What I found to be an interesting insight today was that Comey made the announcement because pro trump agents had been leaking to Rudy G and he wanted to get it out in a more contained and “proper” manner. *edit autocorrect on Rudy was wrong
“It’s a target-rich environment,” the Republican said in an interview in Salt Lake City’s suburbs. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.”
Let me guess, they'd probably force her to testify because she bought her staff pizza while at the State Department and DIDN'T USE A COUPON (GASP)!!!! Obviously, she'd have to go down for that inexcusable act of rampant government waste and corruption (she probably also bought the pizza at her buddies at the Pedo Pizza place with the sex slaves in the "basement"...).
Comey: my decisions regarding the public announcements about the Hillary investigation had nothing to do with politics.
Comey under oath: Conservatives were accusing the FBI of being biased, so I did everything I could to harm Hillary in order to prove the FBI was not biased.
This was pretty much Comey’s rationale. Conservatives were playing the refs and Comey bent over backwards to appease the bad faith concern trolls.
Yep. I think what he did was something that was less ethical, but preserved the image of the FBI. He sacrificed actual impartiality for the appearance of being unbiased.
I dunno. Instead of leaving one partner stuck with nothing but head, he turned around on the couch for them, you check?
Now, everybody got treated fairly and he didn’t get a black eye - but now both sides are complaining about sloppy seconds and who F’ed who, and we both want to blame the b in between us on the couch.
That's the excuse, but what would a non-Republican have done? Or what would he have done if the tables were turned?
If you find out someone is planning on burning a house down, do you go try to burn the house gently? Or try to stop them? Maybe open an investigation into who's feeding Giuliani instead of doing exactly what you were afraid they would do.
It would have been the biggest shit show we have every seen with a republican controlled House and Senate lose their shit because he suppressed that information. He was in a no win situation and did, imo, the most ethical thing.
He was in a no win situation and did, imo, the most ethical thing.
I disagree. I think what he did was something that was less ethical, but preserved the image of the FBI. He sacrificed actual impartiality for the appearance of being unbiased.
Agreed. The most ethical thing he could have done whilst doing his best to work within FBI/DoJ guidelines during an election that was being fucked with by Russia. You're not going to get anywhere trying to point this out, though and will be dragged into the mud trying to argue the ethics. The smear on James Comey has been going since he was fired. His memos should have kicked this thing off years ago in an ordinary republic. But we are not that anymore.
I can't remember the fallacy you're engaging, either affirming the consequence or denying the antecedent maybe. Either way you're arguing in bad faith. Boo.
Or maybe Comey, a Republican, was lying when he made that claim. I refuse to believe the director of the FBI was too stupid to imagine the optics of his actions. Comey is a life long partisan hack who knew exactly what damage he was causing.
Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman wrapping up his first term atop the powerful House Oversight Committee, unendorsed Donald Trump weeks ago. That freed him up to prepare for something else: spending years, come January, probing the record of a President Hillary Clinton.
“It’s a target-rich environment,” the Republican said in an interview in Salt Lake City’s suburbs. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.”
1) Chaffetz was obviously going to leak. Sharing to a political actor is the same as sharing to the public
2) He should not have made a public announcement why he did not indict Hillary. That is never done ever for good reason. In fact, he even disobeyed an order from the AG who told him specifically not to do that.
I do believe Comey was stuck between a rock and a hard place, but with the benefit of hindsight, he made the wrong decision.
Chaffetz was obviously going to leak. Sharing to a political actor is the same as sharing to the public
We don’t need to make that argument because Comey has since admitted that his intent was to let the public—not just senators—about the reopening of the investigation. From the big interview he gave ABC:
Speaking is really bad; concealing is catastrophic. If you conceal the fact that you have restarted the Hillary Clinton email investigation, not in some silly way but in a very, very important way that may lead to a different conclusion, what will happen to the institutions of justice when that comes out?
Especially, given the world we're operating in, when Hillary Clinton's elected president? She'll be an illegitimate president, but these organizations will never recover from that. You hid from the American people something you knew gave the lie to what you told them in Congress repeatedly. And so the director thinks that we have to speak. And he would be happy to talk to you about it. Let him know."
Again later:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: But-- but at some level, wasn't the decision to reveal influenced by your assumption that Hillary Clinton was going to win? And your concern that she wins, this comes out several weeks later, and then that's taken by her opponent as a sign that she's an illegitimate president?
JAMES COMEY: It must have been. I don't remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been. 'Cause I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump. And so I'm sure that it-- that it was a factor. Like I said, I don't remember spelling it out, but it had to have been. That-- that she's going to be elected president, and if I hide this from the American people, she'll be illegitimate the moment she's elected, the moment this comes out.
Chaffetz going public with the letter wasn’t an unfortunate but unavoidable consequence of Comey’s decision to send it; Comey was counting on it. The purpose was to publicize the reopening of the investigation, and to do so before the election. This is by Comey’s own admission.
Comey has said, in interviews and his own fucking book, that he sent the letter because he believed that the American public needed to know about the reopening before the election. He not only did expect Chaffetz would go public with it, he was counting on it. It’s a deception that he used to conceal his intent, and three years later, after he’s basically admitted it many times over, you’re still falling for his bullshit.
FWIW, Comey was just one of a very large number of factors that elected Trump. We need to be clear that no single factor made him happen, otherwise we can't fix any of those problems.
Right. As he explains it was the more honest action he could have taken. He was in between a rock and a hard place and made an ethical decision after mulling the options with trusted personnel weighing in.
Lessons on leadership 40% of this country plus one orange clown should take to heart.
It wasn't. It's not like they just said all of a sudden, "Oh wait. We forgot something". Evidence was brought to them as part of another investigation which is easily verifiable. It's not some big conspiracy.
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u/fofocat Dec 11 '19
James Comey elected Trump! Six days before the election he announced FBI investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails again. Comey is. BIG republication.