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FBI Director James Comey Sacked
The Washington Post reports that:
FBI Director James B. Comey has been dismissed by the president [...] a startling move that officials said stemmed from a conclusion by Justice Department officials that he had mishandled the probe of Hillary Clinton's emails.
Previously:
Clinton Told FBI She Relied on Others' Judgment on Classified Material
FBI Recommends No Prosecution for Clinton
F.B.I. Director James Comey Is Fired by Trump
President Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey:
President Trump has fired the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, over his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, the White House said Tuesday.
[...] Under the F.B.I.'s normal rules of succession, Mr. Comey's deputy, Andrew G. McCabe, a career F.B.I. officer, becomes acting director. The White House said the search for a new director will begin immediately.
I never liked Comey (see this cluster of stories), but I doubt there will ever be an FBI Director I like.
Related:
We're Stuck With Comey
Earlier in the day...
FBI Director Comey Misstated Huma Abedin Evidence at Last Week's Hearing
ProPublica reports that most of FBI Director James Comey's testimony to Congress last Wednesday related to Huma Abedin's mishandling of classified emails was inaccurate, and that FBI officials are privately acknowledging the mistake(s) but are still considering their next move:
FBI director James Comey generated national headlines last week with his dramatic testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, explaining his "incredibly painful" decision to go public about the Hillary Clinton emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop.
Perhaps Comey's most surprising revelation was that Huma Abedin — Weiner's wife and a top Clinton deputy — had made "a regular practice" of forwarding "hundreds and thousands" of Clinton messages to her husband, "some of which contain classified information." Comey testified that Abedin had done this so that the disgraced former congressman could print them out for her boss. (Weiner's laptop was seized after he came under criminal investigation for sex crimes, following a media report about his online relationship with a teenager.)
The New York Post plastered its story on the front page with a photo of an underwear-clad Weiner and the headline: "HARD COPY: Huma sent Weiner classified Hillary emails to print out." The Daily News went with a similar front-page screamer: "HUMA ERROR: Sent classified emails to sext maniac Weiner."
The problem: Much of what Comey said about this was inaccurate. Now the FBI is trying to figure out what to do about it. FBI officials have privately acknowledged that Comey misstated what Abedin did and what the FBI investigators found. On Monday, the FBI was said to be preparing to correct the record by sending a letter to Congress later this week. But that plan now appears on hold, with the bureau undecided about what to do.
[...] According to two sources familiar with the matter — including one in law enforcement — Abedin forwarded only a handful of Clinton emails to her husband for printing — not the "hundreds and thousands" cited by Comey. It does not appear Abedin made "a regular practice" of doing so. Other officials said it was likely that most of the emails got onto the computer as a result of backups of her Blackberry.
Also at Washington Post (alternate analysis), The Hill, The New York Post, and USA Today.
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @03:01AM (11 children)
If the FBI have something on Trump, you bet your ass anyone he installs in Comey's place will want to use that leverage too, not sweep it under the rug.
You presume they already have evidence. That's not the case. They are doing an investigation to find evidence.
Just today a grand jury issued subpoenas to flynn's associates. [cnn.com]
We are still at the start of the trail that leads to trump. The replacement need only de-prioritize the investigation so that it is delayed indefinitely.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday May 10 2017, @03:40AM (10 children)
You'd better wait till the evidence before spouting that the path leads to Trump. If it turns out to be bullshit, which at this moment it strongly appears to be, then nobody will ever trust libs or the Lugenpresse ever again, and would be a resounding victory for the populists.
In this the libs are going to lose what little cred they didn't already piss away yelling "Cock Holster" and sucking their widdwle thumbs.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @04:08AM (8 children)
You'd better wait till the evidence before spouting that the path leads to Trump.
I'm confident. Here's why:
Eric Trump in 2014: 'We have all the funding we need out of Russia' | TheHill [thehill.com]
Trump has gone bankrupt a couple of times, after the last time western banks decided he was too much of a credit risk to do business with. So he ended up taking dirty russian money from oligarchs and russian mafia and it sure looks like he helped them launderer their money. Without his taxes we can’t know for sure though.
Here is a 15 second clip of Paul Manafort (Trump’s campaign manager at the time) totally blowing it when asked if Trump has financial connections to russia. [youtube.com]
###These articles were published in the Financial Times before the election:
The shadowy Russian émigré touting Trump [ft.com]
— US election raises ghosts of cold war-era spy games
##Dirty money: Trump and the Kazakh connection [ft.com]
— FT probe finds evidence a Trump venture has links to alleged laundering network
US election: Trump’s Russian riddle [ft.com]
— The Republican nominee became the face of Bayrock, a developer with roots in the Soviet Union
###Since the election, these reports have come out:
Former Mafia-linked figure describes association with Trump [washingtonpost.com]
The Curious World of Donald Trump’s Private Russian Connections [the-american-interest.com]
— Did the American people really know they were putting such a “well-connected” guy in the White House?
