General Breaking Now- Comey dismissed as FBI director

[Splinty]

Ignoring my layman understanding of a special prosecutors proper use.
Can anyone explain why we would use a special prosecutor now and not when Bill Clinton was meeting with the Loretta Lynch last year on the tarmac?

Public cases

Politicised

Powers involved that inherently risk appearance of conflicts interest


If sometimes you pull the trigger on a special prosecutor to give the public confidence, why on Earth wasn't there one a year ago?

 

[Zeph]

Spicer was obviously in the dark...

Did the president discuss Rosenstein's findings with Rosenstein? “No, I don't believe, I don't know how that sequence went — I don't know,” he said.

What was the president's role? “Again, I have to get back to you on the tick-tock,”



Beyond there appears to be no attempt to hide anything by Trump at the moment. Trumps Lester Holt interview is entirely consistent with the Rosenstein timeline.

Both say Trump had already made up his mind due to the same problems, including public statements and leaks.



Stretching...

The public statement they released said Trump did it on their recommendation. Only after that Trump came out and said he was going to do it anyway. As for stretching? Lol, that's exactly what he's done. He said so himself.

 

[Zeph]

Ignoring my layman understanding of a special prosecutors proper use.
Can anyone explain why we would use a special prosecutor now and not when Bill Clinton was meeting with the Loretta Lynch last year on the tarmac?

Public cases

Politicised

Powers involved that inherently risk appearance of conflicts interest


If sometimes you pull the trigger on a special prosecutor to give the public confidence, why on Earth wasn't there one a year ago?

Why now? Because the president just fired the guy running the investigation. Seems like a prime moment to get an independent prosecutor in.

 

[Splinty]

Lol, that's exactly what he's done. He said so himself.

Nah, he didn't.

Why now? Because the president just fired the guy running the investigation. Seems like a prime moment to get an independent prosecutor in.

He fired a guy that multiple neutral parties supported agreed should be fired.

Nothing changes with the investigation. The guy that got fired was immediately replaced with a 2.0 version of himself.

The guy that got fired still exists and is available for any and all comment on known information to date.

There's literally nothing about the investigation that's changed from the firing.

But that wasn't my question. Why was there not a special prosecutor last year if there should be one now?

Goose and gander.

 

[Zeph]

Nah, he didn't.

WASHINGTON — President Trump told Russian officials in the Oval Office this month that firing the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, had relieved “great pressure” on him, according to a document summarizing the meeting.

“I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Mr. Trump said, according to the document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/us/politics/trump-russia-comey.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Seems like Trump felt things had changed. Probably didn't think things through, though.

 

[Zeph]

Sources: White House lawyers research impeachment - CNNPolitics.com

Washington (CNN)White House lawyers have begun researching impeachment procedures in an effort to prepare for what officials still believe is a distant possibility that President Donald Trump could have to fend off attempts to remove him from office, two people briefed on the discussions tell CNN.

White House officials believe the President has the backing of Republican allies in Congress and that impeachment is not in the cards, according to the people briefed on the legal discussions. Even Democrats have tried to calm impeachment talk out of concern it is premature.
But lawyers in the White House counsel's office have consulted experts in impeachment during the past week and have begun collecting information on how such proceedings would work, a person briefed on the matter told CNN.

 

[Zeph]

White House looking at ethics rule to weaken special investigation: sources


The Trump administration is exploring whether it can use an obscure ethics rule to undermine the special counsel investigation into ties between President Donald Trump's campaign team and Russia, two people familiar with White House thinking said on Friday.

Trump has said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's hiring of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead the investigation "hurts our country terribly."

Within hours of Mueller's appointment on Wednesday, the White House began reviewing the Code of Federal Regulations, which restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm’s clients for one year after their hiring, the sources said.

An executive order signed by Trump in January extended that period to two years.

Mueller's former law firm, WilmerHale, represents Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who met with a Russian bank executive in December, and the president's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is a subject of a federal investigation.

Legal experts said the ethics rule can be waived by the Justice Department, which appointed Mueller. He did not represent Kushner or Manafort directly at his former law firm.

 

[Zeph]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jared-kushner-russia-investigation-trump-song-in-law-probe-person-interest-a7745916.html

Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has reportedly been identified as a “person of interest” in the ongoing investigation into possible ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s campaign.

The Washington Post said a senior adviser to Mr Trump was among people investigators wanted to speak to. A New York magazine reporter then said the person in question was Mr Kushner, 36, who is married to Mr Trump’s eldest daughter and who flew out of Washington on Friday night to accompany the President on his first official foreign trip.

The Post said the person under investigation was close to the President, but did not identify them. However, the number of people who fit such a profile would be very small.


