Comey’s Revenge: Leaks Memo To NYT Saying Trump Asked Him To End Flynn Investigation

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– Comey’s Revenge: Leaks Memo To NYT Saying Trump Asked Him To End Flynn Investigation:

Update 1:

And just like yesterday, it was just a matter of minutes before CNN and NBC ‘independently’ corroborated the New York Times’ story.

Meanwhile, Independent Senator Angus King of Maine is now considering calling for impeachment proceedings for “obstruction of justice.”

“Obstruction of justice is such a serious event.  And I say it with sadness and reluctance.  This is not something that I’ve advocated for.”

“But, if indeed the President tried to tell the Director of the FBI, who worked for him, that he should drop an investigation, whether it was Michael Flynn or some investigation that had nothing to do with Russia or politics or the election, that’s a very serious matter.”

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In what is seemingly becoming a daily event, the New York Times has just dropped yet another anonymously sourced bombshell on the White House.  The latest provocative headline implies that President Trump directly asked former FBI Director James Comey to shut down an ongoing investigation of Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting back in February shortly after Flynn was fired by the White House.

This latest story allegedly comes from a memo that Comey wrote shortly after the meeting in question and is just part of a larger paper trail that he created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation. As the New York Times notes, an FBI agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.

Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.

“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.”

Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.

Mr. Comey did not say anything to Mr. Trump about curtailing the investigation, only replying: “I agree he is a good guy.”

Mr. Comey created similar memos — including some that are classified — about every phone call and meeting he had with the president, the two people said. It is unclear whether Mr. Comey told the Justice Department about the conversation or his memos.

Of course, if there is an unclassified paper trail created by Comey then
we suspect hundreds of FOIA requests will be filed by the end of the
day.

Oddly, this memo seems to directly contradict statements that Andrew McCabe recently made under oath before the Senate Intelligence Committee.  In the following exchange with Marco Rubio, McCabe said:  “There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.”  So either McCabe was lying or Comey had serious trust issues with his second in command.

Rubio:  “Has the dismissal of Mr. Comey in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped, or negatively impacted any of the work, any of the investigations or any ongoing projects at the Federal Bureau of Investigation?”

 

McCabe:  “There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.”

“You cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing,” McCabe says on if Comey’s firing disrupted ongoing investigations pic.twitter.com/PMivNMlmkd

Meanwhile, according the NYT, Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior FBI officials and close associates. The New York Times admitted it had not viewed a copy of the memo but portions of the letter were apparently read to a reporter covering the story.

According to details in the memo, Comey had been invited to the Oval Office with other senior national security officials for a terrorism threat briefing. When the meeting ended, Trump asked all present — including Vice President Pence and Attorney General Sessions — to leave the room except for Comey.  It was at that time that Trump condemned the continued leaks to the media before turning the conversation to Flynn’s fate.

Alone in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump began the discussion by condemning leaks to the news media, saying that Mr. Comey should consider putting reporters in prison for publishing classified information, according to one of Mr. Comey’s associates.

Mr. Trump then turned the discussion to Mr. Flynn.

It seems that Comey just outed himself as one of the leakers the White House was looking for.

Meanwhile, in a statement, the White House denied the version of events as writing in the memo.

“While the president has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” the statement said. “The president has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”

If Trump does have Oval Office recordings, as he suggested in the tweet below, now might be a good time to introduce them into the public record as it looks as though Comey just called his bluff.

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