24am
Part of my motivation for bothering to write up what some may view as old and now irrelevant business is that it would not surprise me a bit if Comey runs for high office some day. And so a full accounting of his public record may turn out to be relevant going forward and not just in assessing the past and what we can learn from it.
Another part of my motivation is that I dislike and distrust powerful, high visibility public figures with out of control egos and apparently unbounded self regard.
And part of it is that it is now increasingly offensive to me that Comey is, in my view, implicitly portraying himself as a model ethical leader, or allowing himself to be portrayed by others as such, given a number of his actions. I don't believe an exemplary leader needs to be perfect. If that were the case, we might decline to study and try to learn from anyone in a position of high authority and responsibility. If Comey evinced any real sense of humility I might be less bothered. But I don't have that feeling.
by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 04/19/2018 - 11:50am
It would have been better if he had titled the book: I Learned The Hard Way.
Comey is a poster child for what happens when you become a spokesperson in a job that is supposed to stay out of politics. Comey frets about the influence he had during the process but doesn't concede that he himself was played like a banjo at a square dance.
by moat on Thu, 04/19/2018 - 12:23pm
Perhaps. I am not sure what he has really learned, though.
by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 04/19/2018 - 6:46pm
I was describing an alternate history. A path untraveled by sort of thing.
by moat on Thu, 04/19/2018 - 9:26pm
Oh ok. Got it.
by AmericanDreamer on Thu, 04/19/2018 - 10:17pm
JAMES COMEY: That's a great question. I think the answer is because how could that possibly be true? How could there be a connection between Anthony Weiner's laptop and Hillary Clinton's emails?
I don't get that. How could he not make the obvious connection between Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner and Clinton? It just doesn't ring true.
by barefooted on Thu, 04/19/2018 - 7:14pm
THIS IS GOOOD STUFF.
I mean the beginning as well as the comments.
THIS IS GOOOOOOOOD STUFF.
I will add something later. I never saw this coming.
You know, the 'left' hates the FBI and now (for the first time?) hates the FBI?
And me?
I still like Comey?
by Richard Day on Mon, 04/30/2018 - 1:27pm