Monday, July 10, 2017

Donald Trump is now accusing former FBI Director James Comey of leaking classified information in his memos.

This seems to be based on reporting from, who else, Fox and Friends.
And THAT reporting links to an article over on The Hill.

Now what is interesting about that Hill article is that it was written by a John Solomon, who was just named as The Hill's Executive Vice President, Digital.

Before that he was the editor-in-chief of the Sun Myung Moon founded Washington Times, a conservative new outlet.

In between these two jobs Solomon worked for Circa News, which is owned by the Sinclair Group.

Now if THAT name seems familiar it is because you remember that amazing story that John Oliver did on Sinclair Group buying up local TV news outlets in order to push a conservative agenda and pepper them with Right Wing talking points.

So while I am not saying that for sure this story about James Comey leaking classified information in his memos is bullshit, I think we can all assume that it is bovine excrement of some sort.

Which is more or less backed up by Comey's law professor buddy.

Courtesy of CNN:  

The Columbia University Law School professor and confidant of former FBI Director James Comey refuted a charge by President Donald Trump and his advocates in the media Monday: that Comey shared classified information with journalists. 

Daniel Richman, with whom Comey shared at least one memo -- the contents of which Richman shared with New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt -- said President Trump was simply wrong. 

"No memo was given to me that was marked 'classified,'" Daniel Richman told CNN. "No memo was passed on to the Times." 

Richman did share the contents of one memo, he said, but "the substance of the memo passed on to the Times was not marked classified and to my knowledge remains unclassified."

And let's face it if ANYBODY knows how to draft a memo without revealing classified information it is the former director of the FBI.

I'm going to go ahead and call this a clumsy diversion from Donald Trump. 

This story about his son and the Russian attorney is clearly causing him great concern and he is just throwing shit out there in the hopes that the press will chase after it and leave this story alone.

Fat chance buddy.

46 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:28 PM

    Trump aren't you supposed to be working on your failing TrumpCare?

    Stop distracting from the real story, the Trump family Russian collusion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:37 PM

    Does this moron spend anytime running the country? I guess we are better off that he isn’t !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:46 PM

      More like Putin can run two countries and has things covered for this moron.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous5:41 PM

    THE Sun Myung Moon, self-proclaimed messiah who founded the Unification Church and "The Moonies?"

    I know he died a few years ago, think he was in his nineties, but THIS rag is who conservatives are quoting??? OMG.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:07 PM

      Don't forget Muthee who prayed over $arah and she became Queen Esther II in her mind.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous5:43 PM

    Rachel Maddow is doing an interesting interview with Rep. Adam Schiff, Intel CMTE tonight.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6:11 PM

    Ignore the NYT. Sarah Palin.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/us/politics/donald-trump-jr-russia-email-candidacy.html

    WASHINGTON — Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:49 PM

      Perhaps $arah should take her propofol and go to bed like a good little girl.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:54 PM

      Yeah good luck with that 849

      Delete
    3. Anonymous9:05 PM

      8:49pm

      Is Michael Jackson's doctor still available for hire ;-)

      Delete
    4. Anonymous9:42 PM

      Hey 8:54 PM, even her Bible says that, in the end, there will be many false prophets. She would be one of them!

      I don't give a shit if she wins or loses. She knows the scam she's pulling and so do we. She's nothing any more except her paltry name that she keeps putting forth.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous6:19 PM

    The Donald does like to take those people are sayin moments and turn them into imbecilic tweets. Whenever sources say something against people who are honest about the orange shittgibbon he tweets about it with the next couple of days.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous6:20 PM

    The President of the United States is not supposed to be proclaiming anything to be "illegal." If it were illegal, then it couldn't be prosecuted because the President has already declared Comey to be guilty.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous6:33 PM

    So now that we know for sure the Trump people went looking for love in Russia, Trump is going to be sending misinformation out there and the Right is scrambling for sure. Expect to be inundated with Hillary and Obama outrage. It reminds me of when I was little and I'd do something bad, and when I got confronted I'd divert attention by faking crocodile tears and making up a big story. Six our of then, my parents believed me I found, if I put alot of effort into my acting and misinformation. I'm just saying what Trump is doing now is what I did when I was eight years old. Diversion. The oldest tactic in the book of deception.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous6:46 PM

    Trump needs to go away and the sooner the better. Impeachment!!! He's nothing but a scar upon our country. Look at the friggin' mess he and his administration/cabinet and family members have created. The worst nightmare I've seen in my entire life and I'm an older senior citizen.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous6:50 PM

    America Is so sick of this LIAR.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:01 PM

      Obviously not all of them!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:55 PM

      Brain wash the masses.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous7:09 PM

    Just to be clear: Not only did Donald Trump Jr. take a meeting with a Russian-linked lawyer who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton, but he knew the Russian government was behind it – and he still met with her.

