Thread: Comey admitted single Trump leak, but were there others?

Comey admitted single Trump leak, but were there others?

By Cody Derespina
Published June 12, 2017
Fox News

President Trump’s legal team may be prepared to show a trail of leaks to The New York Times by former FBI Director James Comey – dating back to at least March – in a pair of complaints set to be filed to the Justice Department inspector general and Senate Judiciary Committee, a source close to the team told Fox News.

An independent Fox News review of The New York Times’ reporting dating back to January reveals a host of stories sourced from top FBI and DOJ officials – or those privy to their conversations – that either paint Comey in a positive light or push a message he was unable to personally disclose.

Though Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 3 he’d never been -- or directed another FBI official to be -- an anonymous source for news reports about the Trump and Hillary Clinton investigations, the then-FBI chief did not deny orchestrating leaks using, for instance, an old friend who works at Columbia University, or providing the information to a wide enough group to ensure it would leak.

And in reference to a separate case, he acknowledged sending his infamous letter to lawmakers last fall announcing a revival of the Clinton email probe knowing full well what they'd do: "Did I know they were really going to leak it? Of course, I know how Congress works.”

Comey, who was fired by Trump in May, was open about at least one leak in testimony last Thursday.

He admitted to using an ex-U.S. attorney, later identified as Columbia University Prof. Daniel Richman, to leak to The Times the contents of alleged memos Comey wrote about his one-on-one interactions with Trump. He was not asked if he had ever used Richman on other occasions; however, Richman is mentioned in 151 results in a New York Times search dating back to 1993, with 11 of those articles also featuring Comey and six of them being authored by Michael S. Schmidt – who later wrote the “Comey memos” story which Comey told Congress he directed Richman to leak.

Dating back to at least Jan. 10, The Times has published confidential information related to Trump and the FBI, mostly sourced anonymously from senior officials in the FBI and DOJ:

Jan. 6 – Comey, in written testimony, said he briefed then-President-elect Trump while the two men were alone in Trump Tower on this date. The briefing dealt with the salacious and unverified dossier alleging that Russia had compromising information about Trump. According to Comey’s account, both he and ex-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper decided Comey should be the only one to brief Trump. One of the reasons for this arrangement, Comey wrote, was because he was staying on as FBI director – though no official announcement had been made about this and subsequent reports indicate Trump didn’t ask Comey about remaining in his capacity until this meeting took place.

Jan. 10 – The Times reports on the Comey/Trump dossier meeting, citing “2 officials with knowledge of the briefing.” More inside-the-FBI information also exists in the article, including when the FBI first became aware of the dossier and the troubles agents had confirming the document’s details.

Jan. 24 – Though Trump hadn’t made an official announcement, The Times reports Comey would be staying on as FBI director. Comey had reportedly told a large group about the news, in this case special agents in charge from across the nation. Trump’s request that Comey remain on allegedly occurred during the Jan. 6 Trump Tower meeting. Schmidt wrote the story.

Feb. 24 – Following a CNN report about contacts between Trump associates and Russia, The Times reports (the same day) that both Comey and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe allegedly called White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to assure him the CNN report was false. Priebus asked the FBI leaders if they could refute the report in public, though they both declined. When the reported calls between the FBI officials and Priebus surfaces, Trump is infuriated and tweets that the FBI needs to work aggressively to stop the leaks.

March 1 – A DOJ official confirms to The Times that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had a pair of conversations with Russian official Sergey Kislyak despite Sessions’ Jan. 10 testimony that he hadn’t had contact with Russians in a campaign capacity. This news, and the ensuing firestorm, leads to Sessions recusing himself from the Russia investigation. Comey said in his June written statement that he knew as far back as mid February that Sessions would likely be recusing himself. This was one of the reasons he gave for not telling Sessions about his interactions with Trump. Schmidt contributed to this article.

March 4 – Trump infamously tweets that his phones had been “tapped” at Trump Tower by the Obama administration during the transition. A “senior law enforcement official from the Obama Administration” tells The Times that Trump’s claim is “100 percent untrue.” Schmidt contributed to this article.

