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Comey Firing 05-16-17
As to the long overdue firing of James Comey, questions of timing and the involvement of President Trump remain.
May is National Military Appreciation Month. Michael visited soldiers in undisclosed locations this past week as part of his work with the USO, but he left us with some beautiful signed prints, limited to just 100. A perfect gift for the soldier in your life, or anyone who loves our men and women of the military. Check out all the events planned for National Military Appreciation Month HERE , and click on the image "For Love of Country" to order.
related opinion:
Severed Heads
by VICTOR DAVIS HANSON May 16, 2017
Far too many government officials never pay the price for their crimes and misdeeds: Clinton, Rice, Napolitano, Lerner … Comey is the exception.
President Trump’s firing of James Comey revealed strange timing, herky-jerky methods, and bad political optics.
Certainly, in the existential political war that Trump finds himself in, it would have been wiser, first, to have rallied his entire White House team and congressional leaders around the decision and established a shared narrative, to have been magnanimous to the departing James Comey, and to have had obtained private guarantees from a preselected successor that he or she would serve and be appointed within a day or two.
But otherwise the firing was overdue.
The head of the FBI (quite outside his purview as an investigatory official) announced in summer 2016 to the nation that he had decided not to seek an indictment of Hillary Clinton. Then, again in the role of a presumed federal attorney, he seemed to reverse that judgment by reopening his investigation. Then he appeared to re-reverse that decision — all at the height of a heated presidential campaign.
Throughout such a bizarre sequence, Comey stuck to a (flawed) exegesis about the nature of federal statutes in question (intent is not a mitigating circumstance in the felonious insecure transmission of classified federal documents).
Comey de facto had assumed yet another new role in addition to his newfound claims to be both an investigator and a prosecuting federal attorney — that of legislator and judge.
Last summer, the many-headed Comey apparently believed that he would face no consequences for his moth-to-the flame desire for public showmanship — given the widely shared belief that Hillary Clinton was going to be president and that Loretta Lynch would probably continue on as attorney general. (Lynch met privately with Bill Clinton on the tarmac five days before Hillary Clinton’s FBI interview, and, around the same time, Clinton allies said that Hillary was considering retaining Lynch as the attorney general.)
In Comey’s case, in his public and congressional statements, he repeatedly emphasized that he was conducting an ongoing investigation of possible “collusion” between Putin and those who surrounded Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Yet at the same time, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had casually exonerated Trump from just those charges of collaborating with the Russians. Comey may have confirmed that in private to some senators.
In contrast, in the past, Comey had foolishly put some currency in an unsourced and unverified but tawdry and soon-leaked Fusion GPS dossier of supposed Trump sexual antics in Moscow — fake news stories generated, as Comey should have known, by opposition researchers funded first by Republican Never Trump operatives and then by the hit teams of the Clinton campaign.
Yet Comey was uncharacteristically quiet about ongoing disclosures that members of the Obama administration had unmasked names of people surveilled by intelligence agencies. At best, if true, the administration unduly revealed identities and then leaked them to the press; and at worst, it deliberately reverse-targeted political opponents, on the pretext that normal monitoring of Russian officials had, mirabile dictu, caught up Trump associates. Either way, it illegally leaked classified material.
Comey probably understood that keeping silent about FBI inquiries into alleged collusion with the Russians could earn bad enough press to endanger his career. And in the opposite fashion, he seemed to think it was wiser to remain mute about FBI investigations into why and how the administration had surveilled American citizens and then leaked their names to pet reporters.
In the end, Comey’s gymnastics were too clever by half, and he strategized himself out of a job. read more here
Severed Heads
by VICTOR DAVIS HANSON May 16, 2017
Far too many government officials never pay the price for their crimes and misdeeds: Clinton, Rice, Napolitano, Lerner … Comey is the exception.
President Trump’s firing of James Comey revealed strange timing, herky-jerky methods, and bad political optics.
Certainly, in the existential political war that Trump finds himself in, it would have been wiser, first, to have rallied his entire White House team and congressional leaders around the decision and established a shared narrative, to have been magnanimous to the departing James Comey, and to have had obtained private guarantees from a preselected successor that he or she would serve and be appointed within a day or two.
