Comey thought Clinton would win letter to Congress was hedge against favoritism charges: NYT

[warmfeet]

Source: RawStory

FBI Director James Comey was trying to defend his agency against potential accusations of favoritism when he went forward with a letter to Congress last November informing members of the House and Senate that the FBI was investigating new evidence regarding Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State.

The New York Times reported Saturday evening that Comey — a former prosecutor — was attempting to shield the FBI against accusations that it withheld the information until after the election to assure a Clinton win.

“Mr. Comey’s plan was to tell Congress that the F.B.I. had received new evidence and was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton, the presidential front-runner,” wrote the Times’ Matt Apuzzo, Michael S. Schmidt, Adam Goldman and Eric Lichtblau. “The move would violate the policies of an agency that does not reveal its investigations or do anything that may influence an election. But Mr. Comey had declared the case closed, and he believed he was obligated to tell Congress that had changed.”

Believing that Clinton’s win was a near-certainty, Comey believed he was doing the right thing to keep his agency from being accused of partisan politicking. It turned out, in fact, to do the opposite, plunging the FBI into “the molten center of a bitter election,” the Times said.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/comey-thought-clinton-would-win-letter-to-congress-was-hedge-against-favoritism-charges-nyt/

[warmfeet]

1. All comments welcome.

I posted this in a hurry.

[Sunlei]

45. IMO Republican party and their loved Rudy Giuliani were leaking FBI info to R party and push Comey

to speak.

[yurbud]

52. that is a pretty credible story

[Dawson Leery]

2. and this is why partisans are usually appointed.

[still_one]

3. Bullshit!!! Comey sent the letter to the republicans in Congress, and the media said the email

investigation was reopened, which was a LIE, and then proceeded to parade every right wing politician across their screens perpetuating that lie

Both the FBI and the media knew what the f**k they were doing

F**k them both

This is such a crock. Interesting how the news lately has been dominated with stories why Hillary lost, but they seem to minimize their involvement
The headline of this story doesn't pass the smell test. The FBI wanted to stay above the political fray, so they effectively got into the political fray. Give me a break.

[cstanleytech]

15. 100% Agree. nt

[Qutzupalotl]

19. Chaffetz leaked and mischaracterized the letter

and the media reported Chaffetz' version of events.

[still_one]

22. They intentional misrepresented it

[riversedge]

37. Over and over 24/7!!

[brush]

28. I agree, I agree, I agree! Absolute bs. Comey is not naive and knew exactly what he was doing.

Last edited Sun Apr 23, 2017, 05:35 PM - Edit history (1)

The fact that he didn't divulge that he was also investigating trump proves what bullshit that contention is.

[spooky3]

30. Agree.

[FakeNoose]

47. Yes Comey's just doing CYA now but it's too late for that

If he really wanted to cover his ass he should have leaked the Trump/Russian stuff BEFORE the election.
Instead we're all thinking he must have been in collusion along with the other Republicans.

How can we NOT think that?

[brush]

54. Exactly!

[spooky3]

29. Also, his summer comments criticizing Clinton when

he acknowledged that they had insufficient evidence of wrongdoing were completely inappropriate and inconsistent with FBI policies. He had no obligation to Congress or anyone else to say anything beyond "insufficient evidence." This makes his plea of innocence and high moral, apolitical intentions in November totally not credible. This is not someone concerned with principle.

[Hortensis]

42. Bullshit all right. All this, PLUS how about the Nov. 1 release

of 15-year-old documents about Bill Clinton's controversial pardon of a financier at the end of his presidency? No one had been talking about that long-dead fuss, of course, and the documents provided no new information; he merely brought that up a week before the election.

[WinstonSmith4740]

48. My immediate reaction was the same as yours!!

Total bullshit!!! He had pretty damning evidence that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russians before the election, but he sat on that. The "election" was the good ole boys club coming together to make sure a woman didn't get in.

[yodermon]

53. Moot. If comey hadn't sent the letter, guiliani would have leaked it anyway

"it" being the fact of the reopened investigation. G telegraphed this pretty openly.

[Fizzle22]

4. This Really Sucks

[stevenleser]

5. The way for him to shield himself from favoritism accusations would have been

to either:

A. Not reveal any investigations

Or

B. Reveal investigations into both Trump campaign collusion with Russia and any potential Clinton investigations.

Just revealing one is the opposite of trying not to shownfavoratism

[cstanleytech]

14. Exactly. nt

[NanceGreggs]

24. ...

[tenorly]

25. Precisely. This is just Comey covering his derriere.

The fact that Comey threw that stink bomb at Hillary while at the same time staying nice and quiet about the very real intelligence findings against King Con is, to me, proof positive that he did it with forethought of malice.

Small wonder Trump blew that kiss at him after the inaugural.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Sounds like a tall tale to me

[mtngirl47]

7. Redeem yourself Comey

Get on the ball with the Trump Russia connection and put some traitors in jail.

(We will never forgive or forget that you effectively got Trump elected.)

[JudyM]

9. See now, that would seem like a compensatory reaction that would throw doubt on the objectivity

of the FBI, so he may have to shield the FBI from that, too.

So the story is that he wasn't party over country, just agency reputation over country.

[StevieM]

11. I don't think he can be redeemed.

Not even if he personally exposes Trump's ties to Russia and it leads to his impeachment. (Not that I expect that to happen either).

[sharedvalues]

18. It will happen. Keep resisting.

[cstanleytech]

13. After he busted ass to get that bullshit letter off as fast as possible to help Trump? Not a chance.

[rgbecker]

43. It will be the press that connects Russia with Trump.

Don't wait for Comey's FBI. Never going to happen.

