Illegal Special Counsel?

Trump is tweeting that the Special Counsel is illegitimate because it was brought into being by the illegal leak of classified memos by former FBI Director James Comey:

James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order to generate a Special Council? Therefore, the Special Council was established based on an illegal act? Really, does everybody know what that means?

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

 

Though he has the chain of events right, I think his conclusion is weak.  The whole point of a special counsel is to investigate crimes where the DOJ has conflicts.  In fact, that statutes is stronger case for challenging the Special Counsel investigation.

 

Code of Federal Regulations, Title 28, Chapter VI, Part 600, Section 600.1

The Attorney General... will appoint a Special Counsel when he or she determines that a criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted...

 

What crime was Robert Mueller appointed to investigate?  Collusion?  That makes a great headline but what specific law was broken?  The indictments to date are not related to collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign and, as such, should have just been handed back to DOJ.  Mannafort lobbied for Ukraine, a country essentially at war with Russia.  His indictments against Russians in Russia for trying to tinker with the US election is just stupid; does he expect Putin to extradite them?  Does anyone think we don't tinker in Russian politics?  If Putin asks, should we extradite our spooks to Russia?  Stupid but it put some numbers on the board, even if pointless.  The whole intent of this investigation - like the Plame Affair during the Bush Administration - is to catch someone lying to the FBI.  Interesting fact: James Comey appointed the Special Counsel in the Plame case even though he knew that Richard Armitage was the source of the leak.  However, Scooter Libby got caught lying to the FBI.  James Comey also sent Martha Stewart to jail for lying to the FBI, not the insider trading that had launched the investigation.  I see a pattern with Comey.

 

Comey is an admitted leaker and, according to recent claims by Andrew McCabe - another fired FBI Director, lied to Congress.  If Martha Stewart went to jail for lying, Comey should get her old cell for lying.  He needs a taste of the 'justice' he has meted out to others. 

Russian Collusion Story Flips on its Head

It is now revealed that the Clinton Campaign and the DNC paid Fusion GPS for the Trump Dossier, the largely discredited 'intelligence' that sparked the story that the Trump Campaign colluded with Russia.  Of particular note, the British spy, Chris Steele, was paying Russians to assemble his dossier.  This brings up an obvious question: If the Russians were trying to get Trump elected, why produce a dossier that would hurt his chances?

 

During the campaign, the dossier made the rounds but none of the stories could be verified so no one jumped on the story.  After all, the polls showed that Hillary was a shoe-in and an unverifiable dossier was likely to hurt the media outlet that published it while not changing the election.  However, when Trump actually won, the Democrats knew they were in dire straits.  If Hillary had won, the surveillance and unmasking of Trump Campaign operatives would never have been revealed.  Now it was inevitable that these shenanigans would be made public and a cover story was needed posthaste!  Well, there was this Trump Dossier.  Bingo!

 

James Comey briefed Trump on the dossier and, amazingly, that briefing was immediately leaked to the media.   The dossier was now newsworthy, regardless of its validity.  Huh, that's convenient.  Comey's later actions in leaking memos of his meetings with President Trump for the specific purpose of getting an Independent Counsel named make this briefing and associated leak much more suspicious.

 

It sure looks like the deep state has gone to great efforts to derail Trump's presidency before his administration could expose this trail of questionable and probably criminal behavior.  Now the 2010 Uranium One deal that saw $145 million dollars 'donated' to the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton getting $500,000 to give a speech in Moscow look a lot more like collusion with Russia than the fiction to be found in the Trump Dossier.  That the US sold 20% of its uranium to Russia during the Obama Administration does not reflect well on President Obama either.  Many of the people in charge of investigating the Trump-Russia collusion are the very people who turned a blind eye when the Clintons were enriched by Russians.  There is a reason that it is called the swamp.

Russian Collusion? I'll Show You Some Russian Collusion

The Russian collusion story has dragged on for months with nothing really to it.  The latest story is that Russia bought adds on Facebook and maybe swung the election.  Um, Russian ad purchases amounted to $100,000 or so.  Hillary's campaign and associated groups spent $1.4 billion.  Either the Russian got the greatest return on investment ever or this is a nonstory.  Besides, how much did the Obama administration spend in an effort to unseat Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel?  Turnabout is fair play.  As interesting as this is, another Russian collusion story is brewing.

