Submitted in comments for discussion by J Soden
Here are 10 of Comey’s biggest embarrassments at the FBI:
1. Before he bombed the Boston Marathon, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev but let him go. Russia sent the Obama Administration a second warning, but the FBI opted against investigating him again.
2. Shortly after the NSA scandal exploded in 2013, the FBI was exposed conducting its own data mining on innocent Americans; the agency, Bloomberg reported, retains that material for decades (even if no wrongdoing is found).
3. The FBI had possession of emails sent by Nidal Hasan saying he wanted to kill his fellow soldiers to protect the Taliban — but didn’t intervene, leading many critics to argue the tragedy that resulted in the death of 31 Americans at Fort Hood could have been prevented.
4. During the Obama Administration, the FBI claimed that two private jets were being used primarily for counterterrorism, when in fact they were mostly being used for Eric Holder and Robert Mueller’s business and personal travel.
5. When the FBI demanded Apple create a “backdoor” that would allow law enforcement agencies to unlock the cell phones of various suspects, the company refused, sparking a battle between the feds and America’s biggest tech company. What makes this incident indicative of Comey’s questionable management of the agency is that a) The FBI jumped the gun, as they were indeed ultimately able to crack the San Bernardino terrorist’s phone, and b) Almost every other major national security figure sided with Apple (from former CIA Director General Petraeus to former CIA Director James Woolsey to former director of the NSA, General Michael Hayden), warning that such a “crack” would inevitably wind up in the wrong hands.
6. In 2015, the FBI conducted a controversial raid on a Texas political meeting, finger printing, photographing, and seizing phones from attendees (some in the group believe in restoring Texas as an independent constitutional republic).
7. During its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified material, the FBI made an unusual deal in which Clinton aides were both given immunity and allowed to destroy their laptops.
8. The father of the radical Islamist who detonated a backpack bomb in New York City in 2016 alerted the FBI to his son’s radicalization. The FBI, however, cleared Ahmad Khan Rahami after a brief interview.
9. The FBI also investigated the terrorist who killed 49 people and wounded 53 more at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla. Despite a more than 10-month investigation of Omar Mateen — during which Mateen admitting lying to agents — the FBI opted against pressing further and closed its case.
10. CBS recently reported that when two terrorists sought to kill Americans attending the “Draw Muhammad” event in Garland, Texas, the FBI not only had an understanding an attack was coming, but actually had an undercover agent traveling with the Islamists, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi. The FBI has refused to comment on why the agent on the scene did not intervene during the attack.
Jack and I appreciate the heads up on this important story.
Trump says we need new leadership to restore public confidence in the FBI.
Liberals in Congress are outraged. Representative Elijah Cummings is demanding emergency hearings.
Senator Bob Casey said the move was “Nixonian.”
But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley backed up the Presidents decision with sound reasoning:
“The handling of the Clinton email investigation is a clear example of how Comey’s decisions have called into question the trust and political independence of the FBI. In my efforts to get answers, the FBI, under Comey’s leadership, has been slow or failed to provide information that Comey himself pledged to provide.
I’m looking forward to seeing who Trump chooses to replace Comey. One (temporary) problem is the man who will head the FBI in the interim, Andrew McCabe. He has strong ties to Hillary Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe.
The move by Trump doesn’t surprise me at all. Trump vowed to drain the swamp. He is fulfilling that pledge in many different ways and this is just one.
Scandal after scandal. Has anyone in the United States ever seen anyone go to court, get convicted, and go to jail? Nooooo! The cable news outlets get rich off the advertisers. Their watchers get angry and incited. Congressional hearings drag on and on. Defendants and offenders claim the 5th Amendment. Year after year, administration after administration, the same results from the Democrats and Republicans. Screw you America, there’s nothing there there!!! Please remain ignorant!
Yes
The House of cards is exposed yet people follow the media, these investigations are campaign tactics as admitted by Republican Rep. Richard Hanna and 1 other.
That said Comey needed to be fired for not really addressing the Clinton scandals. I wanted him out. But the timing of the firing is also suspect.
Trump fired Comey while the knowledge of 1 or 2 Grand Jury’s starts to leak out. Who did he have fire him? The recused Jeff Sessions.
Seems like it is more of a cover up move by this timing.
Both Clinton and Trump need to be prosecuted and the Media is so full of it it is not funny.
And yes Tina it is starting to leak that there are 1 or 2 grand Jury’s that may have convened regarding Trump People.
ELECTIONS ARE A CORRUPT SHAM BOTH PARTIES
The Deputy Attorney General, Rod Rosenstein, wrote the memorandum that inspired Comey’s firing. See the doc here.
