It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

The Comey Memo, Legal facts

page: 1
6
<<   2 >>

log in

join
share:

posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:31 AM
link   
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He testified during the Clinton impeachment and serves as the lead defense counsel in the last impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate for Judge Thomas Porteous.




Of course, that does not change the fact that the question by Trump was wildly inappropriate. Yet, it also raises questions of Comey’s judgment. The account suggests that Comey was so concerned about the conversation that he wrote a memorandum for record. But that would suggest that Comey thought the president was trying to influence the investigation but then said nothing to the Justice Department or to his investigation team. The report says that, while Comey may have told a couple of colleagues at the FBI, he did not tell the investigation team “so the details of the conversation would not affect the investigation.”





However, Nixon’s impeachment involved a host of clear criminal acts from slush funds to burglaries. There is still no compelling evidence of an actual crime at the heart of the Russian investigation. Flynn is facing allegations of basic reporting or disclosure violations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) which is rarely actually prosecuted. Indeed, there have been only seven prosecutions under FARA since 1966, when the law was revised.





The investigation of Flynn has not produced any reported evidence implicating Trump. A FARA violation is a relatively minor federal violation for a president if that is the scope of the FBI investigation. Obviously, if there is some undisclosed major crime implicating the president, the seriousness of the alleged statement would grow in the same proportion. However, Trump has insisted that he was told repeatedly by Comey that he was not under investigation.


thehill.com...

Buck



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:34 AM
link   
a reply to: flatbush71
And "hoping" the FBI would choose to overlook Flynns mistakes is a far cry from asking them to.



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:38 AM
link   
a reply to: Mike.Ockizard

Well said Sir, if don't have a J.D. you should start working on one.

As they say " The road to Hell is paved with good intentions ".

Buck



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:39 AM
link   
"The Hill" article is attempting to making everybody automatically believe the memo story is true.

I think there is no memo in this context.




posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:43 AM
link   
a reply to: xuenchen
I hear you about how true this is. I'm personally betting it is but we shall see. If it is true, then why wouldn't take "intent" into consideration like he did with the obvious, flagrant violations of HRC?



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:45 AM
link   
I appreciate this attorney's opinion, but of course, other attorney's think differently. There are many other issues at hand besides Russia/Flynn/Comey




Bonifaz said that the president through his business dealings violates the U.S. Constitution's foreign and domestic Emoluments Clause, and other federal law. (The Emoluments Clause in Article I of the Constitution, states: "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.") "(Trump cares more) about his business interests than his interests in the United States," Bonifaz said. "This is not a debate. He is enriching himself. "(This is) a dangerous moment in American history," he said.


Massachusetts Lawyer Behind Campaign to Impeach Trump

Comey Firing Legal, but Trump Has Committed Impeachable Offenses



But Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine Law School, is hardly in Trump’s corner. He believes that the president has repeatedly violated the Constitution, and has joined other prominent attorneys in filing suit against Trump for his alleged breach of the emoluments clause, which prohibits officeholders from receiving benefits of any kind from foreign governments.

edit on 17-5-2017 by antoinemarionette because: added quote

edit on 17-5-2017 by antoinemarionette because: (no reason given)


Also, I'm curious... why are Trump supporters so supportive of the idea of foreign influence in the American government. Traditionally, Americans have considered this to be one of the greatest faults an elected official could possibly commit!



There’s far more at stake here than the etiquette of information-sharing among friends. The United States depends heavily on foreign governments for on-the-ground espionage against terrorists in the Middle East.



edit on 17-5-2017 by antoinemarionette because: (no reason given)

edit on 17-5-2017 by antoinemarionette because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:47 AM
link   
a reply to: Mike.Ockizard

Sorry, the "intent" card has already been played. You will have to wait for a re-shuffle to use it again.

I'd like to have the tapes released first, so when the memo turns out to not exist, lots of folks look like the tools they are.



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:49 AM
link   
Just let the Man do his job.

Why is everybody attacking the ELECTED president?

Come up with better ideas and policies and in 4 years minus 120 days you are up.



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:51 AM
link   
a reply to: antoinemarionette

I think that ship already sailed.

Donald Trump could become president of the United States and still keep his day job as chairman of the Trump Organization and impresario of all things Trump-branded. He could even promote policies that advance his business interests. Historically, presidents have gone to great lengths to avoid these conflicts of interest, but there’s no law requiring them to do so. And Trump has said little about how he would separate his economic interests from his presidential responsibilities.



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:52 AM
link   

originally posted by: network dude
a reply to: Mike.Ockizard

Sorry, the "intent" card has already been played. You will have to wait for a re-shuffle to use it again.

I'd like to have the tapes released first, so when the memo turns out to not exist, lots of folks look like the tools they are.


The TPTB is playing with a crooked deck. Intent can be dealt from the bottom of the deck any time they want. Even if we are watching!!



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:56 AM
link   
a reply to: Mike.Ockizard

you got me there.



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 11:59 AM
link   
a reply to: flatbush71

Sorry Charlie, but "facts" really don't matter anymore.

Those of us who have been to more than one rodeo know the truth and that is that the Trump presidency is all but done, over, rendered into history as a failed effort.

Why you may ask?

There are several reasons, but the most important include the fact that Trump can't quit screwing up and worse, he can't regulate his speech, he can't plug the leaks and he can't get out in front of the train wreck. In short, Trump doesn't know how or when to exercise damage control. He's being skewered by the hyenas of the leftist MSM who have vowed to never normalize the Trump presidency and are now the screaming outlets of the Resistance!