    There is no longer just smoke swirling around the Trump campaign and its ties to Russia. The revelation reported by the Times on Monday is a raging fire.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/07/10/nyt-bombshell-shows-donald-trump-jr-knew-russian-government-helping-dad.html

    "This meeting, purportedly in June, in July the Russians start dumping documents helpful to Donald Trump, hurtful to Hillary Clinton."

    Adam Schiff Lays Out The Devastating Timeline Of Russia-Trump Campaign Collusion

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/07/10/adam-schiff-lays-devastating-timeline-trump-campaign-russia-collusion.html

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous7:10 PM

    Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign

    Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.

    The email to the younger Mr. Trump was sent by Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former British tabloid reporter who helped broker the June 2016 meeting. In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Trump acknowledged that he was interested in receiving damaging information about Mrs. Clinton, but gave no indication that he thought the lawyer might have been a Kremlin proxy.

    Mr. Goldstone’s message, as described to The New York Times by the three people, indicates that the Russian government was the source of the potentially damaging information. It does not elaborate on the wider effort by Moscow to help the Trump campaign.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/us/politics/donald-trump-jr-russia-email-candidacy.html

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous7:13 PM

    When the Kremlin Says ‘Adoptions,’ It Means ‘Sanctions’

    ...It might not seem obvious what sanctions have to do with American parents’ adoptions of Russian children, which is the topic that the younger Mr. Trump initially said Ms. Veselnitskaya wanted to discuss. Their connection comes down to one word: leverage.

    The context is the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 American law that freezes the assets held in the United States by Russian officials responsible for human rights abuses. The law also bars these officials from receiving American visas. It was named after Sergei Magnitsky, a young Russian lawyer who died in pretrial detention after exposing a $230 million tax-theft scam perpetrated by Russian officials.

    To the law’s backers, the Magnitsky Act was a way to strike a blow for justice. But to Mr. Putin, it seemed like an intolerable attack by the United States government against the stability of his own presidency.

    Mr. Putin, though powerful, depends on the support of a small circle of powerful elites, in and out of government, who both keep him in power and help him enforce his will. In exchange, Mr. Putin sees that they are taken care of. The Magnitsky Act, by sanctioning some of those elites, sent a message that Mr. Putin might not be able to uphold his end of the bargain.

    It also called into question whether lower-ranked officials could trust that they would be protected from punishment for tolerating or participating in illegal acts at the behest of Mr. Putin or his allies.

    And the law embarrassed Mr. Putin by showing that his influence was not strong enough to prevent the law’s passage, despite his vigorous lobbying against it.

    Revoking the law became an important foreign policy priority for Mr. Putin’s government. And he identified adoptions as an area that seemed to offer a way to force the issue...

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/world/americas/kremlin-adoptions-sanctions-russia.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous7:18 PM

    The bombshell new stories about Donald Trump Jr. and Russian collusion

    https://www.vox.com/2017/7/10/15950578/donald-trump-jr-russia-explained

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous7:22 PM

    Fucking thug.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/10/president-trump-enemies-list-240344

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous7:27 PM

    The latest bombshell regarding Junior's meeting with the Russian lawyer:

    "According to the Times, Trump Jr. was the recipient of an email from the Russians stating their desire to help the presidential campaign of his father."

    I'm no lawyer myself, but that seems like a clear invitation to collude with Russia to influence the American election.

    Twitter is not being kind.

    Bit by bit, the evidence keeps piling up...

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/tiffany-would-have-deleted-it-internet-torches-don-jr-after-email-reveals-he-knew-clinton-intel-came-from-russia/?comments=disqus

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous7:35 PM

    The latest Trump/Russia leaks came from inside the White House

    ...But one of the most interesting aspects of the story itself was actually the sourcing.

    Reporters Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo, and Adam Goldman said the story was based on accounts from “three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.” Here’s why that sourcing is intriguing.