Subpeona’s have been issued. There’s no evidence so far that suggests the Grand Jury investigation will come to a screeching halt. The assistant AG was confirmed with broad support from both parties.
Democrats called for Comey to resign in early January.
Trump said this morning that he would have fired Comey regardless of what the memo said, so the claim that the memo inspired the firing has now been proven false by the horse’s own mouth.
Yes, Dems called for Comey to resign in early January. The fact that Trump did not fire him then, when he was still thanking Comey for the email investigation, and only fired him now, after he started investigating his campaign and refused to back up his crazy wiretapping conspiracy theory, adds fuel to the idea that this was personal. Regardless of whether there were good reasons to fire Comey, Trump did not fire Comey for those reasons.
Nixon left office for the sake of the nation realizing he would be impeached by both Democrats and Republicans. His own party members demanded he go.
Clarence Thomas’s confirmation hearing was made into a partisan show trial, televised for days, in a “he said she said” scam and there was zero outrage expressed by anyone on the left. The media of the time played partisan politics. A complete disgrace! He was confirmed, but not before having his reputation and family torn to shreds.
At this point the rule of law was tossed aside and politics was given a starring roll in our justice system.
Bill Clinton lied to a judge, lied to the American people on television, and was impeached in a morally reprehensible set of scandals, but not removed from office by the Senate.
Scooter Libby went to jail for a minor offense (incorrectly recalling the date of a meeting/dinner in an FBI interview) in a case where the guilty party got off. The guilty party was never identified in the media to my knowledge.
Lois Lerner plead the fifth, retired with full benies and pension, and so far has escaped any penalty. Likewise Koskinen has so far escaped penalty. This was a clear case of politics in which the IRS targeted conservative citizens. (As they say, Nixon only dreamed of doing this)
Benghazi scandal, email scandal didn’t touch Hillary in fact she was chosen as the presidential candidate for her party.
As you can see DC has gotten weaker, extremely politicized, and more corrupted since Nixon. But I have yet to see the media or any Democrat admit to corruption or guilt within their party with conviction or a sense of shame. They always go on defense. I admit that I’m prejudiced but in my opinion it has been mostly the Democrats who refuse to seriously question, much less condemn, their own. Anyone with examples to the contrary are welcome to post them.
It’s too easy, and in my opinion just plain lazy, to make a blanket condemnation of both parties. Individuals do these things. If we want the parties to knock off the political games they should be investigated and brought to justice according to the law, not the party. Until our justice department and our media begin to take cases seriously, applying the rule of law in equal fashion, there will be no sense of justice in America.
Which brings me to the next point. The bureaucracy itself is not dependable. What can we do about that? Where are the people in DC with high standards and integrity that the people can rely upon to do the job rather than play politics?
Tina;
Declassified and available Audio available at the Johnson library.
LBJ had evidence Nixon had sabotaged the Vietnam war peace talks – or, as he put it, that Nixon was guilty of treason and had “blood on his hands”.
The taping was for historical purposes? but illegal.
The corruption never stopped.
I do not see either party admit their corruption.
So pointing fingers is futile. Both parties need to clean up or go. What are you doing to clean up the GOP? It is a big job. Need everybody to help clean up the system.
Facts not Propaganda.
The system is bought out. This is the battle of the donors to whom many hedge and play both sides, namely banks, Big Pharma ect ect.
Citicorp gave Obama a list of 31 cabinet picks 30 ended up with the jobs.
Goldman Sach’s, seemed to Hog Trumps list.
The Swamp never empties.
I can not defend either corporation of Donors the GOP or the DNC
Deputy AG Rod Rothenstein was tasked early in TheDonald’s term to investigate the political wing of the FBI. Here’s the Rothenstein Memo that was submitted to AG Sessions, which resulted in Sessions’ recommendation that Comey be fired.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/09/doj-memo-comeys-email-commentary-textbook-example-of-what-federal-prosecutors-and-agents-are-taught-not-to-do/
Comey dug his own hole.
You have to admit the timing was bad. Also, the letter wrote to Comey by Trump was unorthodox. We live in a very strange time.
Exactly. If any of the scandals on this list had been among Trump’s reasons for firing Comey, he would have fired him months ago. But he praised Comey…until he started posing a threat to his own power.
Pete we sure do! You can bet there’s a lot we don’t know and may never know.
Tina , when asked about whether this put fear into the FBI peeps on the investigation it is said…. Most investigators are offended and will continue.
Expect leaks. Vet them all the CIA may leak false Propaganda too.
We have a big job ahead to separate fact from fiction. Documents are the necessary items of truth.
