Tag: James Comey

Comey Says Strzok Damaged FBI’s Reputation, Undermined Trump-Russia Probe

Admin

by Chuck Ross   Former FBI Director James Comey acknowledged Thursday that former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page damaged the bureau’s reputation and possibly undermined the Trump-Russia investigation by exchanging text messages bashing President Donald Trump. “So do you acknowledge that this whole episode with Strzok and Page, that it damaged the reputation of the FBI and perhaps tarnished the investigation?” CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Comey at a town hall event. “Definitely. Yeah, very painful,” Comey said. Comey also said that former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe deserved “severe consequences” for making false statements to Justice Department and FBI investigators regarding the authorization of media leaks. Comey blasted Trump throughout the town hall event. He also criticized Attorney General William Barr’s handling of the special counsel’s Russia report. But it was Comey’s comments about his former FBI colleagues that stood out from his normal anti-Trump commentary. “It was important that it be investigated and important that there be discipline that follows it, but, yeah, it made us all look bad,” Comey said of the Strzok-Page texts. Comey said that while Strzok was a “very talented agent,” his text messages “hurt the institution.” Strzok opened the FBI’s investigation of the…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Fright of James Comey

Admin

by Victor Davis Hanson   In a recent op-ed, fired FBI Director James Comey was back again preaching to the nation about the dangers of Donald Trump and his capacity to corrupt any top-ranking federal official of lower character than Comey’s own. Comey seems to have become utterly unhinged by Donald Trump, especially when the president, in his thick Queens accent, scoffs in the vernacular—quite accurately, given the transgressions of the FBI hierarchy—about “crooked cops.” What an affront to Comey’s complexity, his subtlety, his sophistication, his feigned Hamlet-like self-doubt—at least as now expressed in his latest incarnation as Twitter’s Kahlil Gibran. One can say a number of things about the timing of Comey’s latest sermon and his characteristic projection of his own sins on to others. First, Comey’s unprofessionalism was home-grown and certainly did not need any help from President Trump. His schizophrenic behavior both as a prosecutor and investigator in the Hillary Clinton email matter was marked by exempting Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin from indictment, despite their lying to his own federal officials about their knowledge of a private Clinton email server. Comey wrote his summation of the Clinton email investigation before he had even interviewed the former…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Eternal Conflict of the Progressive Mind

Admin

by Victor Davis Hanson   One of the strangest things about the series of psychodramas that surround the ongoing effort to remove President Trump before the 2020 election is progressive schizophrenia. In teenage fashion, one moment a player in the Trump removal intrigue is deemed by the media-progressive nexus a demigod. The next moment, he’s a devil. It depends solely on his perceived sense of utility. Robert Mueller, Saint to Sinner  When Robert Mueller was appointed in May 2017 as special counsel to investigate alleged Trump campaign “collusion” with Russia following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, he was practically canonized as a secular saint. The media was giddy over his “all stars” and “dream team” of almost all liberal lawyers who shortly would prove the supposedly obvious: sure winner Hillary Clinton lost only because the vile Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to sabotage her campaign by leaking John Podesta’s emails. As the Mueller investigation lumbered along over the last 22 months, the media periodically announced that their newfound hero had inside information, privileged but unnamed sources, and high-ranking anonymous officials who confirmed “the noose was tightening,” the “walls were closing in,” and “a bombshell” was about to go…

Read the full story

Potential Consequences of Spying on the Trump Campaign

Admin

by Fred Lucas   Actions by Justice Department officials in spying on a Donald Trump campaign adviser in 2016 could be a crime or merely an administrative offense, legal experts say. Crimes could include perjury or misleading a court, they say, while disciplinary action for an administrative offense could mean being fired or losing a law license. Testifying last week before two separate congressional panels, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General report about the surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page will be released in May or June. Barr also indicated that he planned a further review of government “spying” on the Trump campaign. Actions by Justice Department officials in spying on a Donald Trump campaign adviser in 2016 could be a crime or merely an administrative offense, legal experts say. Crimes could include perjury or misleading a court, they say, while disciplinary action for an administrative offense could mean being fired or losing a law license. Testifying last week before two separate congressional panels, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General report about the surveillance of Trump campaign aide Carter Page will be released in May or June.…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Tables Turn in Russian Collusion Hunt

