More McCarthy: what did Comey tell Trump?
I keep linking to Andrew C. McCarthy, but that’s because this former prosecutor has been the best at covering the Russia collusion/Fusion story.
His latest is no exception. It’s entitled “What Did Comey Tell President Trump about the Steele Dossier?” The topic of his article (and you need to read the whole thing, because it’s a bit complicated) is the CYA Susan Rice email to herself, and what it might signify:
That is what Rice’s email is really about: not sharing with the incoming Trump administration classified information about the Trump-Russia investigation, such as the basis for seeking a FISA warrant on Carter Page.
The dilemma was that the Obama administration had placed “the incoming team” ”” in particular, President-elect Trump ”” under investigation…
[The day after the Obama meeting] President-elect Trump was briefed by agency leaders on the intelligence community’s Russia report, Comey met privately with Trump to brief him on the Steele dossier. But is that what happened? I don’t think so. I believe Trump was briefed only on a sliver of the dossier.
Remember, the Obama administration presumption was: “We cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.” When we scrutinize Director Comey’s carefully crafted Senate testimony from last June, and when we consider the panoply of what a full briefing on the Steele dossier would have entailed ”” the breadth of the Trump”“Russia corruption allegations, the FISA warrant applications and their heavy reliance on the dossier, the fact that the dossier was a Clinton campaign project ”” it is manifest that Comey did not give Trump the full picture of what the dossier was and how it was being used by the FBI and the Justice Department. Certainly, President Trump was not informed to the same extent President Obama was. The main purpose of counterintelligence operations is to keep the president informed; but when it came to the incoming president, law-enforcement leaders treated the Russia investigation like a criminal probe in which Trump was a suspect.
There’s much, much more at the link. It’s speculative, but it makes sense. McCarthy knows the law, and he knows investigations, and he knows how prosecutors think.
So much information has been uncovered about so many crimes committed by the DOJ, FBI, the Clintons, DNC, IRS, the Obama Administration and all their cronies. How can it be that no one has been arrested, tried and convicted yet?
If no one is brought to justice, this is the end of our Republic.
Delilah:
It is the end regardless. Republics require Republican Virtues, Republican Peoples (and at least fairly homogenous ones at that), a Skin-in-the-Game Cursus Honorum… I could go on, but do you wake up in the morning and see any of the above?
There has been no Republic for a long time now. Let’s not debate about when it died. But dead it most certainly is. Best to stop fetishising the Forms and think deeply about where to go from here.
Sleepers Waking and Where to Go from Here is a much scarier topic than pulling up the ‘Muh Republic’ comforter though. Tough one. I don’t purport to have any answer. But best if people of good will wake up and think things through because you can be certain that the clear eyed Machiavellians have a long head start already.
It should be understood that if Trump does take a fire hose to the Federal Augean Stables, he will need to go Full Putin and not leave his succession to chance.
Otherwise he and his offspring and retainers are goners.
There is a theory on CTH that Page might have been an FBI “plant” in the Trump admin to provide an excuse for the FISA warrants. He was always very peripheral.
One of McCarthy’s best essays, I thought. He is completely correct, and I had the exact same thoughts yesterday (Wednesday) when I read the John Hinderaker’s analysis at Powerline. Rice’s e-mail to herself explained Comey’s odd story about telling Trump one thing, but telling Congress something else. The importance of the January 5th meeting was that it was where the people in Obama’s administration who would still be in their offices after the Inauguration got their marching orders from the outgoing president. Those orders were to carry out an investigation of Trump full out, but to do it secretly. Rice probably realized that such a conspiracy would be uncovered at some point, and decided she needed a get-out-of-jail card. Note how she puts it all on Obama, Yates, and Comey- the latter two being the principle carry-ons.
I wrote it in the days before the Inauguration- Trump’s very first order on January 20th 2017 should have been to fire every single Obama appointee, and those who burrowed into the civil service structure from appointed positions should have been reassigned to empty rooms with all clearances suspended. It was a nest of vipers Trump was walking into.
Yancey Ward Says:
February 16th, 2018 at 12:56 am
One of McCarthy’s best essays, I thought. He is completely correct, and I had the exact same thoughts yesterday (Wednesday) when I read the John Hinderaker’s analysis at Powerline. Rice’s e-mail to herself explained Comey’s odd story about telling Trump one thing, but telling Congress something else.
* * *
I agree with your analysis – nobody on the Left thought they would be changing leadership – but Rice’s “protection” may be the lever that pries the whole collusion apart.
It’s also a shame Trump did not prioritize your recommendation. And even where he has removed people, the Senate is slow-walking replacements (thanks not-very-much to Colorado’s contingent, who thinks access to marijuana is so important he must hold the appointments hostage, even though he doesn’t disagree with them per se).
I hope you caught AmmoGrrl’s post on the value of exculpatory emails. Put your coffee cup down before reading.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/02/thoughts-from-the-ammo-line-206.php
AesopFan:
That last link of yours is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.