Trump Indicts James Comey For Being Too Mean To Hillary Clinton We Guess?
Sure. Fuck it. Why not.
Welp, Lindsey Halligan done did it. Yesterday afternoon, Trump’s former insurance company lawyer and former Miss Colorado contestant who has never prosecuted a single case succeeded in convincing a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia to indict former FBI director James Comey on two weaksauce counts, with the grand jury reportedly rejecting a third charge. And only five days before the statute of limitations was set to run out, and even though she struggled with properly uploading the documents.
YESTERDAY!
Because all day every day under Trump, this is both an unprecedented new low in weaponizing the power of the government to exact revenge over his personal grievances, and also deeply stupid!
After demanding on Sunday that PAM serve JUSTICE NOW on James Comey, Letitia James, and Adam Schiff, yesterday Trump denied even being involved.
Why doesn’t he just executive-order all of them put in prison and be done with it?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Comey UNTRUTHFUL SLIME BALL LEAKER is something Trump has long screamed and pounded all-caps missives about, ever since Comey would not swear a mafia-style loyalty oath to him in ‘17, or agree to kibosh any of that Russia, Russia, Russia investigation.
Exactly what false statements Comey is accused of, the indictment doesn’t say. Ben Wittes at Lawfare has some good guesses. Rumor is it’s about a 2016 article in the Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous source confirming the existence of an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation. (Yes, that would be “ironic.”) The Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General opened an internal probe about it that found Andrew McCabe inappropriately authorized aides to disclose sensitive information. McCabe says that Comey had approved of him talking to a reporter, but Comey claimed that he didn’t. And whoops, the IG’s report found that “the overwhelming weight of that evidence supported Comey’s version of the conversation.” Then in 2019 Trump’s Justice Department tried to bring charges against McCabe and failed. But maybe some cherry-picked tidbits could have worked for a grand jury?
Or, it could be something having to do with Comey’s friend/sometimes spokesman Daniel Richman, whom investigators recently subpoenaed. Richman once disclosed the contents of Comey’s notes on that embarrassing “loyalty oath” dinner with Trump to the New York Times. But the Times also says that “Mr. Richman’s statements to prosecutors were not helpful in their efforts to build a case against Mr. Comey, according to two people familiar with the matter.” Sad fart.
Or it could be about some Durham Report kind of thing. Or some other thing that Comey said to the Senate in September of 2020 that Halligan made a gotcha with. Knowingly misleading the Senate, why, Trump appointees would never!
But whatever it is, you know it’s feeble, or Trump would have brought charges during his first term! Or surely Erik Siebert, the US Attorney for the Eastern District whom Trump himself appointed, then pushed out, could have rustled up some scrap of evidence for the sake of saving his career. Whatever it is, guess we’ll all find out someday in court!
Oh hey, remember when mere 11 days before the election in 2016, Comey did Trump the biggest and most consequential favor that one man has ever done for another, with that BUT HILLARY CLINTON’S EMAILS? It was only almost nine years and eleventy million scandals ago.
REFRESH!
Way back in the fall of 2016, the Trump campaign was struggling and seemingly on the ropes after the pussgrab Access Hollywood recording broke, and dozens of women had already accused him of being a sex pest (and we were later to learn that Stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal were getting frantically hush-moneyed behind the scenes, least they spill the beans about the times they’d shared while Trump’s wife was home with baby Barron). Trump seemed so cooked that the RNC had even suspended support to his campaign.
Then came James Comey, riding to his rescue over the protests and lamentations of his wife and daughters. Can you imagine if that was your father/husband? Do not attempt if you have high blood pressure!
And for breaking his wife and daughters’ hearts, it turns out in TrumpLand a useful idiot is only as good as his last favor. Comey politely refused to pledge loyalty to Trump, and tried to offer his “honesty” instead. Big mistake! Huge! Then he didn’t shut down Russia investigations against Trump, and it was ON. And Trump had Rod Rosenstein fire Comey for being unfair … to Hillary Clinton.
How Comey didn’t see this coming is a bit of a mystery. He was the US Attorney in the Southern District of New York between 2002 and 2005, the very same time Trump and Epstein were sharing wonderful secrets and in all the papers bachelor-partying with young models all over New York City, and Trump had already been sued hundreds of times for ripping people off. How did Comey miss what a pig and cheat Trump was, even back then? Maybe he was too busy going after Martha Stewart for being a menace to society.
Enjoy some vivid excerpts from Comey’s memoir A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, in which it slowly dawns on our protagonist what kind of monster his choice unleashed, at a one-on-one dinner on January 27, 2017, where Trump pressed him for loyalty:
His face appeared slightly orange with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles, and impressively coiffed, bright blond hair, which upon close inspection looked to be all his [...]. As he extended his hand, I made a mental note to check its size. It was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so.
I had often wondered why, when given numerous opportunities to condemn the Russian government’s invasions of its neighbors and repression — even murder — of its own citizens, Trump refused to just state the plain facts… Maybe it was a contrarian streak or maybe it was something more complicated that explained his constant equivocation and apologies for Vladimir Putin.
MAYBE! Also, Trump was obsessed with the pee tape, and brought it up with Comey at least four times. A lot of worry over a thing that never happened!
He brought up what he called the ‘golden showers thing’ . . . adding that it bothered him if there was ‘even a 1 percent chance’ his wife, Melania, thought it was true. […] In what kind of marriage, to what kind of man, does a spouse conclude there is only a 99 percent chance her husband didn’t do that?
Yeah, when it comes to the existence of tinkletimes on tape with Russian hookers, a one percent chance is much larger odds than most people have. Then finally Trump tried to close the deal, and Comey took in the full picture:
‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’ [...] To my mind, the demand was like Sammy the Bull’s Cosa Nostra induction ceremony—with Trump in the role of the family boss, asking me if I have what it takes to be a ‘made man’. [...] The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and above the truth.
And Trump has had it out for Comey ever since, and has been screaming on TruthSocial that Comey is a DIRTY COP.
Big prices should be paid for lying, says DONALD TRUMP.
Anyway, Comey’s arraignment is set for October 9. He refuses to be scared.
Any comment, Jeanine Pirreaux?
[Washington Post gift link / LawFare ]
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Kash Patel pulled James Comey's service weapon out of the evidence locker and found 86-47 written on shell casings in blue crayon.
Comey's defense lawyers claim they will defeat the former Miss Colorado contestant during the talent portion of the trial.