Merged Trump Fires Comey....

[ChristianProgressive]

His duty is to report it when it happens, not when he's been fired.

Not when doing so would jeopardize an ongoing investigation.

 

[Resume]

Expressing any desire (beyond following the law) regarding a particular ongoing investigation by the FBI is at least inappropriate for a sitting President.

The subject should never had been broached.

Expressing the desire that the FBI director end the investigation is a clear attempt to obstruct justice given that the occupant of the Oval Office has the power to fire that person.

Firing Comey certainly hurts Trump's case should this progress further.

 

[Fast Eddie B]

Just the kind of person Trump is looking for.

Or, just the kind of person to float out there for his reality TV show...

...with no intention of ever selecting him for the job.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Are you suggesting that failure to report obstruction violates some law or something? If so, what law?

At that point it was attempted obstruction. And given it was POTUS with loyal folks in all the key political positions one would report such an action to, there would be no precedent or SOP to follow.

 

[acbytesla]

Lol
Okay, fine lets see it then.

I'm sure we will. Comey is legendary with this stuff. George W. felt Comey's sting with the Ashcroft hospital incident

His duty is to report it when it happens, not when he's been fired.

You don't get it. Comey wrote the memo minutes after the incident and sent it to multiple people. So the memo is time and date stamped and others can and will verify it. The man knows how to leave a paper trail. So in effect Comey documented it so it is preserved as evidence that may be used later on.

 

[Babbylonian]

No, it's a bit more difficult to prove obstruction that that.

Not once said FBI director has indeed been fired with the flimsiest excuse possible.

That's the poetic beauty of this. Had the moronic thing occupying the Oval Office done nothing else after its attempt to get the FBI director to drop the Flynn investigation, its ill-considered words would not by themselves have turned into a crisis. Instead, it doubled down by firing Comey. It will end up out of this particular job through a series of its own easily avoidable, abysmally stupid actions.

 

[Resume]

I'm not a lawyer, but the way he's presenting it now seems to hurt his case tremendously.

Help who's case? Comey's no longer part of the investigation. I'm sure the appropriate FBI officials have all Comey's notes. They are proceeding where Comey left off

If it was part of the larger case, why is it coming out now?

The leak could be a trial balloon. Shake the tree and see what falls out.

 

[trustbutverify]

Be interesting if we could be privy to the battle between his narcissism and paranoia!

We pretty much are.

 

[Stacko]

Joe Lieberman? A doddering old sellout? What nonsense.

Joe Lieberman is counsel at the law firm of Trump's chief litigator.

 

[trustbutverify]

Why does Flynn matter so much to Trump anyway? Why does Trump need to go out on a limb for a guy whom he fired for lying to the VP?! Makes me think Flynn has dirt on Trump.

It seems like the most reasonable conclusion.

 

[trustbutverify]

No, it's a bit more difficult to prove obstruction that that.

It's obstruction in any reasonable spirit of the law; whether there's a defensive technicality, I don't know.

 

[Vixen]

This is getting really exciting. I can see me up all night with popcorn.

 

[Craig4]

Trump has certainly made FBI Director an attractive job! I can just imagine a long line of well-respected, highly talented people queuing up for the opportunity! What a great chance to destroy one's life-long career and reputation after a few weeks of absolute hell in office.

Or it's a chance to got out in a blaze of glory. You do the righ thing, take down your boss at a high personal cost and become a beatified yet toxic martyr. Maybe go off to be president of a small liberal arts college and be a talking head whenever a cable news show needs someone to discuss integrity.

 

[trustbutverify]

Asked a longtime House GOP staffer where things are headed. "This is like Reservoir Dogs. Everyone ends up dead on the floor."​

Nope. I just watched a segment of Fox News for as long as tolerable, and they proved it's all a Liberal plot.

 

[trustbutverify]

Yeah, and I would wager that reason was a combination of it making him feel powerful to be able to fire the FBI director and him being irritated with the investigation drawing on. I think he got frustrated with the endless stuff about Russia and impulsively fired Comey because he thought of it as a way to lash out at the whole Russia narrative, throw his power around, and he stupidly thought the dems would not react like this because "they don't like Comey either" and thought this would be a freebie.

But I think all of that is entirely compatible with the Russia thing being 100% BS. Because Trump isn't restrained or calm enough to think to himself "there's nothing to this, and in time that will be revealed, or at least nothing particularly devastating to me can result from this because there's nothing to it. I'll just let them spin their wheels on this as long as they want to."

Or maybe there is plenty to this, and it can hurt him.

 

[Stacko]

Nope. I just watched a segment of Fox News for as long as tolerable, and they proved it's all a Liberal plot.

A Republican news network is claiming that Republicans can do no wrong? Well knock me over with a feather.

 

[Travis]

There is now a Special Counsel on the case.

 

[NoahFence]

There is now a Special Council on the case.

Is there a distinction between that and the Special Investigator?

 

[Babbylonian]

There is now a Special Council on the case.

A "council" is a grouping of people. A "counsel" is an advisor or, more commonly, an attorney (the word can also be used for the advice such a person might offer).

 

[Trebuchet]

Nope. I just watched a segment of Fox News for as long as tolerable, and they proved it's all a Liberal plot.

Vast left wing conspiracy!