trump's lawyer has released a statement that, based on James Comey's prepared notes that were released yesterday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, trump "feels completely and totally vindicated." trump must pay this guy really well for this lawyer to support trump's delusions.
What is being referred to are the three entries in Comey's memos where he notes that he informed trump that d. j[ackass] was not being personally investigated.
January 6th, 2017:
"prior to the January 6 meeting, I discussed with the FBI's leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure [ ] [t]rump that we were not investigating him personally. That was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him. We agreed I should do so if circumstances warranted. During our one-on-one meeting at [t]rump Tower, based on [t]rump's reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking the question, I offered that assurance."
January 26th, 2017:
"During the dinner, [trump] returned to the salacious material I had briefed him about on January 6, and, as he had done previously, expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them. [h]e said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn't happen. I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren't."
March 30th, 2017 phone call from trump to Director Comey:
"I explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those Congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating [t]rump. I reminded him I had previously told him that. [h]e repeatedly told me, "We need to get that fact out." (I did not tell [trump] that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on [t]rump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change.)"
It is important to note the following two clarifications that Comey has included in his written testimony. In his contemporaneous notes on January 6th, Comey wrote:
"I felt compelled to document my first conversation with [trump] in a memo. To ensure accuracy, I began to type it on a laptop in an FBI vehicle outside [t]rump Tower the moment I walked out of the meeting. Creating written records immediately after one-on-one conversations with [t]rump was my practice from that point forward."
trump and his mouth piece along with the RNC (Republican National Committee) are attempting to pivot our attention away from the evidence that trump clearly tried to stop the investigation into Flynn's possible ties with Russia. But the following is the information that really has meaning with reference to trump keeping his job.
February 14th, 2017:
"After [trump] had spoken for a few minutes about leaks, Reince Priebus leaned in through the door by the grandfather clock and I could see a group of people waiting behind him. The President waved at him to close the door, saying he would be done shortly. The door closed.
[trump] then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, "He is a good guy and has been through a lot." [h]e repeated that Flynn hadn't done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, "[i] hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. [i] hope you can let this go." I replied only that "he is a good guy." (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would "let this go.""
Whether you call it a Jedi mind trick, magic, slight of hand, smoke and mirrors ....... they just aren't able to hide the truth. They're more obvious than the smell of dog poop after you step in it. Who gives a shit whether trump was or was not under direct investigation by the FBI or any other agency in the Intelligence Community. As soon as trump cleared that room on February 14th, and said to James Comey that he "hop[ed]" Comey would let Flynn go, that was the very moment that he became ineligible to hold the job that he currently has.
The reason I have emphasized the word "hope" is because as I was writing this post, I was watching the first hour of Comey's testimony in front of the Senate Intel Committee. I watched as Senator Risch (a Republican from Idaho) tried to make a case that trump had not attempted to obstruct justice, because he used the word "hope". This pissed me right off. Comey pointed out that trump's "word" was hope, in an obvious attempt to answer an un-asked question. There are many ways to communicate, other than words. The fact that trump isolated the conversation to just himself and Comey, speaks volumes. Who knows what trump's tone of voice was? Who knows what the expression on his face was? Who knows what his body posture was? These four aspects of communication also need to be taken into account. One of the points made during the Watergate investigation was that the words in the transcription of the tapes were not the be all and end all of what Nixon said and meant. We must not ignore that lesson.
One of the basic tenants in boy scouts is called "two deep" . An adult may never be alone with a scout one on one. There must always be at least two adults with a scout, at the minimum. I am not suggesting that Comey is a boy or that trump is an adult. I'm referencing this to point out why this rule came into being. The given reason was to protect the boys. I am not calling this into question, but I am here to tell you that there was a legal reason as well. Liability. Keeping a situation from being a he said versus he said contest. There are flaws in this Boy Scouts policy, but the basic point is to avoid this kind of legal battle. So let's just imagine that an abuser tells all of the other adults and scouts to go away and is then one on one with a scout. Maybe the adult leans in close to the boy and in a menacing, yet quiet way says to the boy, 'I hope you can see your way clear to putting your hand inside my pants'. I think you get the picture. We all understand that the adult in this scenario is clearly directing the boy to put his hands inside the adult's pants.
It is clear, that trump was directing Comey to stop the investigation into Michael Flynn. I know it, you know it, and it's hard for me to believe anything other than that the vast majority of Americans know it as well as the Senators that read and listened to Comey's words.
Let's cut the shit. trump has not been vindicated of anything. He's guilty of an attempt to obstruct justice and that is all that is necessary to be known, in order to impeach his ass and then remove that same ass from the White House.
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