Obama hired him and he should have fired him when he started messing up, years ago. If Hillary had won she would have fired him on day one. No matter when Trump fired him the Dems would have screamed foul. Hypocrites!
Excellent points Peggy!
Who cares about the DNC and the corporate dems? let them Yak they represent very few.
Peggy Trump made the decision to keep him.
Obama has nothing to do with this.
I’ve had enough. I just read the president’s most recent tweets and I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed that our president, a citizen whom we should all want to emulate, would use language most often heard at a junior high school cafeteria. Our president is unstable and in way over his head. The following quote from our President kind of sums up his cognatve abilities:
“I actually, this is more work than my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”
This from a 70 year old citizen of our country? He honestly didn’t know the job was going to be very difficult? God help us all. This guy is nuts.
BTW…don’t start calling me names, I’d say the same thing about him no matter his party affiliation.
Pete you’re too polite to call names…at least so far.
Having said that, this blogging game can be very frustrating at times. It’s not unusual for anyone to lose his cool once in awhile and say something he might not usually say. We try to let it roll off our backs and live to blog another day.
You took the remarks by Trump as an expression of weakness. I took them to mean he was surprised, awed, at the breadth and depth of the job. That’s just a man being honest. No person can anticipate the difficulty of being president and in my opinion anyone who breezes in and pretends it’s easy is play acting. Even George W. Bush who had spent time in the WH with his father could not anticipate what the job would ask of him. It’s a unique position that only a handful of people alive today have ever held.
You might find the following article from 2010 interesting. It shows you just how differently the media treated Barack Obama.
11/13/10, Newsweek, “Is the Presidency Too Big a Job?”
In 1936 Franklin Roosevelt felt overwhelmed. The New Deal had begun to spawn dozens of new agencies, and Roosevelt, fearful of the fragmentation of the executive branch, asked for help. The Brownlow Committee, an independent panel tasked with finding a new model of White House management, proposed offering the president some personal staff. “They would remain in the background, issue no orders, make no decisions, emit no public statements,” the committee explained in a report responding to public skepticism about growing the size of government. Over the next two years, Roosevelt recruited six trusted aides.
Nowadays, six aides is roughly the number Barack Obama has to handle incoming mail—a small fraction of the 469 employees who work in the White House Office and councils for domestic and economic policy, the core staff of the presidency. Other officials include an ethics adviser, a special assistant for “mobility and opportunity policy,” a director of African-American media, and a special assistant for financial markets, to name just a few. Days in the West Wing are a constant, head-spinning oscillation between dozens of domestic, foreign-policy, and political eruptions and concerns.
On the spring day that Obama signed his health-care-reform law, for instance, he also had an economic briefing on unemployment, discussions about financial reform, a meeting at the Department of the Interior, a quick lunch, a meeting with senior advisers and then with Senate leaders on ratification of a new nuclear-nonproliferation treaty with Russia, and an Oval Office summit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on devising a model for Middle East peace. On cable TV, meanwhile, pundits offered nonstop analysis of the holes in the new reform package, while Sarah Palin renewed accusations of Obama’s “government takeover” of health care. A new poll showed that, for the first time, more of the country disapproved than approved of his job performance. In an interview with 60 Minutes that week, the president joked, “If you had said to us a year ago that the least of my problems would be Iraq…I don’t think anybody would have believed it.” Then he laughed. Steve Kroft, the interviewer, asked if he was “punch-drunk.”…
… More often, Obama projects a demeanor of unruffled cool: he can handle the pressures and demands of the job just fine (how could he suggest otherwise?), and he didn’t run for office “to pass on our problems to the next president or the next generation.” But the issue is not Obama, it’s the office. Aides to George W. Bush make similar complaints about the demands on the executive. “It was a much different place than even during the Bush Sr. administration,” says Joe Hagin, Bush 43’s deputy chief of staff, who also worked for Reagan and Bush 41. “There was much less time [under the second Bush] to catch your breath during the day.” He recalls the constant juggling of issues—from the wars to Katrina—often all at the same time. “There’s only so much bandwidth in the organization,” he says.
Can any single person fully meet the demands of the 21st-century presidency?
Poor Barrack…is it even possible to meet the demands of the presidency?
Is it more presidential to make jokes and carry a “demeanor of unruffled cool” or to honestly say how demanding the job is? I guess it depends.
I don’t believe Trump anticipated he would come under attack like he has either. He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. Doing his job as outlined in the Constitution ends up in courts putting his work on hold while spending time defending his actions by him and his staff against constant media attacks.
The Dems offensive attack strategy to slow down and even stop Trump from implementing the plans and action items he outlined during his campaign is not going unnoticed by the millions of Americans who don’t live in liberal controlled cities.