Admin

by Victor Davis Hanson   The irony of the entire Russian collusion hoax is that accusers who cried the loudest about leaking, collusion, lying, and obstruction are themselves soon very likely to be accused of just those crimes. Now that Robert Mueller’s 674-day, $30 million investigation is over and has failed to find the original goal of its mandate—evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government to sway the 2016 election—and now that thousands of once-sealed government documents will likely be released in unredacted form, those who eagerly assumed the role of the hunters may become the hunted, due to their own zealous violation of the nation’s trust and its laws. Take Lying  Former FBI Director James Comey’s testimonies cannot be reconciled with those of his own deputy director Andrew McCabe. He falsely testified that the Steele dossier was not the main basis for obtaining FISA court warrants. On at least 245 occasions, Comey swore under oath that he either did not know, or could not remember, when asked direct questions about his conduct at the FBI. He likely lied when he testified that he did not conclude his assessment of the Clinton illegal…

Read the full story

James Comey in Op-Ed Says He Doesn’t Care What Investigation Uncovers

Admin

by Chuck Ross   James Comey claimed in an op-ed Thursday that he does not care one way or the other whether special counsel Robert Mueller finds evidence that President Donald Trump conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election or obstructed the FBI’s collusion probe. But the claim, which Comey made in The New York Times, is at odds with the former FBI director’s testimony about his actions shortly after being fired by Trump in May 2017. Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee in June 2017 that he leaked memos he wrote after conversations with Trump in order to force the appointment of a special counsel. “I asked a friend of mine to share the content of a memo with the reporter, I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel,” Comey testified June 8, 2017. Comey instructed his friend, Daniel Richman, to give the Times a memo he wrote about a conversation he had with Trump on Feb. 14, 2017. Comey claimed Trump asked him to shut down an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey’s ploy…

Read the full story

Commentary: A Tight and Tangled ‘Collusion’ Web

Admin

by Roger Kimball   Most people reading this will know Sir Walter Scott’s famous couplet (from the narrative poem Marmion): Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive! Less well known, but undeservedly so, is the excellent completing couplet by J. R. Pope, published under the sly title “A Word of Encouragement”: But when we’ve practiced for a while, How vastly we improve our style! Indeed. You really have to give it to the suits in Barack Obama’s intelligence services and Department of Justice (many of whom, of course, are still strutting about in Donald Trump’s administration). It was quite a web they wove, and tangled with complexity. Yet their prodigious practice also made it nearly impenetrable to anyone not inside their charmed circle. That adamantine carapace of impenetrability is a sign of their high style, their assiduity, the reason that a “word of encouragement” did not come amiss. Put your hand on your heart. Can you really tell me what happened and who all the major players are in the Get Trump farce that has been occupying the nation for more than two years now? There have been various worthy efforts to unpack the drama—I’ve made a…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Greatest Constitutional Crisis Since the Civil War

Admin

by Conrad Black   The most immense and dangerous public scandal in American history is finally cracking open like a ripe pomegranate. The broad swath of the Trump-hating media that has participated in what has amounted to an unconstitutional attempt to overthrow the government are reduced to reporting the events and revelations of the scandal in which they have been complicit, in a po-faced ho-hum manner to impart to the misinformed public that this is as routine as stock market fluctuations or the burning of an American flag in Tehran. For more than two years, the United States and the world have had two competing narratives: that an elected president of the United States was a Russian agent whom the Kremlin helped elect; and its rival narrative that senior officials of the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and other national intelligence organizations had repeatedly lied under oath, misinformed federal officials, and meddled in partisan political matters illegally and unconstitutionally and had effectively tried to influence the outcome of a presidential election, and then undo its result by falsely propagating the first narrative. It is now obvious and indisputable that the second narrative is the correct one. The authors, accomplices, and dupes…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Real Reason Democrats Have Postponed Barr’s Confirmation Is All About ‘Russia’ and 2020

Admin

by Julie Kelly   After what seemed to be a done deal following a relatively smooth public hearing last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee now has delayed until February 7 the vote to confirm William Barr, President Trump’s nominee for attorney general. The reason, according to news reports, is lingering concerns about how Trump’s incoming attorney general would manage the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which is soon expected to conclude. Despite Barr’s repeated assurances that he will follow Justice Department rules in his handling of Mueller’s final report, as well as a pledge to resist any attempted interference by the White House, Democrats on the committee remain unconvinced. “[Barr’s] answer was not particularly reassuring or clear as to the public disclosure of the Mueller report,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell earlier this week. Democrats also have accused Barr of bias against the Mueller investigation based on a detailed memo he authored last year that objected to the special counsel’s reported interest in whether President Trump obstructed justice. Some have suggested Barr should recuse himself from the investigation, which would be a repeat of a terrible mistake made by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017. The committee’s vote is scheduled to take…