    First, the fact that these are White House advisers makes this story’s sourcing appear to differ from many other Trump/Russia investigation-related stories, which often seem to have been leaked from Congress or from law enforcement or intelligence agencies.

    Second, these sources were apparently okay with being identified as White House advisers rather than demanding a more vague attribution to better hide their identities, such as “US officials.” That seems to suggest a strategic leak.

    Third, there’s the number — this isn’t just one White House adviser, it’s coming from three. Again, that suggests a coordinated leak. It’s rare that three separate White House advisers would separately go rogue to leak about something, especially something that appears to be damaging information about the president’s son.

    Because these sources are publicly anonymous, any account of their motivations will necessarily be speculative. Still, this story has all the hallmarks of a deliberate, strategic, White House-approved disclosure, so it’s worth asking just why the White House may have wanted to get this information out there.

    There are several possibilities. For one, keep in mind that this big Times story that Trump Jr. took the meeting in hopes of getting dirt on Clinton was in fact a follow-up to a Times story one day earlier which first revealed the meeting happened (but not the anti-Clinton motivation behind it).

    So once the first story was published, the White House may have taken stock of what they knew (Senior Adviser Jared Kushner was at the meeting so knew all about it) and decided it was better to just dump the fuller story out there, rather than have it inevitably leak later on. Call this the “I guess we should fess up” scenario.

    It’s also noteworthy that the story puts forward a version of events in which Trump Jr. was the primary driver behind this meeting, and Kushner didn’t know much about it beforehand.

    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/7/10/15947100/donald-trump-jr-russia-leaks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:42 PM

      Silly word games. Yawn.
      Wake me up when it gets interesting. Zzzzzz

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:09 AM

      The Times ‘exposé’ on Donald Trump Jr. is a big yawn

      Delete
  18. Anonymous7:37 PM

    Why Trump Jr. may have broken the law

    The statute in question is 52 USC 30121, 36 USC 510 — the law governing foreign contributions to US campaigns. There are two key passages that apply here. This is the first:

    A foreign national shall not, directly or indirectly, make a contribution or a donation of money or other thing of value, or expressly or impliedly promise to make a contribution or a donation, in connection with any Federal, State, or local election.

    The crucial phrase here is “other thing of value,” legal experts tell me. It means that the law extends beyond just cash donations. Foreigners are also banned from providing other kinds of contributions that would be the functional equivalent of a campaign donation, just provided in the form of services rather than goods. Like, say, damaging information the Russian government collected about Hillary Clinton.

    “To the extent you’re using the resources of a foreign country to run your campaign — that’s an illegal campaign contribution,” Akerman explains.

    Here’s the second important passage of the statute: “No person shall knowingly solicit, accept, or receive from a foreign national any contribution or donation prohibited by [this law].”

    The key word from Trump Jr., according to University of California-Irvine election law expert Rick Hasen, is “solicit,” which has a very specific meaning in this context. To quote the relevant statute:

    https://www.vox.com/world/2017/7/10/15950590/donald-trump-jr-new-york-times-illegal

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:11 AM

      What about the Saudi gifts to don? Was that in violation too?

      Delete
  19. Anonymous7:40 PM

    Drudge is linking to NYT. What next?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous7:45 PM

    New York Times:
    Trump Jr. Was Told in Email of Russian Effort to Aid Campaign

    WASHINGTON — Before arranging a meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer he believed would offer him compromising information about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump Jr. was informed in an email that the material was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father’s candidacy, according to three people with knowledge of the email.

    Oh my the plot thickens, read more at

    https://nytimes.com/2017/07/10/us/politics/donald-trump-jr-russia-email-candidacy.html

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous7:49 PM

    FUNNY: MSNBC Compiled A Bunch Of Times The Trump Campaign Denied Talking To Russia

    http://crooksandliars.com/2017/07/msnbc-compilation-all-times-trump-campaign

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous8:09 PM

    Judge Judy: The louder they scream, the more guilty they are.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous8:22 PM

    When Donald got "elected" I just knew we would be in for a long year of mama drama from that pussy grabbin' vulgarian.
    Now it's seven months into the year and we haven't accomplished anything other than concentrate on this very deluded leadership in Washington and Moscow.
    Let's end this already, and get Trump, Pence and gang out of the White House. It's not too late for a do over. Seriously.
    We need to be the America people worked their asses and fought for, instead of the laughing stock we are.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:00 PM

      Can't do anything until 2018 when we can vote those up for re-election congress OUT.