You took the remarks by Trump as an expression of weakness. I took them to mean he was surprised, awed, at the breadth and depth of the job.
OK, but you have to realize you took them to mean that because you are biased in favor of him, right?
Every president has been surprised and awed at the breadth and depth of the job. Has any previous president gone in saying they expected it to be easier than not being the president? That is a far cry from being surprised at the breadth and depth of the job; that’s one thing. Going in thinking it will be easier than your old life is quite another, and that’s the distinction your bias is causing you to miss.
Pete, you are absolutely entitled to your opinion. This is a free speech podium and we encourage everyone to use it. I feel sorry for Trump, politics is a dirty game. It’s filled with damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations. He really wasn’t exposed to that slimy side of life and his naivety sometimes shows. However, I’m happy with his first 100 days performance. Let’s hope he can keep it going.
Pete here is something that might help. When I think of what we could have had for a president, Trump always starts looking better.
No, he doesn’t look better than what we could have had. He looks like a guy trying to reconcile three things. First, his ego. His ego took a hit when he realized that, as president, he could not make laws. This realization made him lash out at anyone that checked his authority. Second, his private businesses. He hasn’t been able to let go of his former life. As he said, it was less work. He was able to do most anything unchecked by others. Finally, his money. He is still trying to promote his hotels and golf courses. Camp David? No, can’t weekend there. He’s got to go to one of his places of business where he can bill us for food and lodging.
If he could separate himself from, well, himself he’d be able to focus on the job he was voted into. But this will never happen, for his ego is so huge, so ingrained, so used to the positive reinforcement heaped on him by his employees and his fans that when confronted with the checks and balances of his new life he is completely lost. Every time he’s lashed out at those that disagree or block his way our president turns into an egocentric seventh grade boy. He’s not going to get any better than what he is right now; an embarrassment.
I share your fear. People look this is not about party.
Also Putin asked Trump for Russian Press only and there are reports that they should have never had the type of equipment they brought into the WH?
Look people the man is in over his head….. Please this is not about politics. This is looking dangerous.
I do not buy into any media. So all MSM can bite me….. I care about finding the truth.
Another oddity
Trump fires Comey 1 day before he meets with Russian Ambassador then only lets in Russian Press, no US press? Not even a WH released picture?
The only picture that comes out taken by the Russians?
It is a well known fact Trump is always concerned by his media image and optics.
BTW the real questions are about money laundering using real estate deals. This media hype on election interference is fear mongering by the corrupt DNC.
So any ideas why he would do this while the corporate Dems are Yak Yak Yaking about Russian Election interference to cover up the DNC Lawsuit going on in FL?
(The transcripts are very damaging to DNC that is why there is a media Blackout).
I am sorry but seems to me he is becoming unhinged.
What does Russia only Press say to US citizens? And why the heck would he feed the DNC Bull?
In this case I think we should all demand a 60 vote requirement for his replacement. We have to make sure a heavily vetted honest man is put in as director.
It is actually a National Security Issue at this point. No party politics.
None of this makes sense
“…well known fact Trump is always concerned by his media image and optics. ”
Dewey the media is hostile toward Trump. Why would he not be concerned? It would be exactly the same for any republican. Reagan was a dunce…George W was stupid…Bush senior was out of touch. As far as they’re concerned that’s just the way it is and democrat presidents are always “genius” and “cool.” It’s ridiculous and oh so obvious!
Susan Wright at Redstate quotes the Washington Examiner:
Then Wright continues:
Maybe the question should be why the American press didn’t release pictures?
I’d say because they wanted the headline, “U.S. Press Blocked From Trump Meeting With Russian Foreign Minister” to be the one big thing from the meet that stuck out in everyone’s mind!
We don’t get to decide on the vote. The Senate makes it’s own rules and as Harry Reid has discovered when you mess with the rules for political reasons it comes back to bite you on the butt!
It’s a national security issue and a law and order issue. If we can’t count on our FBI and justice department to operate according to law rather than politics we’ve lost the country. The rule of law in America depends on the idea that all men are equal in the eyes of the law. Politicians and bureaucrats shouldn’t be getting special treatment.
Tina;
Stop it. Trump is obsessed with his media image. That was true before he ran for President.
That was a true statement – Made as a point –
Allowing only Russian Press in the WH was a Bad optic and unlike Trump. A Picture released by the WH staff would have been the norm at the very least.
Tina I defend no corrupt Politician. Try being real and just stop this Trump can do no wrong.
Hello, Demwits????? Guess it wasn’t the Russians after all, was it?
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/16/seth-rich-wikileaks-emails-fbi/
And Seth Rich’s convenient murder smells a LOT like Vince Foster!