Read the full story

Commentary: Democrat Excess Leads to New and Improved Trump in 2019

Admin
Donald Trump

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Predictions. It’s what New Year’s is all about. It goes without saying that 2018 was full of surprises. Heading into this year Republican majorities in both houses of Congress had just passed a massive reorganization of the federal tax code, including a sizeable tax cut for most Americans in the bill language. By January 1, Democrats were already griping about reduced rates for corporations and businesses, claiming, as they always do, that the benefits of the new law would rain down disproportionately on the wealthiest and most powerful taxpayers. Never mind that many, many companies had already announced sizeable end-of-the-year bonuses and raises for employees based on the improved future tax outlook. Nonetheless, Democrats were convinced the popularity of the new law would not improve (especially if they demagogued the matter) over the course of time. Democrats believed they could parlay President Donald Trump’s lukewarm favorability numbers into a “wave” in November. After all, they’d just been eminently successful in stealing a senate seat in deep red Alabama (with a huge assist from the Washington GOP establishment), so the sky was the limit, right? Last month’s election came and went, Democrats gained 40 seats in…

Read the full story

Commentary: The President’s Enemies and Their Confected Drama

Admin
Drain the Swamp, Donald Trump

by Conrad Black   It is astonishing to see the ferocity, and breathless, stertorous rage of the Trump-hating media over Michael Cohen’s flip. Because the whole issue is such nonsense, it is also reassuring to see Trump’s enemies place their heads on the block with such determination, beseeching by their outrageous falsehoods the executioner’s stroke to expose their lies and hate. There they are since there is no case against the president sufficiently serious to threaten his completion of his term. I am one of the last people who would claim any standing to opine on the motives and tactics for the Trump-haters to push in all their chips on this charge about payments to an amiable porn star and a Playboy bunny emerita. The president’s most strident enemies in the media have cranked themselves up to a fever of simulated moral superiority many times: it is a mnemonic feat to recall their innumerable charges to the barricades these last two years. Almost no one now remembers Michael Wolff’s inane book, or even Bob Woodward’s pastiche of fabrications and malicious gossip. But this is a home run. Apart from its extreme vehemence, what is most striking about this latest oceanic…

Read the full story

James Comey ‘Thinks the Rules Don’t Apply to Him’, says Jim Jordan

Admin

by Nick Givas   GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said former FBI Director James Comey “thinks the rules don’t apply to him,” on “Fox & Friends” Monday. Comey will reappear before Congress Monday to face questions about his handling of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email scandal and his involvement in the Russia investigation. “We hope he actually answers some questions today. Last time, 245 times he said he didn’t know, couldn’t remember. So we hope he answers more questions,” Jordan said. “I think I’m going to ask him about the Comey memos,” he added. “He did seven different memos back when he was meeting with the president, meeting with the chief of staff. So I’m going to ask him about questions about those things he wrote in there. I think this is important to understand. For him it’s all about Jim Comey. And he thinks the rules don’t apply to him.” Jordan said he believes Comey botched both investigations into President Donald Trump and Clinton and claimed the former FBI director only cares about himself. “We’re more focused on the Russia investigation. You have to look at the contrast, how he handled one versus the other,” he…

Read the full story

Commentary: James (Comey) and the Giant Impeachment

Admin

by Julie Kelly   For those concerned that former FBI Director James Comey is suffering from early dementia, have no fear: His memory returned with a vengeance during a Sunday night interview with MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace. On Friday, under questioning by House Judiciary Committee members, Comey answered, “I don’t know,” “I don’t recall,” or “I don’t remember” nearly 250 times during a six-hour closed-door hearing. His memory lapse included critical details like how the infamous Steele dossier reached his agency; who at the FBI drafted the initiation document to investigate the Trump campaign; who at the FBI had authority to open a counterintelligence probe into a presidential campaign; and his own comments about the tarmac meeting between his boss, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and former president Bill Clinton. He said he didn’t know what the word “insidious” meant and couldn’t explain the difference between collusion and conspiracy. But perhaps Comey loaded up on ginseng over the weekend because his vague and convenient memory miraculously returned when he was questioned by a fawning Wallace at a 92nd Street Y event just two days later. Tiny details about dates, locations, meeting participants and a funny moment during a briefing with President…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Incorrigible Mr. Comey

