A just-released Justice
Department Inspector General's report provides
new details on the January 2017 plan by then-FBI Director James Comey, FBI
officials and the nation's intelligence chiefs to spring a scandalous
allegation on President-elect Trump, quickly record his reaction, use a
prearranged secure videoconference to discuss the information, and fit it all
into the FBI's ongoing "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation.
The allegation came
from the so-called “dirty” dossier which was a collection of unverified
tales about Trump and Russia compiled by former British spy Christopher
Steele. The story was that in a Moscow hotel room four years earlier, Donald Trump
had watched as prostitutes performed a kinky sex act as Russian intelligence
service cameras rolled.
The new report shows Comey
and other top officials placed great credibility in the allegation, which even
Steele himself reportedly had grave doubts about.
Comey, Deputy FBI
Director Andrew McCabe, Chief of Staff James Rybicki, General Counsel James
Baker, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page prepared “meticulously” for the moment when
Comey would meet with President-Elect Trump alone in Trump Tower and ambush him
with the salacious findings in the dossier.
“Comey said he had a
secure FBI laptop waiting for him in his FBI vehicle and that when he got into
the vehicle, he was handed the laptop and ‘began typing as the vehicle moved,'”
the report says. He worked on his account as the FBI car took him to the New
York field office, where aides had set up a secure video teleconference with
Rybicki, McCabe, Baker, and the “Crossfire Hurricane” supervisors. Comey
continued to work on his memo after that and sent the group a final version the
next day, Saturday, Jan. 7.
This has to be the
closest our country has come to a coup attempt in modern times.
Sen. John Kennedy
(R-LA) said
during a Fox News interview, “Power does not change you; it unmasks you. I
believed for a long time and this report confirms it, Mr. Comey is a meat head.
He is a political hack. He hurt the FBI badly.”
“The FBI should not be
a political body. And Mr. Comey acted like a political operative while he was
F.B.I. Director and every day since. It’s
just sleazy. I think Chris Wray [FBI Director] has a lot of work to do to
regain the confidence of the American people for the FBI.”
Kennedy added that
while he believes most FBI officials are “professionals,” Comey has done
significant damage to the institution.
“I believe before this
report came out he just cheapened the premier law enforcement agency in all of
human history. He ought to hide his head
in a bag.”
This is the first of what I expect will be several more ugly and damning rebukes of senior DOJ and FBI officials regarding their actions and biases toward the Trump campaign of 2016.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 29, 2019
— Kevin Corke (@kevincorke) August 29, 2019
Comey released a statement portraying the scathing report as a
type of victory and encouraged his critics to send their apologies to him.
DOJ IG "found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media." I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a “sorry we lied about you” would be nice.— James Comey (@Comey) August 29, 2019
He has magnanimously accepted phantom apologies no one has
offered and claimed exoneration appearing nowhere in the Inspector General’s
report.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please scribble on my walls otherwise how will I know what you think, but please don’t try spamming me or you’ll earn a quick trip to the spam filter where you will remain—cold, frightened and all alone.