      Delete
  24. Bullshit.

    Just Trump trying his best to smear Comey and misdirect attention away from himself and Junior.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous9:21 PM

    OT update on Australian Chris Uhlmann's skewering of Donald Trump following the G20.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-11/chris-uhlmann-defends-scathing-g20-report-on-donald-trump/8696236?pfmredir=sm

    ReplyDelete
  26. The dumbing down of America and the attacks on education continue.

    "More than half of the Republicans surveyed for a Pew Research Center poll released Monday say colleges and universities are hurting the country, a drastic shift from how the same group viewed such institutions two years ago.

    Fifty-eight percent of Republicans say colleges have a negative effect on the nation, according to the survey, which also polled respondents on institutions like churches, banks, the media and labor unions. Thirty-six percent of GOP survey participants say colleges are having a positive impact on the U.S. "

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republicans-college-poll_us_59639fe2e4b0d5b458ec4481?section=us_politics

    "The vast majority Democrats, meanwhile, say colleges are helping the nation: 72 percent say they think higher education is having a positive effect, versus 19 percent who say such institutions are hurting the country. "

    "The poll also showed wide partisan gaps in views of other institutions. Seventy-three percent of Republicans have a positive view of the impact of churches and other religious institutions, compared to 50 percent of Democrats; 44 percent of Democrats think the media is good for the country, versus just 10 percent of Republicans."

    The Democratic Party believes in education and freedom of speech. Republicans clutch their bibles and their guns.

    And there you have it.

    Republicans are not only the party of the uneducated but they're still trying to be the "Death Party."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sen-john-mccain-senate-health-care-bill-is-probably-going-to-be-dead_us_5962e7f6e4b0615b9e927518?section=us_politics

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:15 AM

      Only a trump stump would think higher education is harming America.

      Delete
  27. "That is so illegal!"
    ------------------
    Oh, ffs. Did he only leave out "like" ("so, like, illegal") to meet the 140 character limit?

    A snotty, dim-witted Valley girl trapped in a lumbering old fart's nasty body. Lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous4:49 AM

    If I wrote a note detailing my private conversations with someone, then gave the information that I WROTE over to a media person, specifically for them to do a story on it, is that leaking? If so, how?

    How do you leak your own information? It seems to me that is essentially what Trump is accusing Comey of. If you wrote the unclassified memos, then asked a media friend to cover their contents, you've hardly exposed a closely-kept secret.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous5:29 AM

    President Trump entered office pledging to cut red tape, and within weeks, he ordered his administration to assemble teams to aggressively scale back government regulations.

    But the effort — a signature theme in Trump’s populist campaign for the White House — is being conducted in large part out of public view and often by political appointees with deep industry ties and potential conflicts.

    Most government agencies have declined to disclose information about their deregulation teams. But ProPublica and The New York Times identified 71 appointees, including 28 with potential conflicts, through interviews, public records and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

    OT: Trump has secretive teams to roll back regulations — led by hires with deep industry ties


    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/trump-has-secretive-teams-to-roll-back-regulations-led-by-hires-with-deep-industry-ties/

    OT SECRETS
    Why Mitch McConnell and his fellow GOP senators don’t want anyone to see their health care bill.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/06/the_gop_s_big_health_care_secret.html

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous6:00 AM

    Hur'T' feeling$>too bad! I Bet he tries to '$neak" in again.
    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/07/11/protesters-hurt-trumps-feelings-postpones-uk-visit-year.html

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous6:08 AM

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/07/why_trump_doesn_t_care_about_russian_election_interference.html

    "Trump doesn’t care whether Russia is threatening the integrity of our elections. All he knows is that it doesn’t directly harm him. And that’s enough."

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous11:05 AM

    ‘Fox & Friends’ Walks Back Debunked Report About James Comey
    But the show did not delete its earlier tweets about the story.


    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-and-friends-james-comey_us_5964b8e9e4b005b0fdc8272f

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous6:22 PM

    UHm, let's see, Comey writes the memo, about a dinner meeting with T.RUmp. There is no "blanket" classified status on what the President says - yep, The Rump is now towing a red herring.

    ReplyDelete

Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.