Admin

by Julie Kelly   As I wrote last week, the Republican Congress largely has failed to hold accountable the masterminds behind the biggest political scandal in U.S. history: The unprecedented weaponization of our law enforcement and intelligence apparatus to spy on a presidential campaign and sabotage an incoming administration. The man primarily responsible for executing the scheme, former FBI Director James Comey, exited the Trump Administration as a martyr and a hero. Republican lawmakers blasted the president for his (totally justified) firing of the deceptive FBI director in May 2017, lauding his public service and reputation even as the disturbing details of the way his agency spied on the Trump campaign and hid the probe from Congress were coming into view. After successfully escaping any accountability for his actions, it’s no surprise that Comey now is threatening to thwart Congress once again. On Thanksgiving morning, Comey responded on Twitter to a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee: “Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a ‘closed door’ thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone…

Read the full story

Trump Wanted the Justice Dept to Prosecute Clinton and Comey

Admin

by Chris White   President Donald Trump told his White House council earlier this year that he wanted the Department of Justice to prosecute former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources. Then-White House Counsel Donald McGahn told the president that he had no authority to order a prosecution, according to the report, which did not directly quote the sources. He also warned the president that directing the DOJ to investigate Clinton could risk unraveling Trump’s administration, the sources noted. McGahn allegedly provided Trump with a memo from White House lawyers that effectively confirmed his warnings. The president has considered possibly appointing a second special counsel to investigate both Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey, the sources note. He has also expressed annoyance at FBI Director Christopher Wray for not closing in on the failed presidential candidate – Trump has even called him weak, according to one of the sources who claims to have discussed the matter with the president. “Mr. McGahn will not comment on his legal advice to the president,” McGahn’s lawyer, William Burck, told TheNYT. “Like any client, the president is entitled to confidentiality. Mr. McGahn would point out,…

Read the full story

White House Lawyers Actively Reviewing Docs For Declassification

Admin
President Donald Trump

by Saagar Enjeti and Chuck Ross   White House lawyers are actively reviewing controversial FBI and Department of Justice documents relating to the 2016 presidential campaign for possible declassification, multiple sources with knowledge tell The Daily Caller News Foundation. The review process is being led by Emmet Flood of the White House Counsel’s office at the urging of an insistent president, two sources with knowledge of the process told TheDCNF. A source close to the president noted that Flood and his colleagues within the counsel’s office are generally opposed to declassification, out of the concern for the precedent it would set as well as any unintended consequences of making the information public. Sources cautioned that declassification could occur as soon as this week, though the uncertainty reflects the nature of the review process itself. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders demurred on declassification in a Monday briefing saying, “I can’t get into that right now.” Trump himself told The Daily Caller in a Sept. 4 Oval Office interview on declassification “we’re looking at it very seriously right now because the things that have gone on are so bad.” At issue within…

Read the full story

Trump Revokes Security Clearance of Former CIA Director John Brennan

Admin
Brennan, Rice, Comey, Clapper

The security clearance of a former Central Intelligence Agency director has been revoked by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said in a statement that John Brennan has been sowing “division and chaos” about his administration. The clearances of other former officials also are under review, including those of former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. “Security clearances for those who still have them may be revoked, and those who have already their lost their security clearance may not be able to have it reinstated,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said to reporters on Wednesday, reading out the statement in the president’s name. Sarah Sanders Reads Trump Statement Revoking Clearances Sanders, responding to reporters’ questions, denied that Brennan and others are being singled out because they are critics of Trump. The president’s statement accuses Brennan of “erratic conduct and behavior” that “has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that may have been due to him.” It also accuses Brennan of “a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility.”…

Read the full story

Trump Clobbers James Comey For Hurting The FBI’s ‘Once Stellar Reputation’