The feckless GOP in Congress won't support him or attempt to rescue him. He'll find no support there.

But worse, after the August congressional recess, Trump's "agenda" is toast if he can't get his tax relief bill and a health care bill approved before then BECAUSE, after the August recess, all that the slime ball Representatives will care about is getting re-elected in 2018! Then, come January 2018, they will be in continuous campaign mode, (as opposed to continuous fund raising mode they're in now)..........they'll not take up or vote on anything that threatens their re-elections.

Then its 2019 and the Presidential race for the 2020 election starts..........Trump is, for all practical terms, a Lame Duck after the 2017 August recess.



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 12:11 PM
link   

originally posted by: xuenchen
"The Hill" article is attempting to making everybody automatically believe the memo story is true.

I think there is no memo in this context.



If this "memo" does exist in context, then Comey himself is guilty of obstruction of justice for concealing the evidence from everyone for months.

Until after he was fired of course...



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 12:34 PM
link   
a reply to: TonyS

I totally agree with that assessment.

However it excludes the many surprising events that may take place between now and then.

At the rate they are coming in daily, who can say?




posted on May, 17 2017 @ 12:38 PM
link   
a reply to: network dude

The very same newspaper you linked for that old article has a new article, this very day called...

Impeachment proceedings need to start now




posted on May, 17 2017 @ 12:43 PM
link   

originally posted by: EartOccupant
Just let the Man do his job.

Why is everybody attacking the ELECTED president?

Come up with better ideas and policies and in 4 years minus 120 days you are up.



Because the leftists are desperate for a "win" at this point -- something they really haven't had since 2008. Even Obama's 2012 re-election (barely) was meaningless because after 2010 he didn't have Congress and couldn't get any of his socialist/wealth-redistribution schemes passed.

And because President Trump continues to run the table on them.

The leftist MSM will never admit this, but Trump's first 100 days were far more active and successful than failed Obama's were.

Let's take a quick look at President Trump’s HUGE accomplishments so far (I'm sure I'll miss some -- feel free to add...)!

1. President Trump’s greatest accomplishment so far is the total and thorough humiliating BEAT of Bill Clinton’s cross-eyed, unaccomplished, inept, corrupt, lying, brain-damaged, drunken dingbat grifter of a wife and never letting that defender and enabler of a proven serial sexual predator anywhere near the White House again.

2. – 18. President Trump has accomplished more in his first 100 days than failed Obama did in his first 100. Perhaps the greatest group of accomplishments so far is the systematic dismantling of about 75% of the Obama legacy, with the imminent repeal of Obamacare making its way through Congress at this very moment.

19. Illegal immigration is down by 80% and illegal immigrant self-deporting is up proportionately.

20. On the way to a 7 – 2 conservative Trump Supreme Court by 2020, President Trump nominated, and the Senate confirmed, the very conservative Neil Gorsuch to the now 5 – 4 SCOTUS. Just as important, President Trump is about to nominate the first round of 130+ Federal judges to stack the Federal bench with conservatives for decades and forever destroy the very last entrenched vestige of leftist power in the Federal government!

21 – 49. President Trump has signed 11 more EO’s in his first 100 days than failed Obama did.

50 – 78. President Trump has signed more than twice as many bills into law than failed Obama did in his first 100 days.

78 – 100. President Trump has signed dozens of orders rescinding Obama regulations relating to the bogus “man-made” climate change lie and all the other loony leftist garbage that failed Obama tried to sneak through after losing Congress in 2010.

By any measure, President Trump continues to be one of the most active and successful presidents in the modern era and it drives the frenzied left into a hate-fueled rage that they can't stop him.



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 01:01 PM
link   
a reply to: antoinemarionette

That's true, problem is that any surprise that might help rescue Trump will be buried by the MSM, never to see the light of day.



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 01:05 PM
link   
Morning Joe on MSNBC had a big build-up to Prof Turley and it was hillarious to warch him shoot down their ignorant hopes.


edit on 17-5-2017 by Deny Arrogance because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 01:08 PM
link   
a reply to: SBMcG

It is also a violation of the records act since he did not include these notes in his official FBI records as required.
edit on 17-5-2017 by Deny Arrogance because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 17 2017 @ 01:08 PM
link   
a reply to: flatbush71

If there is any such memo -- and at this point, that's a BIG "if" -- then I suspect the statement was taken out of context, especially given the timing. The meeting where Trump supposedly made the comment/request was on the 14th of February, the day after Flynn resigned. So could Trump have said something like, "Since Flynn has resigned, I hope you can drop this matter and focus on more serious matters?" Or perhaps Trump was speaking more to prosecution, as opposed to investigation, so perhaps more like, "Since he resigned, I hope you drop it and won't press any charges."

I can see various scenarios in which Trump would make such a request, thinking it quite reasonable. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that dwells in the past. So once Flynn resigned, Trump would just want to chalk it up to lesson learned and move on -- and have Comey do the same. Especially since Trump would want more focus on his spying allegations against the former administration.

I guess I'm not ruling anything out for now, but I'm suspicious to say the least. Even if someone comes up with the memo, I'll wait till it's verified authentic, and consider the total contents, before coming to any conclusions.




top topics



 
6
<<   2 >>

log in

join