FBI used Comey firing as excuse to investigate Trump on claim he was working for Russia

originally posted by: redmage
I'm not sure the FBI used the Comey firing as the excuse, but it appears that it certainly played a part. The F.B.I. has standards that need to be met in order to start a counter-intel investigation, and it would have needed to be checked off at multiple levels to go active. Given the subject of the investigation (the President), there's really no doubt that such an endeavor would have had them double checking that all their t's were crossed and i's were dotted before anything went active.

It appears that Trump's actions would have also played a major role, and there was, more than likely, other evidence to bring reasonable enough concern to pass F.B.I. standards.

The basic timeline appears to be...
1) The F.B.I. begins investigating Russian interference into the 2016 election (facebook ads, email hacks, etc)
2) The investigation starts to lead back to Trump's inner and political circles (Jr, Manafort, Flynn, Stone, etc.)
3) Trump decides to fire Comey (writing a letter, implying that the Russian investigation is a factor, which Don McGahn WH council rejects because of the obstruction-of-justice risks).
4) Rod Rosenstein re-writes/provides a new letter for Trump lacking the obstruction risks (no mention of Russian investigation as a cause for dismissal).
5) 5/09/17 Trump fires Comey providing a letter re-inserting comments regarding Russia (bringing back risks of obstruction).
6) 5/10/17 After the firing Trump has an "unscheduled/secret" Oval Office meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister and Russian ambassador where he gives them classified Israeli intelligence data, and effectively tells them "the heat is off" regarding the Russian meddling investigation. This creates serious political and national security concerns.
7) 5/11/17 Trump admits to Lester Holt the Russian investigation was a factor in the Comey firing in a televised interview (further opening the door regarding obstruction of justice).
8) The F.B.I. starts a counter-intel inquiry into Trump possibly working against American interests on behalf of Russia, and possible Obstruction of Justice.
9) With bi-partisan praise Meuller is appointed Special Council (inheriting the meddling, obstruction, and conspiracy investigations).

This doesn't even take into account Trump previously dragging his feet almost four weeks past the deadline to implement the veto-proof Russian Sanctions bill, his campaign manager passing off internal polling data to Russian counterparts, Trump later siding with Putin in Helsinki over our own intel agencies, Jr's Trump Tower Russian meeting, and more.

From just the publicly available facts there seems to be enough probable cause for concern, and there's plenty we still don't know due to the situation still being an active investigation.

Not to mention how Trump's people insisted that the Republican National Platform be changed to remove support for arming the Ukrainian rebels, fighting against Putin, his attacks of NATO and our allies, and the efforts to stall and/or repeal the sanction Congress levied on Russia.

It would be a total dereliction of duty if they didn't open an investigation!

originally posted by: Scepticaldem

What are you so scared of? They might actually find something? That is exactly what you are admitting...lol

Do I look scared? I wanted all this to be over done and with one way or the other within the first year and now it just keeps going on and on, so the FBI and other three letter agencies are totally inept, or there really is not much for them to push forward. In the end it all has not done the country good and has hamstring the President to do his job...Should we keep going for 4 total years?

Obama, Hillary, Trump, Pence have almost no affect on my life where I'm positioned, so have at it. Now the other 330,000,000 might have a different view on their status so I feel sorry for them over all this crap, but hey it is better than the Obama years for the vast majority of them so at least that is good.

a reply to: AboveBoard

Thats the whole point of the debacle - the publics and Congress ( after the fact debriefing LOL ) right to know.

How far are you willing to give them a pass. In the wake of 911, Patriot Acts I & II have eroded liberties for ordinary citizens.


webcache.googleusercontent.com...:kFqkCuLQUxoJ:saraacarter.com... ying/+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&client=opera

Moreover, if members of an administration collect information from allies based on overseas communications between opposition, what happens to that intelligence? How is it safeguarded from abuse and who or what agency has the oversight authority to ensure it is a legitimate counterintelligence investigation? Congressional oversight is always after-the-fact and lawmakers have been hampered by roadblocks set up by the DOJ, FBI and former senior officials of the Obama administration, who either have withheld documentation, evaded answering questions or lied.

If what the British and western intelligence officials are saying is true, then the investigation into the Trump campaign began much earlier than the FBI’s claims at the end of July 2016. More importantly, our allies may have been collecting more communications than we’re aware of on Trump campaign officials and volunteers. What we do know is that National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn; Carter Page, a short time foreign policy volunteer for the campaign; Paul Manafort, a short-term campaign chair and George Papadopoulos, a young short-term foreign policy advisor were all caught up in the spying dragnet.

but if you think the FBI, bastion of mostly conservative white men, is going to authorize an investigation of a PRESIDENT without dotting “i’s” and crossing “t’s”

And if you think they're apolitical ...maybe you should reconsider.