Admin
Donald Trump, James Comey

by Chris White   President Donald Trump criticized former FBI Director James Comey and several other federal investigators involved in the Russian investigation Saturday for damaging the agency’s reputation. Trump thrashed Comey and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on Twitter for using the nearly two-year long probe to tarnish the agency’s image. He also warned the agency not to slow walk public requests for text messages between former investigators Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. “Why isn’t the FBI giving Andrew McCabe text messages to Judicial Watch or appropriate governmental authorities. FBI said they won’t give up even one (I may have to get involved, DO NOT DESTROY).” Trump tweeted before mentioning McCabe’s wife’s involvement in Democratic politics. Why isn’t the FBI giving Andrew McCabe text messages to Judicial Watch or appropriate governmental authorities. FBI said they won’t give up even one (I may have to get involved, DO NOT DESTROY). What are they hiding? McCabe wife took big campaign dollars from Hillary people….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2018 He added in an additional tweet: “Will the FBI ever recover it’s once stellar reputation, so badly damaged by Comey, McCabe, Peter S and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, and other…

Read the full story

Daily Caller News Foundation Sues To Obtain Information On Comey’s Leaker

Admin
James Comey

by Richard Pollock   The Daily Caller News Foundation is suing the Department of Justice for failing to produce records regarding the Columbia University professor who received four memos from former FBI Director James Comey, one of which was leaked to The New York Times. Cause of Action Institute, a conservative nonprofit watchdog, filed the lawsuit on behalf of TheDCNF Monday after the Justice Department and the FBI failed to produce any records related to Daniel Richman in response to the news organization’s April 25 Freedom of Information Act request. Richman is a long-time friend and confidante of Comey and obtained at least four of the former FBI director’s memos about his conversations with President Donald Trump, two of which contained classified information, according to news reports. He leaked at least one Comey memo to The New York Times. Meanwhile, Comey, in a July 5, 2016 press conference, absolved then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of any criminal activity in using her private server for government business while she served as secretary of state, saying that she was “extremely careless,” but not grossly negligent in using a private server for official government business. Gross negligence would constitute a federal offense tied to the mishandling of classified government secrets. Comey hired Richman as a…

Read the full story

Commentary: The ‘Self Licking Ice Cream Cone’ of Mueller’s Russia Probe

Admin
James Brennan

by George Rasley   Senator Rand Paul met with President Donald Trump Monday and asked him to consider revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. Our friend Sara Carter reports the Kentucky Senator later took to Twitter and wrote, “Just got out of WH meeting with @RealDonald Trump. I restated to him what I have said in public: John Brennan and others [sic] partisans should have their security clearances revoked.” Prior to his meeting with the President, Carter reports Rand Paul questioned on Twitter if Brennan was “monetizing” his clearance by divulging secrets to the “mainstream media.” White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said during today’s press briefing that President Trump is seriously considering revoking Brennan’s privilege, along with other senior top intelligence officials from the Obama and Bush administration. “Not only is the president looking to take away Brennan’s security clearance, he’s also looking into the clearances of (former FBI Director James) Comey, (former Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper, (former CIA Director Michael) Hayden, (former National Security Advisor Susan) Rice and (former FBI Deputy Director Andrew) McCabe,” Sanders told reporters. Senator Paul is on to something with his charge that Brennan and others have “monetized” their clearances by…

Read the full story

Corker Likens Trump Administration to ‘Banana Republic’ For Wanting to Yank Security Clearances of Misbehaving Ex-Officials

Jason M. Reynolds
Bob Corker

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker likened the Trump Administration to a “banana republic” for wanting to yank security clearances of ex-government hacks who are using their positions to attack the president. The administration’s proposal is “the kind of thing that happens in Venezuela,” Tennessee’s junior senator told MSNBC, as reported by Politico. “I can’t even believe that somebody at the White House thought up something like this. I mean, when you’re going to start taking retribution against people who are your political enemies in this manner, that’s the kind of thing that happens in Venezuela. “So you just don’t do that. I can’t believe they even allowed it to be aired, to be honest,” he said. “I mean, it’s a banana republic kind of thing.” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s administration is considered a dictatorship. Corker met with the dictator in May to secure the release of an American prisoner, surprising the Trump Administration and members of Congress. The meeting came one week after Maduro won re-election in a sham election. “Not all members of Congress welcomed Corker’s visit to the South American country, especially in the wake of a presidential race the United States, several Latin American countries and some European…

Read the full story

President Trump Says DOJ and FBI ‘Misled’ Surveillance Court to Wiretap a Former Aide