 

Back in 2009, Russia was using bribes and kickbacks to influence a nuclear trucking company in the US.  The FBI, under the direction of Robert Mueller (yes, the same Mueller who is investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 election), had evidence of Russian meddling.  Moreover, parties interested in selling Canada's Uranium One to Russia's Rosatom had given generous donations to the Clinton Foundation.  Moreover, Bill Clinton was given double his normal speaking fee - a tidy $500,000 - to give a speech in Russia.  Huh.  What an amazing coincidence.  Uranium One owned 20% of US uranium mines, a clear national security asset.  As such, the sale had to get the approval of the State Department that was headed by... Hillary Clinton.  In her defense, Hillary says that she was not involved in the approval process.  Gee, a suspicious person would think that maybe all the money flowing into the Clinton Foundation from parties interested in the Uranium One sale was obviously a payoff.

 

Mueller is hopelessly conflicted.  The man who let the last administration sell nuclear assets to Russia is now investigating how Russia torpedoed presidential run of the very person who may have greased the skids for that sale?  Not to mention the target of the investigation happened to fire his friend, James Comey.  And James Comey admitted that he leaked memos to a friend with the expectation that the exposure of those memos would force the naming of a special counsel, none other than his buddy Robert Mueller.

 

The deep state will ignore the crimes and misdeeds of establishment elites but seek to destroy outsiders on the flimsiest grounds.  If Trump were guilty of every Russian collusion story leveled at him, it would be small potatoes in comparison to the sale of 20% of US uranium holdings to none other than Russia.

James Comey, Political Football

Democrats last week: FBI Director Comey's last minute reopening of the email case cost Hillary the presidency.  Very bad!

Democrats today: FBI Director Comey should not have been fired.  Important investigations will be derailed.  Saturday Night Massacre!

Hmm.

Politically, Comey is a win-win for Democrats.  If he stayed on, he was a handy punching bag for Hillary's loss, a role he still retains but it is now secondary.  With Comey fired, he now becomes a symbol of the Russia Collusion investigation and Trump's effort to quash it.  By contrast, it was lose-lose for Trump but he has decided that getting rid of Comey - a director who enjoys strong bipartisan disapproval - was the lesser of two bad options.

 

Comey's public approval rating was miserable and is unlikely to draw much sympathy.  Up until yesterday, he was widely hated by Democrats for costing Hillary the election and it is hard for the rank and file to turn on a dime.  It is easier for the elites to see the political benefits of being pro-Comey rather than anti-Comey.  As Trump has shown, consistency isn't required for success.

Director Comey, You're Fired!

President Trump has fired FBI Director Comey.  Though Comey surely deserves to be fired for his ham-fisted handling of the agency during the presidential campaign, this is going to trigger a firestorm of controversy and obviously be painted at Trump trying to quash the Russia investigation.  Even though many Democrats will probably cheer at Comey's firing, none will allow this PR windfall to go unexploited.  Of course, had Hillary been elected president, I suspect Comey would have been fired already.

Comey's greatest failing was his July press conference in which he 'cleared' Senator Clinton by announcing that no charges would be filed.  If no charges were going to be filed, he should have shut up.  He had no business delineating what sounded like a series of crimes only to then announce that no reasonable prosecutor would take the case.  If that is so, you shouldn't be having a press conference.  Don't commit character assassination when there is no indictment.  Besides, it is the job of DOJ prosecutors to indict, not the FBI.  That press conference was a political show.  Was he having a temper tantrum in response to Attorney General Lynch meeting with Bill Clinton on the tarmac in Arizona the previous week?  If so, that was highly unprofessional on his part.  If he thought the fix was in, he should have resigned in protest and then had a press conference.

 

Though Comey richly deserved to be fired, doing so looks to be a political loser.  I don't see any benefits for Trump or his administration by dumping Comey but lots of downside.  The Russian collusion story, which had died to a low simmer after the cruise missile strike on Syria, will come roaring back to life now.  Then again, Comey managed to infuriate both political parties and is unlikely to earn much sympathy from the public.  Comey may be unpopular enough that his firing is not as controversial as it might seem.

Hillary Blameless for Loss?

Hillary is now explaining her loss and it has little to nothing to do with her candidacy but is mostly because of things beyond her control.

1. Russian Hacking: The Russians "meddled with our election."  Specifics were not offered, instead simply hinting at the ongoing story that has failed to find any link.

2. Misogyny: Americans hate women.  "That has to be admitted," she says.  It isn't her they hate, but women in general.  Does that mean that McCain lost in 2008 and Mondale in 1984 because misogynists couldn't handle a woman as vice president?  Also, didn't she win the popular vote?  Is misogyny limited to certain swing states?

3. FBI Director Comey: Darn that Comey for reopening the case less than 2 weeks before the election.  Her private server and detailed work emails had already been covered.  That more emails were found on Anthony Weiner's laptop was a poor excuse to reopen the case.