Isnt this the same FBI that Hoover set up by getting dirt on everyone?

And even played politics with Nixon?


www.muckrock.com...

Ahead of Watergate, J. Edgar Hoover gave Richard Nixon’s campaign political intelligence warning of an emerging Democratic conspiracy FBI Director’s evidence for “deep state” coup came from dubiously sourced rumors and his growing paranoia towards his critics

a reply to: Grambler

So does the FBI work for the federal government or just the DNC?

This generation of FBI is the worst. Bunch of short-sighted idiots with no real drive to do their job.

They like to be seen as smart and competent but then play dumb when it hides their corruption.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: Scepticaldem

What are you so scared of? They might actually find something? That is exactly what you are admitting...lol

Do I look scared? I wanted all this to be over done and with one way or the other within the first year and now it just keeps going on and on, so the FBI and other three letter agencies are totally inept, or there really is not much for them to push forward. In the end it all has not done the country good and has hamstring the President to do his job...Should we keep going for 4 total years?

Obama, Hillary, Trump, Pence have almost no affect on my life where I'm positioned, so have at it. Now the other 330,000,000 might have a different view on their status so I feel sorry for them over all this crap, but hey it is better than the Obama years for the vast majority of them so at least that is good.

That's exactly my point. No one is upset that Comey got fired. In fact we all wanted Comey fired. The way he kept making some big deal out of 30,000 yoga and wedding emails would have gotten anyone canned.
The way that Trump fired him was very inappropriate. He could have been more Presidential.
As far as what Trump did wrong? Hahaha
If you spend 50 million dollars, put 30 people on it and spend 4 years, do you really think that Mueller is going to come up with nothing?!?!?!?
Trump is guilty by association if nothing else at this point

originally posted by: Grambler
Well one, the joke Trump told about Russia maybe having hillarys emails.

This obvious joke was taken as a reason to want to investigate Trump as a russian assett? They truly believed a russian asset would tell russia to hack Hillary on television instead of using there backchannels?

This was an obvious joke, and the fact the FBI was willing to take it serious proves this was in fact a witch hunt from the start.

Even if that was a joke, which would've been in extremely poor taste for a presidential candidate to publicly request a foreign power to go after his political rival, it still happened.

"Russia, if you're listening..."

The very same day is when Russian hackers attacked Clinton's email servers. Maybe just a very fortunate coincidence. Maybe.

We should be holding the president to a higher standard. The president needs to be saying what he means and not just turning around after saying something dumb as 'just a joke.'

a reply to: Sookiechacha

remove support for arming the Ukrainian rebels, fighting against Putin,

fixed it for ya:

"remove US taxpayer funded support for Rebels fighting for Monsanto to monopolize the Grain Basket of Ukraine"

Why let facts get in the way of a good anti-commie story?


www.thenation.com...

Two-thirds of the country’s surface is covered with a nutrient-rich “black earth,” soil which, despite being poorly utilized, has made Ukraine the world’s third-largest exporter of corn and fifth-largest exporter of wheat. US agricultural corporations Monsanto and Cargill have made no secret of their interest in this land. Western energy interests have similarly worked to position themselves to gain access to Ukrainian petroleum. In spring of 2014, three months after the pro-Western government

a reply to: Scepticaldem

If you spend 50 million dollars, put 30 people on it and spend 4 years, do you really think that Mueller is going to come up with nothing?!?!?!? Trump is guilty by association if nothing else at this point

Well they might come out with a report like the 911 commission. pages that no one will ever read, heavily redacted, and a few low hanging fruit arrests so Joe Public can sleep safe at night and know that the next Coalition of The Willing will wage wars spreading democracy and its not about the money and loot for their overlords.


And then there was this.......

en.wikipedia.org...

After releasing the report, commission chair Thomas Kean declared that both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were "not well served" by the FBI and CIA.[1]

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

TDS whats that? Trump denial society?

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

a secret warrant.... that judges had to sign off on. The warrant was justified as had already been determined by an investigation into that. Your argument is weak at best... totally wrong actually. They didn't use the Steele dossier to obtain the warrant. They got it based on Papadopoulos conversation with an Australian diplomat who was so alarmed by what he had heard he reported it to the authorities in Australia who then reported it to the FBI . They realized just how bad this could be if trump was compromised by russia in any way.

You can be outraged but the warrant was perfectly legal and obviously given everything that has been revealed and discovered it was necessary.

a reply to: Grambler

Conveniently timed given the IG report is due out in the next few weeks.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

I think a terrible, possible, outcome from all of this would be that Trump was found to be a Russian asset but the report declaring that fact is heavily redacted. An overwhelming amount of national security information would be detailed in the report and, due to that, a number of supporters would refuse to accept the report as anything other than 'deep-state fake news.'