March 5 – Several “senior American officials and senior FBI officials” tell The Times that Comey argued that Trump’s surveillance claim was false and had to be publicly corrected, even going so far as to ask DOJ to push back on the allegation. The Justice Department does not do so, though Comey’s concerns are voiced in the article without him ever giving an on-the-record quote. Schmidt contributed to this article.

March 6 – The Trump administration pushes back on the reported Comey concerns publicized in the previous day’s Times story. Comey “was said to be disturbed” by the claims because the Trump allegations insinuated the FBI had broken the law. Schmidt wrote this article.

April 22 – The Times publishes a very lengthy profile of Comey featuring several in-depth, inside-the-room details and on-the-record quotes from Richman. The piece portrays Comey as a man attempting to “shield the FBI” from politics while struggling to do the right thing. Schmidt contributed to the article.

May 9 – Comey is fired by Trump.

May 10 – Richman is quoted in a Times story about Comey and foreshadows the alleged request for loyalty Trump made of Comey: “With a president who seems to prize personal loyalty above all else and a director with absolute commitment to the Constitution and pursuing investigations wherever the evidence led, a collision was bound to happen.”

May 11 – In the afternoon, Trump gives an interview to Lester Holt in which Trump calls Comey a “showboat.” Later that night, The New York Times publishes details of an alleged dinner meeting between Trump and Comey in which Trump “demanded loyalty” and Comey demurred. The article, written by Schmidt, cites “associates” of Comey.

May 12 – A tweet from Trump, ostensibly sent in response to the latest Times story, suggests Comey is the source of the leak and tells him he should hope Trump doesn’t have “tapes” of their conversations.

May 16 – Comey testified in June he woke up in the middle of the night and decided he needed to get his side of the story out (though most of the details were already reported in the May 11 article). That day, the story about Comey’s alleged memos of the Trump meetings is reported in a New York Times story. Schmidt wrote the article. This is the only leak Comey has acknowledged some role in.

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said Monday there was no update on the filings.

Fox News’ John Roberts contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...re-others.html

I think when the FBI investigates the "Dossier" within their own organization, they're going to discover if they don't already know that Comey hired the former British spy named Steele to write up dirt on Trump, then delivered it to McCain anonymously so that McCain would deliver it to Comey, a charade to conceal the fact that the whole thing was devised by Comey to begin with, then Comey leaks it to the press, but only BuzzFeed would run the story.

Comey testified that he discussed the Dossier with Trump at Trump Tower on January 6th. He took the Dossier over there, showed it to Trump, Comey cleared the room because he wanted to talk to Trump about it in private.

The Dossier is leaked to the press on January 10th and published by BuzzFeed, 4 days after whatever Comey was up to with Trump didn't go the way Comey wanted it to.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinge...dAG#.xs9wmk7lg

It's then leaked the next day on January 11, that John McCain received the Dossier and passed it to the FBI in December, the month before.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...ussia-contacts

Why McCain? Why not a DemoQuack? Why not just mail it to the New York Times? Why did McCain give the Dossier to the FBI? Why didn't he give it to Trump?

Comey was trying to bribe or blackmail Trump. That didn't work out for Comey, Trump was unabashed, that's why Comey wasn't "comfortable", Trump didn't fall for it, that's why Comey decided to "leak" it to the press 4 days later. That's why he leaked that the Dossier came to him from McCain a day after that.

Comey is a NeverTrumper and set-up this whole thing about the "Russian interference in the 2016 election" and "collusion with the Russians by the Trump Campaign" mantra.

It's all going to fall on Comey, because he created this whole entire hoax, and Trump has figured it out, that's why he fired Comey and then baited him with the tweet on the tapes.

Comey ain't right. There is something terribly wrong with him. And if Mueller is as "impeccable" as everyone until recently claimed he was, then Mueller as Comey's best friend and "mentor" would already know that, which means Mueller is now a key witness in that investigation if not part of the hoax to tear down this Presidency.

Rumor That Trump May Fire Mueller Sets Washington Alight

Jun 12 2017, 10:05 pm ET
by Alex Johnson

If President Donald Trump is truly thinking about firing special counsel Robert Mueller, he should reconsider and "don't waste our time," the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Monday.