Admin
Donald Trump

President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that newly released documents about the origins of an investigation of a former adviser’s links to Russia help vindicate his claim that U.S. government investigators were spying on his 2016 election campaign. He contended in Twitter remarks that “as usual,” the documents “are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of ‘Justice’ and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!” Congratulations to @JudicialWatch and @TomFitton on being successful in getting the Carter Page FISA documents. As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of “Justice” and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2018 It was not immediately clear how Trump felt the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was misled in the government’s four applications in 2016, and last year after Trump took office, to wiretap Carter Page, his one-time aide. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a 2016 opponent of Trump’s, told CNN that he did not think the Federal Bureau of Investigation “did anything wrong” in surveilling Page. The FBI said in the first application in October 2016 that it “believes Page has been…

Read the full story

Senator Chuck Grassley Commentary: How We Can Hold Bureaucrats Accountable

Admin
Barack Omaba

by Senator Chuck Grassley   These are the remarks as prepared for delivery Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, delivered in a speech at The Heritage Foundation on June 25. Watch Senator Grassley’s speech in the video embedded below. In 1980, I was elected to the U.S. Senate. During my early days in the Senate, I met a man who had a significant impact on my career. His name is Arthur Ernest Fitzgerald, but everybody calls him Ernie. You’ve probably heard of him—Ernie’s reputation preceded him even way back then. In 1968, Ernie testified before Sen. William Proxmire’s Joint Economic Committee about the Air Force’s C-5 transport aircraft program. That testimony changed his life. The C-5 aircraft was an important military priority. But it took longer and cost more than planned, and the government did not want anyone to know. Although he knew it might damage his career, Ernie told Congress that this prized program cost the taxpayers $2 billion more than the Pentagon would admit. $2 billion. That was in 1968. In today’s dollars that’s more than $14.5 billion. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out…

Read the full story

DOJ IG: McCabe Used Strzok’s Mistress To Bypass Chain Of Command To Monitor Clinton Probe

Admin
McCabe Page and Strzock

by Luke Rosiak    – Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe used Peter Strzok’s mistress, Lisa Page, to get information on the FBI probe into investigation of Clinton’s private servery  – McCabe used Page to “circumvented the official chain of command”  – Other bureau officials took issue with the decision Then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe tasked the mistress of lead agent Peter Strzok to stay appraised of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s private server — a decision that other bureau officials took issue with at the time, according to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s bombshell report. McCabe was supposed to be insulated from the probe by two levels of management: Strzok worked for counterintelligence head Bill Priestap, who worked for national security head Michael Steinbach, who reported up to McCabe. However, Strzok communicated about the probe with his mistress, Lisa Page, who worked directly for McCabe and acted as a liaison for the Clinton investigation for the deputy director. The report says: Lisa Page, who was Special Counsel to McCabe, became involved in the Midyear investigation after McCabe became the Deputy Director in February 2016. Page told the OIG that part of her function was to serve as a liaison between the Midyear team and…

Read the full story

FBI Faced ‘Conundrum’ In Its Investigation Of Michael Flynn

Admin

by Chuck Ross   In late 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey was ready to shut down a counterintelligence investigation the bureau had open on Michael Flynn, the retired general who was set to serve as Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Investigators “had not really substantiated anything particularly significant” in its investigation into Flynn’s possible links to foreign governments, Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe, told Congress late last year. But the case took on new life just days into Flynn’s White House tenure. As is now widely known, Flynn lied to two FBI agents during a Jan. 24, 2017 interview about his contacts several weeks earlier with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador at the time. Flynn, who resigned on Feb. 13, 2017, has since pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s Russia investigation to making false statements to the FBI. [ RELATED: Here Is House Intel’s Long-Awaited Russia Report ] But newly unredacted portions of a report from the House Intelligence Committee show that FBI leaders faced a “conundrum” about how to proceed with the Flynn investigation. The report cites testimony provided by both Comey and McCabe regarding Flynn. Comey testified in March 2017 “that he authorized the closure of the [counterintelligence] investigation into General Flynn by late…

Read the full story

Nunes: ‘Major Irregularities’ In State Department’s Handling Of Trump-Russia Info

Admin

by Chuck Ross   The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence chairman provided an update on Sunday of the panel’s investigation into what he says are “major irregularities” at the State Department regarding its handling of information about President Donald Trump’s campaign. California Rep. and Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’s investigators are looking into the State Department’s handling of information about George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign adviser whose discussions about Hillary Clinton emails are what led the FBI to open its counterintelligence investigation in July 2016, the chairman suggested when he appeared on Fox News. “We are investigating the State Department. We think there are some major irregularities at the State Department, and we’re trying to figure out how it is that this information about Mr. Papadopoulos of all people, who was supposedly meeting with some folks in London, how that made it over across into the FBI’s hands,” Nunes told Maria Bartiromo, the host of “Sunday Morning Futures.” ,@DevinNunes: “We do know that longtime associates of @HillaryClinton, including Sidney Blumenthal and another person named, I think, Cody Shearer, were actively giving information to the @StateDept that was somehow making its way to the @FBI.” #[email protected]/nUw5gIHCB7 — Fox News (@FoxNews) April…

