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FBI Tag

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on May 17, 2017 25 Comments
Joe Scarborough likes to make himself out to be a simple country lawyer. But on today's Morning Joe, he ran afoul of a cardinal lawyering rule: never ask a witness a question to which you don't know the answer. Scarborough laid out a lengthy timeline for the purpose of teeing up law professor Jonathan Turley to agree with Joe's conclusion that there was a prosecutable, federal case of obstruction of justice against President Trump. But Turley hit Joe between the eyes with his response:

"This isn't going to be real popular, but I don't think so . . . The fact is, I don't think this makes out an obstruction case."

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 16, 2017 63 Comments
According to The New York Times, former FBI Director James Comey wrote a memo on February 14 that President Donald Trump asked him to let go of an investigation into Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor. However, the NYT admitted that the reporters did not see the memo and "a Comey associate read parts of it to a reporter over the phone." The source (remember the source isn't even Comey) claimed the memo said this:
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 15, 2017 20 Comments
Okay, I'll admit this is a good bit of trolling, but I can't help myself this morning. You remember Merrick Garland? He's the guy Obama nominated for the Scalia seat, but who never got a vote. That was like an injection of hot sauce into the veins of Democrats. Senator Mike Lee recently floated the idea of Trump nominating Garland to replace James Comey as FBI Director. Lee did it in a very Trumpian way - on Twitter:

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 12, 2017 7 Comments
The FBI raided the Strategic Campaign Group (SCG) in Annapolis, MD Thursday, but refused to specify why it issued search warrants. Because SCG is connected to some of President  Trump's advisors, there's widespread speculation that the raid was related to the FBI's investigation into Russian associates. SCG's president Kelley Rogers told the Capital Gazette that the search pertained to work "the firm performed during the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial campaign of former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a Republican."

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 12, 2017 35 Comments
Now that James Comey is out at the FBI, a growing chorus is suggesting that the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email scandal should be reopened. Professor Jacobson said in a recent post:
James Comey now is fired. Loretta Lynch no longer is Attorney General. This seems to open up the possibility of a renewed investigation and potential prosecution.
Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch is now making a similar point. Cheryl K. Chumley writes at the Washington Times:
Hillary Clinton’s email scandal — the hit that keeps on coming Once again, Hillary Clinton’s email scandal is rocking national news. It truly is the news hit that just keeps on coming, isn’t it?

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 11, 2017 19 Comments
I was a guest on the Crane Durham Nothing But Truth  radio show on Wednesday night, May 10, 2017, talking about the firing of James Comey the prior Tuesday. My interview is almost 30 minutes, and is embedded at the bottom of this post. In the day since the interview there have been further developments which support many of the points I made. In particular, Donald Trump has been interviewed on NBC and focused heavily on Comey's media presence: "He’s a showboat, he’s a grandstander." That's a point I made in the interview in similar (but not identical) terms.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 11, 2017 17 Comments
Democrats have gone from demanding former FBI Director James' Comey's resignation or dismissal to being puffed up with such outrage that the president has fired Comey they have decided to grind Senate work to a halt by cancelling or postponing meetings  . . . for a whole day.  This is their way of protesting the "lack of an independent investigation" into Russia's alleged election meddling. The Washington Post reports:
Democrats on Capitol Hill slowed committee business in the Senate to protest the lack of an independent investigation into Russia’s election meddling, and a growing number of Republicans questioned Trump’s decision.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 11, 2017 13 Comments
Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe spoke to the Senate Intelligence Committee today since President Donald Trump fired James Comey as FBI director two days ago. Well, the firing of Comey caused the MSM to go haywire, splashing out reports to heighten conspiracy theories to show the firing was political. For instance, numerous outlets reported the firing came after the FBI requested more resources for its investigation into collusion between Trump and Russia during the campaign. However, McCabe told the committee that he does not know of any requests. Interesting, huh? Even more interesting? The MSM has skimmed over this crucial part of his testimony.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 10, 2017 59 Comments
Yesterday, Trump turned the beltway on end when he abruptly fired FBI Director Comey. In Comey's absence, Andrew McCabe is acting as the interim director. But we want to hear from you. Who do you think should replace Comey as FBI Director?

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 09, 2017 55 Comments
President Donald Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey. From The Washington Post:
“The president has accepted the recommendation of the Attorney General and the deputy Attorney General regarding the dismissal of the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Spicer told reporters in the briefing room, according to a pool report.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 03, 2017 17 Comments
FBI Director Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, where he was grilled on a handful of issues. Comey defended his decision not to pursue charges against Hillary or her associates for the unlawful sharing of classified information. As he explained, he felt the FBI maintained a burden of proving individuals involved, namely Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner, knew sharing classified information was unlawful. Comey concluded they did not.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 03, 2017 46 Comments
In October 2016, less than two weeks before the election, FBI Director James Comey disclosed that the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server had been reopened after classified emails from Huma Abedin were found on Anthony Weiner's laptop as part of an unrelated investigation into Weiner's sexting with a teenager. The computer in question belonged to her husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner.  Last November, FBI notes revealed that Hillary had been sending her housekeeper emails containing classified information for the purpose of printing them out. In his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony today, FBI Director James Comey reveals that Abedin had been forwarding classified information to her husband so that he could print it out for her to give to Hillary. He further notes that no charges were pursued because the FBI could not determine intent to violate federal law.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 24, 2017 17 Comments
The Iranian Nuclear Deal included many pieces, but one of the least reported items of the deal has been the prisoner swap. Iran agreed to release four Americans while we handed over seven prisoners and dropped charges and investigations against 14 others. Professor Jacobson profiled these prisoners after the exchange occurred. But a Politico investigation has revealed the anger and frustration within former President Barack Obama's administration over the release of these men:
“They didn’t just dismiss a bunch of innocent business guys,” said one former federal law enforcement supervisor centrally involved in the hunt for Iranian arms traffickers and nuclear smugglers. “And then they didn’t give a full story of it.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 21, 2017 14 Comments
Sources have disclosed to the media that federal prosecutors have started to consider pressing changes against Julian Assange and other members of WikiLeaks. The case against the whistleblowing organization spans all the way back to 2010 when it published "diplomatic cables and military documents" to present day when it published the CIA's hacking operations in March. The other day, officials told CBS News that the FBI and CIA have started an investigation into those leaks in March.

Posted by Mary Chastain on April 20, 2017 13 Comments
CBS News has reported that the FBI and CIA have started an investigation to find the person who provided WikiLeaks with secret documents. The investigation is linked to the WikiLeaks publication of almost 9,000 pages that detailed the CIA'S hacking operations. According to the documents, the CIA uses its own malware to hack into anyone's electronics and spy on them. The agency even has malware from Russia, and other countries, which means agents can make an attack look like it came from that country.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 12, 2017 20 Comments
According to a report by the Washington Post, the FBI obtained a FISA warrant last summer to monitor former Trump adviser, Carter Page. WaPo's report is based on information provided by anonymous sources not at liberty to discuss the investigation. The FBI and DOJ believed Page may have been acting as a foreign agent. So far, this is the closest public evidence that there may have been Trump camp/Russian collaboration, but even at that, obtaining a warrant is not indicative of collusion, simply a suspicion of.
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