Rumors that Trump was considering firing Mueller — whom the Justice Department appointed to investigate allegations that Trump's presidential campaign may have coordinated with Russia — emerged Monday afternoon in a Washington version of the game Telephone.

The idea gained traction after Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of the conservative news site and TV network Newsmax, said of Trump in an interview on "PBS NewsHour": "I think he's considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. I think he's weighing that option."

How reliable Ruddy's comments are is open to question. He is often described as a close friend of Trump's, and reporters spotted him leaving the White House on Monday. But a source familiar with the visit told NBC News that any meeting Ruddy was to have had with the president was postponed.

Still, his remarks prompted this reply on Twitter from Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, who said the committee would simply reappoint Mueller and then advised the president: "Don't waste our time."

If President fired Bob Mueller, Congress would immediately re-establish independent counsel and appoint Bob Mueller. Don't waste our time.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 12, 2017

"I can't imagine that they're going to be crazy enough to go through with this threat," Schiff said later in an interview on MSNBC's "Hardball," adding: "I think it's just a way of raising doubts about this very good man who's respected by people on both sides of the aisle."

Ruddy himself told PBS: "I personally think it would be a very significant mistake, even though I don't think there's a justification for a special counsel in this case."

Before the rumor took on a life of its own, prominent Republicans had been questioning Mueller's mandate and his fitness to carry it out.

In a panel discussion over the weekend on "Fox News Sunday," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a close unofficial adviser to Trump, called Mueller's investigation "a witch hunt."

Gingrich noted the congressional testimony last week of James Comey, whom Trump fired May 8 as director of the FBI, who acknowledged that he had leaked his own memos of his conversations with Trump to force the appointment of an independent counsel.

"You have a director of the FBI deliberately leaking in order to create a special counsel who we're now supposed to believe is going to be this neutral figure," Gingrich said Sunday. "I think that's just nonsense."

But Kenneth Starr, who investigated the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals as an independent counsel during the administration of former President Bill Clinton, rallied to Mueller's defense.

"Bob Mueller has the integrity to call them as he sees them," Starr said Monday in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America" before Ruddy spoke. "You have to look at everything."

Even Jay Sekulow, a member of Trump's legal team, said, "I can't imagine that that issue is going to arise," when asked about the possibility of firing Mueller on the same program Sunday.

Another complication is that under the independent counsel statute, Trump can't fire Mueller. Short of impeachment, only the attorney general — in this case, Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — can do so. And it was Rosenstein who appointed Mueller in the first place.

However, Trump could follow the example of Richard Nixon, who eventually got rid of Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal, in October 1973.

Nixon directed Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox, but Richardson resigned rather than comply. So Nixon turned to Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus — who also resigned.

Eventually, Solicitor General Robert Bork, abruptly promoted to acting attorney general by his superiors' resignations, carried out Nixon's order.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...alight-n771326

It's time to investigate the "investigators". Comey and Mueller. DOJ and the honest section of the FBI if there still is one need to do this quickly and quietly.

What is the harm people might ask about trying to tear down a Presidency for political purposes? Well, it impacts our national security, our foreign policy, our safety, policies and the changes we want to fix our country and put Americans back to work at jobs with good wages so they can live independently and successfully. This "Russia" thing isn't happening because someone thinks Trump is a traitor or that any of his associates were actually involved in some type of espionage. This is happening to try to destroy the Presidency to destroy the Agenda of fixing our country. I guess Comey couldn't find anyone in the US to write up the dirt on Trump and had to go buy someone in Great Britain. In fact, I don't even think Steele wrote it, I think Comey wrote it and then used FBI money to pay Steele to sign it and send a bill.

Louie Gohmert (A+ NumbersUSA) has got Comey's number, oh wow, he laid into him and Mueller just now on Fox News. Comey's been dirty for years, Louie said Comey was trying to blackmail Trump, that's the word he used .... and I oh so agree. Also, Brit Hume thinks Comey will end up being a target of the investigation for leaks and other shenanigans which will require Mueller to recuse himself at least from that portion of the case.

However, I don't think DOJ should hand off a Comey investigation and prosecution to Special Counsel, that needs to be handled directly by DOJ prosecutors and the FBI.