Wilbur Ross Comes to D.C. With an Unexamined History of Russian Connections [dcreport.org]
— Trump’s Choice for Commerce Secretary Holds a Top Post With a Mysterious, Russian-Controlled Cyprus Bank (TLDR version [thedailybeast.com])
Donald Trump’s Worst Deal [newyorker.com]
— The President helped build a hotel in Azerbaijan that appears to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. (TLDR version [businessinsider.com])
One theory is that Putin made a deal with Trump - if he ran his election campaign to the bitter end (as an independent if he didn’t get the republican nomination), Putin would arrange for his debts to be forgiven.
Putin would love to throw a monkey wrench into the US election because:
Having Trump go on and on and about the election being “rigged” reinforced the narrative to Russians that real democracy doesn’t work so they should be happy with Putin’s strongman rule and not expect anything better because the US really isn’t better. Trump said so!
But neither Putin nor Trump expected to win. Putin just wanted to weaken and delegitimize a Clinton presidency so the US couldn’t oppose any stunts like invading Ukraine and Trump just wanted to run the greatest PR campaign in the history of the world for his personal brand. So they were kind of sloppy, after all nobody investigates the loser of an election.
But then Trump won and shit got real.
Now, they’ve both got problems. If Putin really did forgive Trump’s debt, forget all that stuff about golden showers - Putin’s got the ultimate blackmail material on Trump because he paid the guy and he’s got the receipts. But because of all the noise about russian involvement, Trump can’t be seen to go easy on Russia if they pull any shenanigans. So in a way Putin lost by winning.
And then there is the matter of all the journalists, the FBI, the CIA and other western intelligence services like MI6 digging into communications between Trump’s staff and the Kremlin during the campaign. None of that would be happening if he had lost.
It’s just a ticking timebomb waiting to go off and all Trump’s people can do is deny, deny, deny. Which is why they keep getting caught in stupid lies about stuff that there would otherwise be no reason to deny in the first place.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 10 2017, @12:03PM (7 children)
So... basically nothing? So far it makes the Salem witch trials look like rational reasoned justice. Got anything better?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 10 2017, @07:54PM (6 children)
About 100x more smoke than there was coming from clinton, which seems to have been more than enough for you to go full-retard about her.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 11 2017, @12:42AM (5 children)
So - smoke and mirrors? Got it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 11 2017, @02:47AM (4 children)
Who said anything about mirrors?
Where there is smoke, there is fire.
If it was true for killary its 100x more true for trumputin.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 11 2017, @01:45PM (3 children)
I've voiced my opinion often enough - Trump is the court fool, to Hillary's wicked witch. It seems that in your partisan view, the court fool is more evil than the wicked witch. That's alright, I guess. But, why do you feel the need to defend the wicked witch?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 12 2017, @02:28AM (2 children)
I've voiced my opinion often enough
You seem unclear on the definition of "enough."
Have you also been reading from an alt-dictionary where words mean the opposite of how everybody who is not an alt-person uses them?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 12 2017, @02:22PM (1 child)
Nope. Merriam-Webster. Which means, of course, that I don't read the Progressive dictionary, either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 12 2017, @02:23PM
hurr-durr! yer so clever!
stupid progresives, yu just showed them who is the bigger dumbass!
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday May 10 2017, @12:23PM
then nobody will ever trust libs or the Lugenpresse ever again
Ah etOH buddy sometimes you get it, sometimes you just aren't seeing the big picture.
In a post truth world the ONLY purpose of 100% progressive controlled news is social holiness signalling. "Look at us, this is what the progressive version of cool kids thinks about culture". There's no truth involved, journalism in the current year is sort of a progressive self-love activity. Its an expression of propaganda preaching to the choir (because no one else pays attention to that well known bullshit) and a bit of self congratulations at "winning" a goal set decades ago, unfortunately obsolete, but...
Consider how Hillary operated a perfect 1970 campaign, total control of the content of newspapers and major network news and all the radicals love her. If a time machine threw her back to 1970 she'd totally have been Fuhrer Hillary or whatever. Of course in 2017 nobody gives a shit that some podunk newspaper editor who's been a shill his whole career is in fact shilling for her. Ditto TV news.
Viewership doesn't matter, practically none of the population pays attention anymore, the opinion of the viewers doesn't matter, its pure propaganda.
In a reign of terror, why does trust matter if a CEO can be fired for donating to the wrong political group? Who needs trust when antifa uses baseball bats? Who needs trust when professors are fired and beaten in the streets?
When I was a kid some decades ago I went to a uni that circulated a pretty much outright commie zine. The editors thought they were changing the world by informing the proles and inflaming anti-capitalism by their insightful op-eds. The reality is they were mentally whacking off, the few readers were true believers who quoted it in casual conversation to raise their social status among the very few who give a F about holiness of that type, and the prole masses mostly saw that zine as a joke punchline and/or mere street litter although the vast majority paid it no attention at all. Decades later, that's the Wash Post and CNN, bigger, but the same. Hell, given where I went to school, it might literally be the same people!
Look at history. There's no getting off the ride and there's no brakes and no steering wheel. Sure as a wheel rotates you can predict whats coming next. Personally I'm pretty happy with it, although there are unhappy people and its sad that individual mistakes will be made. Soon enough, it gets better after the ovens and showers and helicopter rides, but its gonna take awhile and be a bit of a rough ride. Someday, we'll go back to a culture of trust and truth in whatever replaces the current press, or at least one where those virtues are not rounded down to zero like now and the immediate future.