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FBI Tag

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stands by the memo he wrote which listed former FBI Director Comey's alleged offenses. The White House cited the memo as a reason for canning Comey. Rosenstein briefed both the Senate and House in the last two days.

George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley is often a voice of reason in a sea of media hysteria. Last night he spoke with Martha MacCallum of FOX News about the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel in the FBI Russia investigation. Turley suggested this could work out well for Trump. From the FOX News Insider:
Prof. Turley: Special Counsel Mueller 'Healthy Dose of Tylenol' For US Turley said that until Muller was named, President Trump could not fully clear his name in the face of ongoing leaks and allegations.

Earlier this month, President Trump fired FBI director James Comey.  Since then, a number of people of have withdrawn their names from consideration for the post, with the latest being Former Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher. The Hill reports:
A former Justice Department official has withdrawn her name from consideration to replace former FBI Director James Comey, according to multiple reports.

The Department of Justice has appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller III as special counsel to its investigation into possible Russian interference in our presidential election. The Wall Street Journal reported:
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the appointment because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any investigation related to the 2016 race. Mr. Rosenstein said in a statement that “I determined that it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authority and appoint a Special Counsel to assume responsibility of this matter.”

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."

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.”

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:

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."

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.