Read the full story

Commentary: Comey’s Insult of the GOP Rings Like a Compliment to Conservatives

Admin
Tennessee Star

by Jeffery Rendall   Isn’t it funny when someone says something that’s meant to be an insult — but then when you think about it, turns out to be more like a compliment? Such was the case the other day when former FBI director James Comey elaborated on his current feelings towards the Republican Party. In his own subjective mind Comey was probably trying to dig at the GOP and President Donald Trump by saying the party “left him” – but his words ended up soothing the minds of conservatives who are leading the fight to remake the party into a true bastion of limited government, constitutionally-based conservatism (as opposed to a swamp perpetuating establishment social club). Caitlin Yilek of the Washington Examiner reported, “Former FBI Director James Comey no longer wants to be associated with the Republican Party with President Trump in the White House… “’These people don’t represent anything I believe in,’ he explained, pointing to the Republican National Committee’s website LyinComey.com. “I see the Republican Party, as near as I can tell, reflects now entirely Donald Trump’s values,’ Comey continued. ‘It doesn’t reflect values at all. It’s transactional, it’s ego-driven, it’s in service to his ego. And it’s, I think,…

Read the full story

Former FBI Boss Thinks IG Will Be ‘Unsparing in His Criticism’ of Erring Agents

Tennessee Star Staff
Page Comey

High-level FBI officials who violated procedures in the investigations of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump will not escape accountability, a former supervisor at the agency said Thursday. Ron Hosko, who served as assistant director of the FBI and now is president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general, Michael Horowitz, will shoot straight in scrutinizing the conduct of the FBI and the DOJ.

Read the full story

Seven Ways Comey’s FBI Helped Hillary Go Scott-Free on Email Crimes

Admin

Former FBI Director James Comey and other key senior bureau executives violated at least seven basic rules for credible investigations in 2016 to ensure former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would escape prosecution for using a private email server and address to conduct official diplomatic business, according to former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova. “What this is about is to exonerate Hillary Clinton of a clear violation of the law with regard to the way she handled classified information with her private server. Absolutely a crime, absolutely a felony,” diGenova said in with Ginny Thomas of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Read the full story

Senator Charles Grassley Says James Comey Likely Leaked Classified Information

Tennessee Star Staff

A top Republican senator said Wednesday that it appears former FBI Director James Comey leaked classified information in his effort to shape the narrative surrounding President Trump’s decision to fire him. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said Mr. Comey wrote seven memos, and shared four of them with a professor he was using as an intermediary to defend him. Of the seven, four are marked at the confidential or secret level – meaning at least one of the memos Mr. Comey shared contained restricted information.

Read the full story

FBI Originally Deemed Hillary Clinton ‘Grossly Negligent’ in Handling of Emails

Tennessee Star Staff

The FBI originally planned to say that Hillary Clinton was “grossly negligent” in her handling of her secret emails, a top senator said Monday, revealing early drafts of the statement former FBI Director James Comey drew up. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, demanded the FBI detail why Mr. Comey nixed that phrase…

Read the full story

Comey Drafted Announcement Closing Hillary Clinton Probe Before Key Witnesses Interviewed: Senators

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Two Republican senators say they’ve reviewed evidence that indicates former FBI Director James B. Comey began drafting a statement to announce the closure of the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server months before key witnesses, including the former Democratic presidential candidate, were interviewed. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote…

Read the full story

Kellyanne Conway Ties James Comey’s Testimony to Hillary Clinton’s Server

Tennessee Star Staff

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, on Monday tied former FBI Director James B. Comey’s testimony to Hillary Clinton’s server. “This is exactly the problem Hillary Clinton had with her illegal server. The handling of classified and confidential information that Jim Comey was meant to investigate, if not prosecute. The irony here is, he’s trying to…

Read the full story

Commentary: Trump Understates Mueller-Comey Friendship As ‘Bothersome’

