MIKE WHITNEY
\nCounterPunch<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Democrats are not fighting Trump over his assault on health care, his attacks on immigrants, his militaristic bullying around the world, or even his status as a minority president who can claim no mandate after losing the popular vote. Instead, they have chosen to attack Trump, the most right-wing president in US history, from the right, denouncing him as insufficiently committed to a military confrontation with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Patrick Martin, \u201cThe Russians are coming! The Russians are coming\u201d, World Socialist Web Site<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Donald Trump is not the target of an FBI investigation.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump has never been the target of an FBI investigation.<\/p>\n
The FBI is not investigating Trump for collusion, improper relations with a foreign government, treason or any of the other ridiculous things he\u2019s been falsely accused of in the fake media. In fact, the FBI is not investigating him at all.<\/p>\n
Last week, former FBI Director James Comey admitted publicly what he has known all along: that Trump was not a suspect in the Russia hacking probe and never has been.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the story from Politico:<\/p>\n
\u201cComey assured Trump he wasn\u2019t under investigation during their first meeting. He said he discussed with FBI leadership before his meeting with the president-elect whether to disclose that he wasn\u2019t personally under investigation. \u201cThat was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him,\u201d Comey said.\u201d (Politico)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, there was no counter-intelligence case on Trump? There was no investigation of collusion with Russia?<\/p>\n
But how can that be, after all, Trump has been hectored and harassed by the media from Day 1? His appointments have been blocked, his political agenda has been derailed, and the results of the 2016 elections have been effectively repealed\u00a0due to the relentless attacks of the media, political elites and high-ranking leaders in the Intelligence Community. Now Comey admits\u00a0that Trump is not guilty of anything, he\u2019s not even a suspect.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s going on here?\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t Comey clear the air\u00a0earlier so\u00a0the American people would know that their president wasn\u2019t in bed with a foreign power?\u00a0 Why did he allow this farce to continue when he knew there was no substance to the claims?\u00a0 Did he enjoy seeing Trump twisting in the wind or was there some more sinister \u201cpolitical\u201d motive behind his omission?<\/p>\n
Trump repeatedly\u00a0asked Comey to\u00a0announce that he wasn\u2019t under\u00a0investigation. According to Comey, Trump \u201cemphasized the problems this was causing him\u201d and (Trump) said \u201cWe need to get that fact out.\u201d\u00a0But Comey\u00a0repeatedly refused to publicly acknowledge the truth. Why?<\/p>\n
Comey never answered that question to Trump, but he did explain\u00a0his reasoning to the Senate Intelligence Committee last week.\u00a0 He said he didn\u2019t want to\u00a0announce that Trump was not part of the Bureau\u2019s Russia probe\u00a0because \u201cit would create a duty to correct, should that change.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u201cduty to correct\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 Are you kidding me? What kind of bullshit answer is that?\u00a0 How many\u00a0hours of legal brainstorming\u00a0did it take to\u00a0come up with\u00a0that\u00a0lame-ass excuse?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s state the obvious: Comey\u00a0wanted to\u00a0maintain the cloud of suspicion that was hanging over Trump because it helped to feed the perception that Trump was a traitor who collaborated with Russia to win the election. By remaining\u00a0silent,\u00a0Comey helped to fuel the public hysteria and reinforce the belief that Trump was guilty of criminal wrongdoing. That is why Comey never spoke out before,\u00a0it\u2019s because his silence was already achieving the result he sought which was to inflict as much damage as possible on Trump and his administration.<\/p>\n
Did you know that Comey was spying on Trump from Day 1?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true, he admitted it himself. Following his first meeting with Trump on January 6, he started recording contents of his private conversations with the president-elect on a secure FBI laptop in his car outside Trump Tower. He didn\u2019t even wait until he got back to the office, he did it in the goddamn parking lot. That\u2019s what you call \u201ceager\u201d.\u00a0In his testimony he admitted that he kept\u00a0notes of his private meetings with Trump\u00a0\u201cfrom that point forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Does that sound like\u00a0the normal activities of\u00a0dedicated public servant acting in behalf of the elected government or does it sound like someone who\u2019s on an assignment to dig up as much dirt as possible on\u00a0the target of a political smear campaign.<\/p>\n
