Donald Trump was furious with then-Attorney General (AG) Jeff Sessions, because he did not handle and manipulate the Robert Mueller III investigation into Russia’s and Trump’s relationship. He told Sessions did he not think that when Presidents John Kennedy’s and Barack Obama’s attorneys general told them to investigate someone, they did it? Now, Trump has his Roy Cohnesque attorney, and this is what they have done.
AG William Barr has lied to the public about what was contained in the Mueller Report, slow-walked it, and held back the supporting evidence and redacted pages. Barr’s entire reason for being appeared to keep POTUS out of trouble.
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz just completed his report into former FBI director James Comey’s release of information to the public. The documents proved evidence about Trump’s loyalty oath and requests to “go easy” on the recently fired national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The president tweeted at that time that Comey broke the law according to The Washington Post:
‘James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal.’
Senior writer for The Washington Post’s The Fix Aaron Blake tweeted:
‘Trump accused @Comey of leaking classified info at least 10 times: July 10, 2017 April 13, 2018 April 19, 2018 April 20, 2018 April 26, 2018 April 27, 2018 June 8, 2018 Nov. 7, 2018 March 27, 2019 April 25, 2019 IG report says there is “no evidence” of this.’
Then, Comey celebrated:
‘And to all those who’ve spent two years talking about me “going to jail” or being a “liar and a leaker”—ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president.’
The inspector general’s report noted that the Department of Justice did not prosecute. He also found that there was no evidence against Comey for breaking any laws. It proved that the commander-in-chief lied in his accusations about Comey releasing classified information, which is against the law. However, Comey released information that was not classified.
What Comey did do was take copious notes right after he met with Trump, because the president was asking him to break the law. Then, Comey copied those memos and kept them in his personal safe. He also gave some of these memos to a trusted friend to release to the press.
Inspector General Horowitz noted several times that there was no prosecution. Trump and Barr working in tandem spun a tale that Comey committed gross misconduct by trying to document the conversations and not following departmental procedure with them. That sort of recapping has been part of any FBI member’s training, and Comey did not follow the department’s internal regulation, but that was not prosecutable.
After Comey was fired, he decided to let the country in on what Donald Trump has been doing. His notes (memos) related to the Flynn investigation and the president’ss attempted obstruction of justice. In truth, Inspector General Horowitz could not find any classified materials in Comey’s memos. They actually related to POTUS’ alleged obstruction of justice. Granted, the former FBI director should have had a release sign-off for any information he wanted to release.
Not only that, the memos had little to say about Flynn. They did document how Trump illegally attempted to block the investigation into Flynn.
Former DOJ spokesman Matthew Miller came down hard on Horowitz for claiming that Comey’s actions pressured the FBI to investigate Trump:
‘Comey did what he did because the president was actively trying to dismantle DOJ’s normal way of operating. The AG and the DAG were both complicit, so Comey had nowhere else to take his concerns. It must be nice to live in the context-free world inhabited by the IG.’
Miller believed that was like blaming Comey:
‘…for speeding on his way to tell the village that a fire was coming. Such a narrowly-scoped view of the world.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
