by Sandy » Sat May 13, 2017 8:22 pm
Comey had requested expansion of FBI resources for the Russian collusion investigation, because the department heads of the intelligence agencies all report there is evidence which needs to be investigated and evaluated. In response to a question from Senator Feinstein, Clapper acknowledged that the agencies had evidence to warrant an investigation. Apparently, there'e enough to start issuing subpoenas, and of course, they've already got the information on Manafort, Flynn and Page. Flynn has already jumped ahead and offered testimony in exchange for immunity from prosecution, and Page lawyered up.
To dismiss this as partisan resentment on the part of the Democrats over the election is to lack any kind of understanding of what is going on, and is buying into the conservative media's deception and deflection. Every intelligence agency head in the country has affirmed that the Russians were directly involved in hacking email accounts, including in the DNC, and dumping masses of fake documents purporting to be communication between party officials with the clear intent of swaying voters in the election. The only reason anyone would not be demanding an independent investigation into this whole thing, including the Trump campaign officials who were clearly involved, is that they are putting party over country. The old mantra of blaming the mainstream media for creating a crisis, and for having a liberal bias is a crock of baloney. Prove with facts that they are wrong and slanted. I've repeatedly said that here, and none of the conservatives have produced a scrap of evidence, in the face of facts that several of us post regularly. If the Democrats had done this, not only would the conservative media be playing the video clips 24/7, but the GOP would be screaming for an independent investigation. Look at all the taxpayer money and time they wasted on their eight or nine Benghazi investigations, when even the official one turned up nothing that warranted the hysteria. Noting that the Republicans have the power to shut down this entire investigation, there are only two things keeping it going. One is that the intelligence agencies keep turning up more evidence. The other is that public pressure is pushing Republicans to keep the House and Senate committees going.
After the campaign, I have a really hard time buying that Trump fired Comey because he mistreated Hillary Clinton by talking bad about her to Congress after releasing a report that cleared her. Comey signed off on a report that concluded, from the evidence gathered in the investigation, that there was not enough to support the charges and that all of the emails in her private server, including the 30,000 that Trump kept insisting were missing, had been accounted for, read, and determined not to be relevant. Then he went to Congress, and left the impression that there was more evidence than the report contained. That was bizarre, and improper, and probably a significant enough violation to warrant his dismissal then, since his comments were not consistent with the report that bore his signature. But the Trump campaign never acknowledge the facts of the report. So now he sympathizes, says she was mistreated and was wronged in order to throw Comey under the bus. Yeah, right.