Isn\u2019t that what Comey was really up to?<\/p>\n
Comey is a man with zero integrity. Did you know that?<\/p>\n
He is applauded in the media and by\u00a0his fellow establishment elites\u00a0because he is an unprincipled sycophant who slavishly obeys the\u00a0directives of his\u00a0deep state paymasters.\u00a0Take a look at this except from an\u00a0ACLU report on Comey:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s one very big problem with describing Comey as some sort of civil libertarian: some facts suggest otherwise. While Comey deserves credit for stopping an illegal spying program in dramatic fashion, he also approved or defended some of the worst abuses of the Bush administration during his time as deputy attorney general. Those included torture, warrantless wiretapping, and indefinite detention.<\/p>\n
On 30 December 2004, a memo addressed to James Comey was issued\u00a0that superseded the infamous memo that defined torture as pain \u201cequivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure\u201d. The memo to Comey seemed to renounce torture but did nothing of the sort. The key sentence in the opinion is tucked away in footnote 8. It concludes that the new Comey memo did not change the authorizations of interrogation tactics in any earlier memos.<\/p>\n
In short, the memo Comey that approved gave a thumbs-up on waterboarding, wall slams, and other forms of torture \u2013 all violations of domestic and international law. \u2026Then, there\u2019s warrantless wiretapping.\u00a0\u2026.\u201d(\u201cLet\u2019s Check James Comey\u2019s Bush Years Record Before He Becomes FBI Director\u201d, ACLU)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Repeat: \u201cHe\u00a0approved or defended some of the worst abuses of the Bush administration\u00a0(including) \u00a0torture, warrantless wiretapping, and indefinite detention.\u201d<\/p>\n
How does that square with the\u00a0media\u2019s portrayal of Comey as a man of unshakable integrity and honor?<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t square at all, does it?\u00a0The media is obviously\u00a0lying.<\/p>\n
Now ask yourself this: Can a man who rubber-stamped waterboarding be trusted?<\/p>\n
No, he can\u2019t be trusted because he\u2019s already proved himself to be inherently\u00a0immoral.<\/p>\n
Would a man like Comey agree to use his position and authority to try to\u00a0\u201cundo\u201d the damage he did prior to the election when he announced the FBI was reopening its investigation of Hillary Clinton?\u00a0 In other words, was Comey being blackmailed to gather illicit material on Trump?<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s very likely, although entirely unprovable.\u00a0Even so, Comey\u00a0has been way too eager to frame Trump for things\u00a0for which he is not guilty.\u00a0Why has he been so eager? Was he really just protecting himself as he says or\u00a0was he gathering information\u00a0to\u00a0build a legal case against Trump?<\/p>\n
In my mind, Comey\u00a0tipped his hand\u00a0when\u00a0he\u00a0said that he leaked the memo of his private conversation with Trump to the media\u00a0in order to precipitate\u00a0the appointment of a special prosecutor. Think about that for a minute. Here\u2019s what he said:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cMy judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square.\u00a0\u00a0So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. I didn\u2019t do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to\u00a0because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel<\/em>, so I asked a close friend of mine to do it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Listen to Comey.\u00a0 The man is openly\u00a0admitting that\u00a0leaking the memo was all part of a very clearly-defined political strategy to\u00a0force the appointment of a special prosecutor. \u00a0That was the political objective from the get go. He doesn\u2019t even try to hide it. He wasn\u2019t trying to protect himself from \u2018mean old\u2019 Trump. That\u2019s baloney!\u00a0\u00a0He was laying the groundwork for a massive and\u00a0expansive investigation\u00a0into anything and anyone even remotely connected to the Trump team, a gigantic fishing expedition\u00a0aimed at taking down Trump and his closest allies.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Comey\u2019s been up to.\u00a0 Only his plan didn\u2019t work, did it, because the \u2018leaked memo\u2019 didn\u2019t lead to the appointment of the special prosecutor.