But otherwise the firing was overdue.
The head of the FBI (quite outside his purview as an investigatory official) announced in summer 2016 to the nation that he had decided not to seek an indictment of Hillary Clinton. Then, again in the role of a presumed federal attorney, he seemed to reverse that judgment by reopening his investigation. Then he appeared to re-reverse that decision — all at the height of a heated presidential campaign.
Throughout such a bizarre sequence, Comey stuck to a (flawed) exegesis about the nature of federal statutes in question (intent is not a mitigating circumstance in the felonious insecure transmission of classified federal documents).
Comey de facto had assumed yet another new role in addition to his newfound claims to be both an investigator and a prosecuting federal attorney — that of legislator and judge.
Last summer, the many-headed Comey apparently believed that he would face no consequences for his moth-to-the flame desire for public showmanship — given the widely shared belief that Hillary Clinton was going to be president and that Loretta Lynch would probably continue on as attorney general. (Lynch met privately with Bill Clinton on the tarmac five days before Hillary Clinton’s FBI interview, and, around the same time, Clinton allies said that Hillary was considering retaining Lynch as the attorney general.)
In Comey’s case, in his public and congressional statements, he repeatedly emphasized that he was conducting an ongoing investigation of possible “collusion” between Putin and those who surrounded Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Yet at the same time, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper had casually exonerated Trump from just those charges of collaborating with the Russians. Comey may have confirmed that in private to some senators.
In contrast, in the past, Comey had foolishly put some currency in an unsourced and unverified but tawdry and soon-leaked Fusion GPS dossier of supposed Trump sexual antics in Moscow — fake news stories generated, as Comey should have known, by opposition researchers funded first by Republican Never Trump operatives and then by the hit teams of the Clinton campaign.
Yet Comey was uncharacteristically quiet about ongoing disclosures that members of the Obama administration had unmasked names of people surveilled by intelligence agencies. At best, if true, the administration unduly revealed identities and then leaked them to the press; and at worst, it deliberately reverse-targeted political opponents, on the pretext that normal monitoring of Russian officials had, mirabile dictu, caught up Trump associates. Either way, it illegally leaked classified material.
Comey probably understood that keeping silent about FBI inquiries into alleged collusion with the Russians could earn bad enough press to endanger his career. And in the opposite fashion, he seemed to think it was wiser to remain mute about FBI investigations into why and how the administration had surveilled American citizens and then leaked their names to pet reporters.
In the end, Comey’s gymnastics were too clever by half, and he strategized himself out of a job. read more here
Bolton: Comey ‘Should Have Been Fired’; He Should Bring Clinton Indictment or Be Silent
by DAN RIEHL4 May 2017Washington, DC
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday. They covered several topical issues, including China and North Korea, the latest revelations from FBI Director James Comey, and the upcoming French election.
Said Bolton on Comey, “I thought he should have been fired on January 20th. I thought his press conference in July where he talked about the Clinton email case was inappropriate, contrary to Department of Justice guidelines. He shouldn’t have done that.”
“He shouldn’t have sent the letter in October,” Bolton continued. “The rule for prosecutors and investigators, alike, should be you either bring an indictment against somebody, or you remain silent publicly. I think this whole thing is about the greater glory of Jim Comey.”
He also said he thinks Comey is hurting the FBI and the administration should take a close look at the Inspector General’s report on the matter when it’s finished.
by DAN RIEHL4 May 2017Washington, DC
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, spoke with Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday. They covered several topical issues, including China and North Korea, the latest revelations from FBI Director James Comey, and the upcoming French election.
Said Bolton on Comey, “I thought he should have been fired on January 20th. I thought his press conference in July where he talked about the Clinton email case was inappropriate, contrary to Department of Justice guidelines. He shouldn’t have done that.”
“He shouldn’t have sent the letter in October,” Bolton continued. “The rule for prosecutors and investigators, alike, should be you either bring an indictment against somebody, or you remain silent publicly. I think this whole thing is about the greater glory of Jim Comey.”
He also said he thinks Comey is hurting the FBI and the administration should take a close look at the Inspector General’s report on the matter when it’s finished.