4. WikiLeaks: How dare Julian Assange publish John Podesta's emails!  Sure, they were all true and exposed the double dealing and coordination with the media but the voters had no right to know that, especially since it reflected so poorly on Hillary and her campaign.

Missing in her list of reasons why she lost is any introspection beyond "things I could have done better."  Might that be a reference to her 'deplorables' comment?  While Trump was constantly on the campaign trail and filling stadiums, Hillary was taking weekends off to rest and barely filling high school gyms.  Hillary lacked either Trump's or her husband's charisma.  Points 3 and 4 are self-inflicted and yet she pretends they were outside her control.  To those not in denial, it is clear that Hillary was the problem, not her listed external factors.  She was a terrible candidate who only looked acceptable because Donald Trump was the other candidate.

Let the FBI Sort Them

The State Department reports that it will take 5 YEARS to go through 31,000 Hillary Clinton emails.  Wow!  How about giving them to the FBI and Director Comey.  He just ripped through 650,000 emails in 8 days!  He'll be done with 31,000 before lunch!  Better yet, though he  may find gross negligence, there will be nothing worth prosecuting.

 

It is interesting that the State Dept. wouldn't be able to finish until AFTER Hillary was re-elected for a second term.  That's probably just a coincidence.

Case Closed Again!

Once again, FBI Director Comey has cleared Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing.  There were those who said that Comey reopened the investigation just to take all the attention away from the waves of WikiLeaks emails.  That he closes the investigation 2 days before the elections sure seems to confirm that idea.  There is no way that 650,000 emails were reviewed in a week.

The fact that classified data found its way to a private server is a crime.

The fact that Huma Abedin claimed to have returned all devices that might have the emails while we can obviously see she didn't is a crime.  Scooter Libby was charged with perjury when what he told the FBI didn't match the facts.  Comey himself sent Martha Stewart away for this.

The fact that emails were recovered that had not been provided to either the State Department or the FBI is a crime.

That the DOJ has charged NO ONE with any crime in this demonstrates corruption.  There wasn't even a scapegoat like Web Hubbell, Jim & Susan McDougal, or Johnny Chung.  This time there were crimes without criminals.  Kind of like when 900 FBI files showed up in the White House during Bill Clinton's tenure but no one was charged with anything.  Ah, feels like old times.

Case Reopened!

FBI Director James Comey has reopened the Clinton email case less than 2 weeks before the election.  This is a stunning turn of events.  Despite overwhelming evidence that offered a clear path to indictment, Comey had closed the case while saying no prosecutor would take the case.  Much grief was heaped upon him for that, rightly so.  The question thus becomes, why revisit what has been a disaster for him?

First, it may be that the purported evidence found on the laptop shared by Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner had something that could not be overlooked and will eventually be made public.  There might be something that, if it were to come out after the election and also revealed that the FBI knew about it before the election, there would be hell to pay.  By reopening the case before the election, Comey protects what is left of the FBI's reputation.

 

Second, Weiner is making a deal.  Disgraced, political career ruined, and his marriage over, Weiner has no reason to protect Huma, Hillary, or the Democratic Party.  He knows all the skeletons and, rat that he is, he gathered evidence to give himself leverage.  He may have provided it to the FBI - which is currently investigating him - to get a better deal.  Sure, he will be hated and a pariah but he already is.

 

Third, Comey thought that his press conference and his testimony to Congress would be enough to torpedo Hillary's campaign, thus providing sufficient punishment for the transgressions he outlined while dodging direct responsibility.  With the polls showing her still leading, he decided he needed to 'remind' the electorate.  That the FBI is investigating Hillary's top aide's husband just made that reminder possible.

 

Fourth, WikiLeaks is getting the emails from furious FBI agents, not Russian hackers.  Comey wants to cut the rationale for the release by reopening the case.  This may take the focus off the continued Wiki Dumps until the election.  As such, this might be a tourniquet to stop the bleeding but perhaps saving the campaign.  That sounds rather unlikely but it was suggested.

Comey has mishandled this about as badly as it could be mishandled.  Should Hillary lose, he will go down in history along with the Daisy add, Willy Horton, and the Swiftboaters.  He has carved out a terrible legacy.  Even if Hillary is convicted of multiple felonies (highly unlikely), he will be viewed as incompetent for having closed the case in the first place.  If she wins, he's fired.  Either way, he has infuriated both the Democrats and the Republicans and will get no succor from either.  There is no good result for James Comey.  He abandoned the rule of law in July and he cannot recover.