\u00a0Instead, someone had to whisper in Trump\u2019s ear that he should fire Comey and, ah ha, that\u2019s all it took.\u00a0 In other words,\u00a0Deputy\u00a0Attorney General Rod Rosenberg\u00a0had to step in and\u00a0give\u00a0Comey\u00a0his pink slip before the media could cry\u00a0\u201cobstruction\u201d,\u00a0creating the perfect opportunity to appoint \u201chired gun\u201d Robert Mueller as special counsel. Now that the dominoes are in motion, Comey\u00a0can trundle off to\u00a0some comfy job at one of the many rightwing Washington think tanks while Mueller gathers together his team of superstar\u00a0prosecutors to launch their first broadsides on the White House.<\/p>\n
Whoever wrote this script deserves an Oscar. This is really first-rate political theater.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s up to\u00a0Mueller to prove that Trump tried to obstruct the investigation by asking Comey to go easy on former national security advisor General Michael Flynn.\u00a0(According to Comey, Trump said,\u00a0\u201cI hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0It might sound like obstruction, but\u00a0there are\u00a0real problems with this type of prosecution particularly the fact that Trump denies the allegations. Also, Comey has acknowledged that Trump expressed his support for the overall goals of the investigation when he said, \u201cthat if there were some \u2018satellite\u2019 associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clearly, Trump was not trying to\u00a0impede the investigation. But even if he was, it is a particularly murky area of the law and difficult to prove. \u00a0 Here\u2019s a short clip from an article by Professor Jonathan Turley at George Washington University who helps to clarify the point:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe desire for some indictable or impeachable offense by President\u00a0Trump has distorted the legal analysis to an alarming degree.\u00a0Analysts seem far too thrilled by the possibility of a crime by Trump.\u00a0The legal fact is that Comey\u2019s testimony does not establish a prima facie \u2014\u00a0or even a strong \u2014\u00a0case for obstruction.<\/p>\n
It is certainly true that\u00a0if Trump made these comments, his conduct is wildly inappropriate. However, talking like Tony Soprano does not make you Tony Soprano\u2026.<\/p>\n
The crime of obstruction of justice has not been defined as broadly as suggested by commentators\u2026\u2026The mere fact that Trump\u00a0asked to speak to Comey alone would not implicate the president in obstruction. \u2026.<\/p>\n
It would be a highly dangerous interpretation to allow obstruction charges at this stage.\u00a0If prosecutors can charge people at the investigation stage of cases, a wide array of comments or conduct could be criminalized.\u00a0It is quite common to have such issues arise\u00a0early in criminal cases. Courts have limited the crime precisely to avoid this type of open-ended crime where prosecutors could threaten potential witnesses with charges unless they cooperated.<\/p>\n
We do not indict or impeach people for being boorish or clueless \u2026\u00a0or simply being Donald Trump.\u201d (\u201cJames Comey\u2019s testimony doesn\u2019t make the case for impeachment or obstruction against Donald Trump\u201d, USA Today)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The fact that the obstruction charge won\u2019t stick\u00a0is not going to\u00a0stop Mueller from\u00a0rummaging around and making Trump\u2019s life a living Hell.\u00a0Heck no. He\u2019s going to dig through his old phone records, bank accounts, tax returns, shaky land deals, ex girl friends,\u00a0whatever it takes. His prosecutorial tentacles will extend into every nook and cranny of Trump\u2019s private life and affairs until he latches onto some\u00a0particularly\u00a0sordid\u00a0incident or transaction he can use he can use to disgrace, discredit, and demonize Trump to the point that\u00a0impeachment proceedings\u00a0seem like\u00a0a welcome relief.\u00a0It should be\u00a0obvious by now, that the deep state elites who launched this coup\u00a0are not going to be satisfied until Trump\u00a0is\u00a0forced from office\u00a0and the results of the 2016 presidential election are\u00a0wiped out.<\/p>\n
But, why? Why is Trump so\u00a0hated by these people?<\/p>\n
Trump is not being attacked\u00a0because of\u00a0his reactionary political agenda, but because he\u2019s been deemed insufficiently hostile to\u00a0Washington\u2019s sworn enemy, Russia. It\u2019s all about Russia. Trump wanted to \u201cnormalize\u201d relations with Moscow which pitted him against the powerful US foreign policy establishment.\u00a0\u00a0Now Trump has to be taught a lesson. He must be crushed, humiliated and exiled. And that\u2019s probably the way this will end.<\/p>\n