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Days Before He Was Fired, Comey Asked for Money for Russia Investigation

Tovarisc

Member
Days before he was fired, James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in money and personnel for the bureau's investigation into Russia's interference in the presidential election, according to three officials with knowledge of his request.

Mr. Comey asked for the resources during a meeting last week with Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who wrote the Justice Department's memo that was used to justify the firing of the F.B.I. director this week.

Mr. Comey then briefed members of Congress on the meeting in recent days.


Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/...sia-investigation-fbi.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2

Edit:
Three U.S. officials say fired FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers that he asked the Justice Department for more money for the bureau's investigation into Russia's election meddling.

President Donald Trump fired Comey Tuesday.

The officials say Comey told lawmakers he had made the request to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general.

The Justice Department is denying that Comey asked for more resources.

The White House has wielded a critical memo from Rosenstein to justify President Donald Trump's decision to fire Comey on Tuesday. Rosenstein's memo focused only on Comey's handling of last year's investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton's email practices. It does not mention the Russia investigation.

The officials were not authorized to disclose the meetings publicly and insisted on anonymity.

https://apnews.com/a5237d8c166649f784711a61dd00d2f3

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https://twitter.com/kendilaniannbc/status/862337590929870848
https://twitter.com/AshleyRParker/status/862332436692295682
https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/862333694899621889

Vs.

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https://twitter.com/joshgerstein/status/862335886398296064

Investigate me if I yet again failed with GAFsearch
 

Wilsongt

Member
Trump WH must have been tired of hearing about Russia all the time, and not hearing enough about how huge his EC win was, how huge his ACHA win was in the House, and how huge his job numbers were last month.
 

rambis

Banned
Don't forget the CNN reporting that Sessions/Trump have been apparently working on firing Comey since last week as well.

Edit: Beaten
 

WedgeX

Banned
They have been planning to fire him for more than a week.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/10/comey-firing-trump-russia-238192

Why had Trump been planning to fire Comey?

Politico said:
He had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by his inability to control the mushrooming narrative around Russia. He repeatedly asked aides why the Russia investigation wouldn’t disappear and demanded they speak out for him. He would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe, one adviser said.
 
And now the justice department is bold faced lying about the budget request.

If it weren't for the press we'd be months behind the shady dealings of this admin.
 

Tovarisc

Member
Three U.S. officials say fired FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers that he asked the Justice Department for more money for the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s election meddling.

President Donald Trump fired Comey Tuesday.

The officials say Comey told lawmakers he had made the request to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general.

The Justice Department is denying that Comey asked for more resources.

The White House has wielded a critical memo from Rosenstein to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Comey on Tuesday. Rosenstein’s memo focused only on Comey’s handling of last year’s investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s email practices. It does not mention the Russia investigation.

The officials were not authorized to disclose the meetings publicly and insisted on anonymity.

https://apnews.com/a5237d8c166649f784711a61dd00d2f3
 

Horns

Member
Comey is the perfect person to be a special prosecutor for the Russian investigation. He's free and already familiar with the issues. Do it.
 

rambis

Banned
People should pay attention to this aspect
Mr. Comey asked for the resources during a meeting last week with Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who wrote the Justice Department's memo that was used to justify the firing of the F.B.I. director this week.

So last week:
Comey asks for money for investigation to Rosenstein >> Comey testifies to the Senate May 3rd, makes error that is used to justify his firing >>First mention I can find of Comey's inaccuracy is Monday May 8th >>>Rosenstein goes to Sessions, at some point writes the letter to Sessions that the WH used to fire Comey >> WH fires Comey

CNN reporters claim they have been working this story for more then a week. The claim is that the WH/Sessions have been actively searching for ways to fire Comey. The reason they used for justification was revealed Sunday(?).


But overall nothing to see here...
 
I bet you he fired Comey ahead of the Russian visit because he was afraid they would be wiretapped inside the White House.

Trump is so 1-dimensional, I honestly believe that. I honestly believe he thought he would be compromised by the Russian ambassadors somehow and didn't want Comey to record it, even though Comey had no ability or authority do anything of the sort. Like he may have thought Comey would be in his fucking microwave with a camera.

Trump is all 1-dimensional paranoia. I honestly think that may have been his thought process. All this other stuff about emails and money is just bullshit.
 

Allard

Member
Comey is the perfect person to be a special prosecutor for the Russian investigation. He's free and already familiar with the issues. Do it.

As much as I find that an interesting take, I really don't want this in Comey's hands for a variety of reasons. Despite the WH and DoJ's reasoning for firing him (I don't believe that for a fucking second) he probably normally should have been fired for the reasons they outlined. In addition we need someone who isn't directly tarnished by the administration or other politics so as to make the conclusions gained from the special prosecution as much validity as possible, I don't think hiring the guy that probably has a grudge on Trump now at this point would be wise for such a reason. He should be used as a resource though.
 
Who appoints a special prosecutor anyway? Congress?

I know it won't happen, curious about procedure.

It's usually appointed by the Attorney General. But Jeff Sessions already recused himself from any Russian investigations - because HE HIMSELF made some visits to Russia in the past few years for unknown circumstances.

Then it goes to the Deputy Attorney General - who still reports to Sessions and Trump.

All Congress can do is put pressure on the Trump Administration itself to appoint a special counsel, or allow Congress to appoint one. But it's still technically under the Attorney General's Office's prerogative, which is 100% loyal to Trump.

The Deputy AG is the one who triggered the Comey firing in the first place, if you believe the bullshit letter Trump sent, so the chances that anyone in the AG's office would being willing to honestly investigate Trump is like ZERO%.
 

Acorn

Member
It's usually appointed by the Attorney General. But Jeff Sessions already recused himself from any Russian investigations.

Then it goes to the Deputy Attorney General - who still reports to Sessions and Trump.

All Congress can do is put pressure on the Trump Administration itself to appoint a special counsel, or allow Congress to appoint one. But it's still technically under the Attorney General's Office's prerogative, which is 100% loyal to Trump.
Wow.

That seems so fucking dumb, his own administration would need to volunteer to get fucked. Thanks for the answer.
 
Wow.

That seems so fucking dumb, his own administration would need to volunteer to get fucked. Thanks for the answer.

Even if they don't volunteer, he's got a Republican majority in both houses that are willing to shove the Russia shit under the carpet just to keep their majority in congress.

Nothing will happen on this until Democrats retake the majority in congress. IF that ever happens in the next 4 or 8 years.

Plus - if you look back at history, Richard Nixon FIRED his own Attorney General when he was getting really close to exposing Nixon during the Watergate scandal. SO long as Trump has a majority congress, he can just keep firing people to hit the "reset button" on any investigations. You need Democrats to retake the majority in the next couple of elections for anything on this investigation to come to fruition.
 

Acorn

Member
Even if they don't volunteer, he's got a Republican majority in both houses that are willing to shove the Russia shit under the carpet just to keep their majority in congress.

Nothing will happen on this until Democrats retake the majority in congress. IF that ever happens in the next 4 or 8 years.

Plus - if you look back at history, Richard Nixon FIRED his own Attorney General when he was getting really close to exposing Nixon during the Watergate scandal. SO long as Trump has a majority congress, he can just keep firing people to hit the "reset button" on any investigations. You need Democrats to retake the majority in the next couple of elections for anything on this investigation to come to fruition.
That's a huge problem, why has no subsequent govt addressed this?
 
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