Tennessee Star Staff

President Donald Trump, in an interview with “Fox & Friends,” called the friendship between James Comey and Robert Mueller “very bothersome.” That’s the understatement of the year. The two don’t only share a warm relationship. They also share the common interest of investigating Trump and Trump-tied officials, supposedly in a non-biased, independent, above-the-political-fray type of way.…

Read the full story

Grassley Blames Comey for False Trump Narrative: ‘Played Right into Russia’s Hands’

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

A top Republican took to the Senate floor Thursday to blame fired FBI Director James B. Comey for fanning “conspiracy theories” about the U.S. election that “played right into Russia’s hands.” Sen. Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who as chairman of the Judiciary Committee has oversight of the FBI, also accused Mr. Comey of working…

Read the full story

Franklin Resident Jay Sekulow Joins President Trump’s Legal Team

Wendy Wilson

  Attorney Jay Sekulow has joined President Trump’s legal team, reports WORLD magazine. Sekulow, who divides his time between homes in Franklin and Washington, D.C., is chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) and a radio broadcaster. He is known for his defense of religious liberty and has argued 12 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump’s legal team is defending the president amid accusations of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election and Trump’s possible knowledge of it. In an opinion piece published Friday by Fox News, Sekulow said that fired FBI director James Comey’s case against Trump “collapsed like a house of a cards” when Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week on the matter. “Not only did Comey’s testimony clear President Trump – admitting under oath that the President was not under any investigation – his testimony unmasked Comey’s real motivation in all of this,” Sekulow wrote. Comey’s admission that he leaked privileged documents “is the most compelling evidence yet that Comey was anything but independent in his position at the FBI,” Sekulow said, describing the leaking as an effort to damage Trump. Sekulow continued, “There’s no question about it. Comey craves the spotlight.…

Read the full story

James Comey: The Incredible Shrinking Man

Tennessee Star Staff

  By George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor James Comey, the towering six-foot-eight-inch figure who fancied himself as Washington’s last honest man, testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday, and the longer he talked the smaller he became. His testimony, which was supposed to bring down a President, revealed instead a small-minded bureaucrat with delusions of grandeur who was loyal neither to the President at whose pleasure he served nor to the Constitution he once swore to uphold. Instead of loyalty to constitutional principles or the law, Comey was revealed to be loyal only to his own outsized sense of entitlement to hold on to power. At the end of a day that was supposed to be full of high drama, what the world saw was a little man who did nothing but feel “queasy” when Obama’s Attorney General Lorretta Lynch directed him to align his language about the Clinton email investigation with that of the Hillary Clinton for President campaign. Perhaps the moment that most completely summed-up James Comey’s disgraceful tenure as Director of the FBI was this exchange with Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida: RUBIO: At the time did you say anything to the president about that [the Flynn…

Read the full story

Did James Comey Cover Up a Massive Illegal FBI-CIA Spying Operation?

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

The Senate Judiciary Committee is considering whether to subpoena former FBI Director James Comey to appear before the committee following his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. He initially refused a request to testify to the Judiciary Committee. Should Comey appear before the Judiciary Committee, he may be asked about his disclosure that he…

Read the full story

Mainstream Media Headlines Misleading After Comey Testimony

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

The establishment media’s bias was on full display following James Comey’s congressional hearing Wednesday. Headlines focused on Comey’s testimony that President Donald Trump “lied,” concealing the more pertinent and shocking revelations exposed during the hearing. Comey’s testimony exonerated Trump from allegations of obstruction of justice, and vindicated his claims about Comey telling him three times that…

Read the full story

Commentary: James Comey: Everything You Need To Know In One Line

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  ConservativeHQ.com Staff Fired FBI Director James Comey’s statement released yesterday was a devastating indictment of the central figure in the investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. And there was one line in that testimony that summed up everything you need to know about James Comey, why he was fired and why he was such a danger to constitutional government: the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch The last time we checked, according to the Constitution there is only one head of the Executive Branch – the President of the United States – and every Executive Branch official and agency is inferior to him and controlled by him. That makes the FBI not a “traditionally independent” part of the Executive Branch, but at best a sub-Cabinet division of the Department of Justice. And the statute that governs the appointment of the FBI Director makes it clear that the Director serves at the pleasure of the President, not (much as the Democrats and the media would like to think otherwise) independent of Presidential authority. See William Chesney’s concise explanation of the governing law through this link. What that one line in Comey’s statement says…

Read the full story