Timeline of Deceit: From Trump's Draft to Rosenstein's Cover Story

[deminks]

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/06/26/timeline-of-deceit-from-trumps-draft-to-rosensteins-cover-story/

In a confidential draft of a letter that President Trump wrote, firing James Comey as FBI director, the president repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s covert interference in the 2016 presidential election. That the FBI’s inquiry was the president’s main complaint in the original four-page May 2017 draft provides new and previously unreported evidence that Trump’s primary motivation in firing Comey may have been to impede the Russia investigation, a potential obstruction of justice. Although the existence of the draft was first disclosed by The New York Times in the fall of 2017, and it was discussed at some length in the Mueller Report, the text of the letter itself has remained secret; also previously undisclosed is the fact that President Trump so directly linked the firing of Comey to the FBI’s Russia investigation.

In the letter, President Trump railed against the Russia investigation as “fabricated and politically motivated.” He complained about then Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s involvement in the investigation, claiming bias since McCabe’s wife had run for state office as a Democrat. The letter also expressed frustration that Comey had refused to issue a public statement saying the president was not under investigation. In part because of these things, the draft letter said, morale was at an all-time low at the FBI.

(snip)

These new disclosures of what Trump said in the draft termination letter highlight the central parts played in the affair by then Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Even though Trump had provided them copies of the draft letter, the nation’s two top federal law enforcement officials agreed to assist the president in his effort to fire Comey. Notably, Rosenstein has said he had no reason to believe that Trump fired Comey to undercut the FBI’s Russia investigation until after Comey’s firing. The draft letter appears to directly contradict that claim.

(snip)

In another previously unreported portion of the letter, the president also bitterly complained about the continual involvement by then FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe in overseeing the investigation—and criticized Comey for not removing him. The president protested that McCabe was biased against him and pointed out that McCabe’s wife, Jill, had run as a candidate for the Virginia State Senate as a Democrat. At a series of rallies in the fall of 2017, Trump repeatedly attacked McCabe, claiming without evidence that the fix was in because of McCabe’s supervision of the case. In effect, Trump was saying in the draft letter that he wanted to fire Comey for not firing McCabe. If Trump’s intent in the removal of either was to affect the outcome of the investigation, one or both cases might constitute an obstruction of justice. For reasons that are unclear, the Mueller Report makes no mention of Trump’s complaining about McCabe in the draft letter.

(end snip)

Is that a ...smoking gun I smell? Lordy, Lordy, there is a memo.

[Corgigal]

1. Whoever,

was the patriot who held the memo and got it to this author, thank you. It answers so many questions and I only 3/4 of the way through. A bunch of snakes, and of course, they kept their jobs.

[Mme. Defarge]

2. So,

it looks like Rosenstein hired a special prosecutor to cover his own ass.

[Moral Compass]

3. Weasel

Apparently, Rod Rosenstein is a total weasel. All that crap I read about his moral rectitude and incorruptibility was Washington bullshit.

I’m shocked 😱...

[trev]

4. "claiming bias since McCabe's wife had run for state office as a Democrat"

Because we all know that Republicans are not biased....