[Turbineguy]

8. Mr. Comey can make amends.

Somewhat.

[StevieM]

10. I completely disagree. Nothing can make amends for what he did.

The FBI was going after Hillary for well over a year based on utter nonsense.

[cstanleytech]

12. Ya Comey can try to sell that bullshit to someone whos hungry for a bullshit sandwich. nt

[okasha]

16. Bull. Shit.

[NBachers]

17. "Okay, maybe this story will fly."

[FiveGoodMen]

49. Exactly!

[sharedvalues]

20. Yeah, trying to redirect blame - the NYT was AT LEAST as much as fault

How the NYT failed America

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a54602/new-york-times-clinton-coverage-book/

These events were not only "remote and trivial." They were, by and large, complete bullshit, inflated by Republicans and a willing and timid elite political press into a Questions Remain culture of faux-scandal that persisted through the entirety of the 2016 campaign. And it began long before the Times ran seven stories about James Comey's release of his 11th hour letter to Congress on its front page.

Notably missing in all these media postmortems is an analysis of the role the media themselves played.
Lichtblau and Haberman are especially at fault.

[Baitball Blogger]

21. I'm not buying it.

Everyone knows that Comey was after the Clintons since White Water.He hoisted himself on his own petard.

The only way to disprove that perception is if he came out with evidence he had against Russia BEFORE Trump was allowed to select a Supreme Court justice.

[turbinetree]

26. That is the key to everything that you said in your post and this thread and I fully agree.

I'M not buying it either, when he stood at the podium to justify his actions he sold out the entire democratic process.

This is nothing more than BS and he is the face of BS.

There is presently a narcissistic megalomaniac in the white house with his cronies, being enabled by a right wing republican controlled government to "hurt" human beings, and to top it all off a person sitting in the justice bench, ready to kill (1 inmate so far, because of the expiration of drug usage date in Arkansas), and also someone that sat on the lower court and ruled that a man should have frozen to death in truck, and who has no compunction whatsoever ever when it comes to empathy, unless it means for a entity called "business" and enrichment, nothing else

[KingCharlemagne]

46. Comey is a Republican. He and Trump are (post-election) BFFs. Comey should

resign.

[NanceGreggs]

23. Sorry, Jimmy Boy ...

... not buyin'.

You will go down in history as having handed the presidency to a man you pretty well knew to be colluding with the Russians.

We now have an incompetent, mentally deranged idiot in the WH - and you had no small part in making that happen.

[cstanleytech]

32. I wouldnt be willing to wager about Trump colluding with the Russians Nance.

Granted its entirely possible but if I was going to wager money on someone colluding my money would be on certain Repugnant members of Congress that have been working overtime in stonewalling any independent investigation into what Russia was doing and with whom it was doing it with.
Why? Because if it was only Trump and maybe some of his inner circle the Congressional Repugnants you would think would be happy to hang him out to dry in order to put Pence into office but instead they have been doing whatever they can to stonewall.
Edit: Plus dont forget the Repugnants do have a history of things like Watergate and other unethical things so in their minds they might think "So whats a little treason?"

[woodsprite]

27. I'm not buying it. It doesn't make sense. n/t

[HurricaneWarning]

31. A part of me really wanted to believe the Comey is doing the right thing.

I've given up that hope. Fuck him. This is all about him----typical Republican.

[cstanleytech]

33. Comey wouldnt know the right thing if it ran up and bit him. nt

[canetoad]

34. Seth Abrahmson had a pretty good take on it

In this article from January. He ties in the NY FBI, Giuliani and Prince.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-domestic-conspiracy-that-gave-trump-the-election_us_587ed24fe4b0b110fe11dbf9

snip...
The effort to intimidate Comey into publicly commenting on the Clinton case—a win-win scenario for Trump, as either a comment from Comey or silence from Comey (the latter coupled with inaccurate, Hatch Act-violative leaks by the FBI, NYPD, and/or the Trump campaign) would sink Clinton—began concurrent to Comey’s October 26th briefing on the Clinton case. In an October 25th Fox & Friends appearance and an October 26th appearance on Fox News with Martha McCallum, Rudy Giuliani, one of Trump’s closest advisers, began teasing an October “surprise” which, Giuliani said, would turn the tide against Hillary Clinton. He refused to say what the forthcoming surprise would be, but he indicated that it would be coming in just a few days.

[volstork]

35. Nice try, comey.

We're not buying.

[SergeStorms]

38. Agree.

Who does he think we are, Trump supporters?

[andym]

36. So it was CYA for the FBI. Could Comey be so naive

that he did not realize he could change the outcome of the election? Possibly. He is not a politician. OTOH it seemed obvious at the time to many regular people that Clinton was likely finished, no matter what people on DU were saying to the contrary. Comey should have just stuck to FBI policy and not said anything until he knew something definite.

[Skittles]

40. bullshit

he knows what his legacy will be

[BumRushDaShow]

41. My take

[Sunlei]

44. Time to go after the Republicans who colluded with Russian hackers & used stolen files.

Time to find out who hacked Weiners computer and knew old emails were still on his laptop that was an old laptop of Humas.

[warmfeet]

50. I think Comey

wanted to do anything he could to damage Clinton. He is now trying to work a bit of revisionist history magic. It won't work. He is a scumbag, in my opinion.

[gordianot]

51. Trump was not alone in seeking foreign influence.

The Supreme Court made it possible in Citizens United allowing soft money. The entire Republican Party is awash in soft money. At best (and this is a huge stretch) Comey thought Hillary would win anyway. Now he is for all time in the middle of this rot and corruption. I hope he likes his Russian masters and the oligarchs who own him