Tag: James Comey

Trump thinks he got ‘total vindication’ from Comey. Except he didn’t.

The following article by Amber Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website June 9, 2016:

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication…and WOW, Comey is a leaker!

Twitter Ads info and privacy

As former FBI director James B. Comey tells it, the president pursued him with an almost singular focus to say one thing publicly: President Trump is not under investigation.

Trump finally got what he wanted Thursday, when Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Here’s an excerpt of an exchange between Comey and Trump ally Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho): Continue reading “Trump thinks he got ‘total vindication’ from Comey. Except he didn’t.”

Comey was not the only official to resist Trump entreaties

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch was posted on the Washington Post website May 23, 2017:

THE BIG IDEA: James Comey was not alone. Even Donald Trump’s own pick for director of national intelligence, former Republican Sen. Dan Coats, refused to comply with a request by the president to push back against the FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government.

Trump also reached out to Adm. Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency. He pressed both men to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election. Each saw the president’s entreaty as inappropriate. Continue reading “Comey was not the only official to resist Trump entreaties”

Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence

The following article by Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima was posted on the Washington Post website May 22, 2017:

President Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, according to current and former officials.

Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election. Continue reading “Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence”

Did Trump obstruct justice? Rod Rosenstein may have just provided another clue.

The following article by Greg Sargent was posted on the Washington Post website May 22, 2017:

THE MORNING PLUM:

The question of whether President Trump obstructed justice leads inevitably back to his true rationale for firing former FBI director James B. Comey — and to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s apparent participation (witting or not) in the creation of a justification for that abrupt action.

The New York Times has some new reporting today on Rosenstein’s involvement in the Comey firing that brings this critical moment into much sharper focus — and raises further questions that, if answered, would lend a great deal to our understanding of what really drove Trump’s hatcheting of the man overseeing the probe into his campaign’s possible collusion with Russian meddling in the election. Continue reading “Did Trump obstruct justice? Rod Rosenstein may have just provided another clue.”

Echoes of Watergate as Trump flies to Middle East amid new Comey revelations

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch was posted on the Washington Post website May 19, 2017:

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump goes wheels up at 2:10 p.m. for Riyadh. His nine-day tour will then take him to Jerusalem, the West Bank, Rome, Brussels, and Sicily.

Walter Pincus, who has one of the longest memories in Washington, sees parallels between the president’s first foreign trip and a journey Richard Nixon took to the Middle East as Watergate consumed his presidency in June 1974. It came at the very time the Watergate special prosecutor was in court seeking the actual White House tapes of presidential conversations (do such tapes exist now?) and congressional committees were beginning to look into impeachment. “Back then, ironically, Nixon visited leaders in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Israel in an unsuccessful attempt to strengthen the ceasefire agreement that halted fighting in the Yom Kippur, Arab-Israeli war,” Walter writes for the Cipher Brief. “Nixon returned home to challenge and lose his Supreme Court argument over the tapes that set him down the path to resigning the presidency.” Continue reading “Echoes of Watergate as Trump flies to Middle East amid new Comey revelations”

Comey, Unsettled by Trump, Is Said to Have Wanted Him Kept at a Distance

The following article by Michael S. Schmidt was posted on the New York Times website May 18, 2017:

WASHINGTON — President Trump called the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, weeks after he took office and asked him when federal authorities were going to put out word that Mr. Trump was not personally under investigation, according to two people briefed on the call.

Mr. Comey told the president that if he wanted to know details about the bureau’s investigations, he should not contact him directly but instead follow the proper procedures and have the White House counsel send any inquiries to the Justice Department, according to those people. Continue reading “Comey, Unsettled by Trump, Is Said to Have Wanted Him Kept at a Distance”

Fact Check: Trump Is Contradictory on Comey and Misleading on Russia

The following article by Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website May 18, 2017:

At a news conference on Thursday, President Trump exaggerated the scale of his proposed tax cut and made a dubious comparison between Israel’s West Bank barrier and his proposed border wall. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

President Trump defended his conduct related to the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia and made several misleading claims on Thursday afternoon.

In a joint news conference with President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Mr. Trump denied there was any collusion between his campaign and Russian officials, explained why he had fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director and trumpeted his legislative agenda. Here’s an assessment.

Mr. Trump contradicted Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and his own earlier statement on firing Mr. Comey.

Explaining the ousting of Mr. Comey, Mr. Trump again pointed to Mr. Rosenstein’s “very, very strong recommendation,” adding that he believed it had resulted from Mr. Comey’s “poor, poor performance” in a congressional hearing this month. Continue reading “Fact Check: Trump Is Contradictory on Comey and Misleading on Russia”

Trump can’t stop talking about the Russia probe — even if continuing might hurt him

The following article by Abby Phillip was posted on the Washington Post website May 18, 2017:

President Trump’s silence lasted just over 12 hours. Then, he let it all out.

The appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible collusion between his campaign and Russia was the “single greatest witch hunt in American history,” he tweeted. Continue reading “Trump can’t stop talking about the Russia probe — even if continuing might hurt him”