The Senate wouldn't find the popular support to remove the president and we would be forced to accept that the President and a majority of US Senators refuse to uphold even the most basic tenets of the Constitution due to partisan politics. The damage to the institutions of the US government would be long lasting and we would be nothing more than a banana republic playing the role of a major, world-power.

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

"remove US taxpayer funded support for Rebels fighting for Monsanto to monopolize the Grain Basket of Ukraine"

LOL... I watched "The Americans" too!
HAHA, like Trump and Manfort were really concerned about grain and Monsanto in the Ukraine.

The Trump campaign went out of its way to dramatically alter the Republican Party’s official position on Ukraine—against the wishes of GOP hawks and despite senior Trump aide Paul Manafort’s insistence that they weren’t involved.
The move, first reported by The Washington Post, alienated Republicans who have made up the party’s foreign policy base for decades, and indicates that the Trump campaign has a particular interest in Ukraine, where Manafort had previously worked for a pro-Putin leader.

What has since become clear is that at the time of the convention, Russia was running a broad series of "active measures" against the U.S. presidential election that included clandestine outreach by human agents and an overt information campaign on social media. That wasn't known to the public then, but Mueller and congressional investigators have begun looking into whether anyone in the Trump camp helped the Russians who were attacking the election.

The change to the Ukraine platform in Cleveland has attracted attention because it has raised questions about whether it might have been evidence of communications between Russians and the Trump campaign, or was intended by the Trump team as some kind of a signal to the Russians about their willingness to accommodate them.

www.npr.org...
www.thedailybeast.com...

originally posted by: Scepticaldem

The way that Trump fired him was very inappropriate. He could have been more Presidential.

A few months early the Democratic leadership were all screaming for his firing, so Trump isn't a life long politician, sue him...BTW just what is Presidential, I keep hearing that, and if anyone wants to look back at our past Presidents there is a lot of un-presidential there, whatever that means...lol

As far as what Trump did wrong? Hahaha
If you spend 50 million dollars, put 30 people on it and spend 4 years, do you really think that Mueller is going to come up with nothing?!?!?!?
Trump is guilty by association if nothing else at this point

Is it justice or political?

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

a secret warrant.... that judges had to sign off on. The warrant was justified as had already been determined by an investigation into that. Your argument is weak at best... totally wrong actually. They didn't use the Steele dossier to obtain the warrant. They got it based on Papadopoulos conversation with an Australian diplomat who was so alarmed by what he had heard he reported it to the authorities in Australia who then reported it to the FBI . They realized just how bad this could be if trump was compromised by russia in any way.

You can be outraged but the warrant was perfectly legal and obviously given everything that has been revealed and discovered it was necessary.

No dossier
No warrant
Your boy McCabe testified to thst under oath

Choo choo

a reply to: shooterbrody

Too bad thats not true. Too bad its already been determined by both sides that the warrant was legal and warranted.
Too bad they already said it was Papadopoulos' conversation with the Australian. Too bad you cant change the past huh?
Too bad this isnt Black Mirror Bandersnatch.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: shooterbrody

Too bad thats not true. Too bad its already been determined by both sides that the warrant was legal and warranted.
Too bad they already said it was Papadopoulos' conversation with the Australian. Too bad you cant change the past huh?
Too bad this isnt Black Mirror Bandersnatch.

Too bad Trump will never be impeached.
Too bad he will win in 2020 again, and it’s really too bad that the Dems will try to cheat their asses off again and still lose.
Too bad you clowns will screech for another 5 years.

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: shooterbrody

Too bad thats not true. Too bad its already been determined by both sides that the warrant was legal and warranted.
Too bad they already said it was Papadopoulos' conversation with the Australian. Too bad you cant change the past huh?
Too bad this isnt Black Mirror Bandersnatch.

You simply speak on subjects you have no grasp of.
The fisa warrant was twice denied until the bs dossier snd circular reporting of such were added.

You know this; it just must hurt for it all to be exposed. All most tme for your favrite cuisine. Fried or baked this time?
Cough..caw...cuugh cough.

How many people between President Obama and the fbi counterintel office grunt should be or were read into a decision to inv Trump?? Anyone? Whats protocol? Who signed off on this inv? joint chiefs informed? Etc?


a reply to: Sillyolme

originally posted by: Sillyolme
a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

They got it based on Papadopoulos conversation with an Australian diplomat who was so alarmed by what he had heard he reported it to the authorities in Australia who then reported it to the FBI . They realized just how bad this could be if trump was compromised by russia in any way.

Who was the Australian Diplomat?

What was the Australian Diplomats relation to the Clinton's and the Clinton Foundation ?

Who had Papadopoulos spoken to in the UK about the Clinton emails just prior to speaking with the Australian Diplomat?

What was the relationship of that person to British and U.S. intellegence agencies?

Answer all those questions here please.