View: https://twitter.com/petersterne/status/865666821797621769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Famericas%2Fus-politics%2Fjared-kushner-russia-investigation-trump-song-in-law-probe-person-interest-a7745916.html

 

[Zeph]

Things are starting to look real bad for the Trump administration.

 

[Freeloading Rusty]

Either way this all plays out... Trump's presidency has already been tarnished. This smear will follow him through the next 4 years, if he rides it out. Donald would have to really pull off some amazing work to turn the story of 45 around in the history books.

 

[Splinty]

Seems like Trump felt things had changed. Probably didn't think things through, though.

Everything through that lens.


Rosenstein & Trump specifically have a problem with Comey using public position and leaks.

That statement is entirely consistent with Trump's public position of wanting to find shared ground on items like ISIS with Russia. And finding comeys grandstanding and leaks detrimental to his policy initiative.

Comeys flaw is continuing to create narratives via public pressers.


Trump makes no statement that he plans to push a cancel of the investigation.


"I just want somebody that's competent," Trump responded. "I am a big fan of the FBI, I love the FBI."

Trump said he never tried to pressure Comey into dropping the FBI probe of the Trump campaign and insisted, "I want to find out if there was a problem in the election having to do with Russia.

"As far as I'm concerned, I want that thing to be absolutely done properly," Trump said. "Maybe I'll expand that, you know, lengthen the time (of the Russia probe) because it should be over with, in my opinion, should have been over with a long time ago. 'Cause all it is, is an excuse but I said to myself, I might even lengthen out the investigation, but I have to do the right thing for the American people."

Trump added of the investigation, "I want that to be so strong and so good. And I want it to happen."

Asked by Holt if by firing Comey he was trying to send a "lay off" message to his successor, Trump said, "I'm not."

"If Russia did anything, I want to know that," he said.

But Trump also insisted there was no "collusion between me and my campaign and the Russians."


For the record I like the special prosecutor, but Trump didn't fire Comey because he was investigating him. That didn't change and no one thought it would. Comey got ditched for continuing to play politics with the FBI.

 

[Hauler]

Either way this all plays out... Trump's presidency has already been tarnished. This smear will follow him through the next 4 years, if he rides it out. Donald would have to really pull off some amazing work to turn the story of 45 around in the history books.

I don't think so.
I don't think he lasts 4 years, but if he does it will be an amazing comeback story.

 

[Hauler]

You anti-Trump guys know that once Trump is out that Pence is taking over. What then?

 

[Zeph]

You anti-Trump guys know that once Trump is out that Pence is taking over. What then?

Assuming Pence takes over, then he's President. That is assuming he doesn't get wrapped up in the same scandal since:

WASHINGTON


Investigators into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential elections are now authorized to probe whether White House officials have engaged in a cover-up, according to members of Congress who were briefed Friday by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

A Justice Department official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic, confirmed that Rosenstein told members of the House of Representatives that the special counsel in charge of the probe, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, “has been given the authority to investigate the possibility of a cover-up.”


Read more here: Comey agrees to testify in public as Trump-Russia probe heats up

 

[Hauler]

“has been given the authority to investigate the possibility of a cover-up.”

He can be given the authority to investigate the possibility that the moon is made of cheese. Doesn't mean it will be proven to be so.

 

[Zeph]

He can be given the authority to investigate the possibility that the moon is made of cheese. Doesn't mean it will be proven to be so.

Of course. I'm just saying that the possibility is there. There is a lot of if's to this scenario at the moment.

 

[Hauler]

Of course. I'm just saying that the possibility is there. There is a lot of if's to this scenario at the moment.

The biggest "if" is that they don't find shit.
I just hope we don't head into another trial where we have tPOTUS saying shit like "It depends on what the definition of 'is' is."

 

[Zeph]

The biggest "if" is that they don't find shit.
I just hope we don't head into another trial where we have tPOTUS saying shit like "It depends on what the definition of 'is' is."

I don't think Trump would be able to play semantics.

 

[Hauler]

I don't think Trump would be able to play semantics.

I don't know bro. He knows a lot of words. Big words. The best words.

 

[Freeloading Rusty]

You anti-Trump guys know that once Trump is out that Pence is taking over. What then?

Then that's on the Trump voters.

 

[member 3289]

President Ryan

 

[Hauler]

Then that's on the Trump voters.

Actually it's all on the Dems and their selection of Hillary : The most unelectable human in the history of elections.

 

[Hauler]

I mean seriously. She got beat by fucking Trump.

 

[Freeloading Rusty]

His tweet today about his 'big foreign trip' sounds like the next adventures of the Griswold family.

 

[Freeloading Rusty]

Actually it's all on the Dems and their selection of Hillary : The most unelectable human in the history of elections.

This is true.

Bernie all the way.