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Trump Nominates Lawyer To Lead FBI (bbc.com)

President Donald Trump announced via Twitter on Wednesday that he has chosen a new FBI director. Trump says he's nominating Christopher A. Wray for the position. He described Wray as "a man of impeccable credentials." From a report: Donald Trump says he is nominating lawyer Christopher A Wray who served under George W Bush. Wray more recently represented the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, during the investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case, in which two of Christie's former aides were convicted of plotting to close lanes of the bridge to punish a Democratic mayor who wouldn't endorse the governor. Christie, who has informally advised the president, was not charged in the case.

Wray would succeed James Comey, whom Trump fired last month amid mounting scrutiny of ties between his campaign and Russia. The announcement comes a day ahead of Comey's scheduled appearance before the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday where he is expected to touch on his firing and claims that Trump asked him to soft-pedal the investigation into former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

9 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"mounting scrutiny of ties" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jeff session was part of the trump campaign and used trump campaign finances to meet with the russian ambassador, then lied about it under oath, and on government documents.

    Manford had russian connections and ran the trump campaign.

    Kushner met with the same russian ambassador several times while working on the campaign and doesn't have access to Jeff sessions excuse that he was doing it as a representative of the senate and used the wrong bank account (and no other senator on the same committees he is on has ever had to meet with the russian ambassador or knows why sessions would be meeting with the russian ambassador...).

    Trump himself asked russia to locate emails from hillary clinton's servers on public broadcast television.

    The ties have been proven. The legality of the ties are in question.

    Please consider using reality as a measuring stick of what is true and what is false in the future this fantasy world you are living in with Mr Trump isn't going to change what the investigations that are happening in reality find.

  2. Re:"mounting scrutiny of ties" by El+Cubano · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Name these people, please.

    Flynn, for starters.

    Look, I think Trump has a chance to drive some good change for our country. Please note that I thought the same of Obama, based on some of his campaign promises, but was sadly disappointed (I am not holding my breath for Trump). What remains to be seen is whether Trump will actually succeed in that, or whether he will go the route of Obama: expend all his political capital on a single issue, lose the advantage of both House and Senate majorities of the same political party as a result (given the disenchantment of lots of conservatives with lack of progress, this could happen), discard 99% of his campaign promises (Trump already seems headed down this particular path), and then spend the remainder of his time in office trying to shore up the one single accomplishment and then praying his successor doesn't undo it.

    That said, pretending that the Trump administration doesn't have serious problems at this point doesn't help anyone: Trump, the administration, or the American people.

  3. Re:"mounting scrutiny of ties" by Gussington · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Name these people, please.

    About 3 seconds of googling found this: http://www.politico.com/magazi...

  4. Re: Trump 2020 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What do Trump and his father have in common?

    Both have bad judgement when it comes to pulling out.

  5. Re:"mounting scrutiny of ties" by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative

    By the time of the election Flynn was (and still is) hated by the Washington establishment, I can't even begin to imagine why you'd suggest otherwise. As far as his involvement in Trump's campaign goes, he may or may not have been involved organizationally, but he was absolutely a top supporter of Trump and at one point was being seriously considered as Trump's VP pick. He made numerous appearances for Trump at Trump's campaign rallies.

    The implication he was somehow forced on an unwilling Trump is absurd. Trump didn't even want to fire him, and has been defending him in public even after Flynn was gone.

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  6. Re:Lawyer by hey! · · Score: 5, Informative

    I actually looked the guy up and he does have some of the typical background for the job, having worked in the US attorneys' office and DOJ for about eight years.

    That's a little thin compared to Comey's 18 years of public service before nomination, or Mueller's 15 years. Louis Freeh was an actual FBI agent for six years, followed by ten years as a prosecutor and two as a federal judge.

    So given that his relevant experience is a bit thin by recent standards, why Wray? Probably because he's willing to do the job under circumstances. As to whether his personal loyalty to the President will be greater than Comey's, that only people who know him could say.

    If the President is relying solely on the fact that Wray represented Chris Christie in a case where Christie was widely viewed as having abused his executive power, well then the President would be a fool. Smart lawyers understand where their duty lies. When their defending a client it's to the client. But while an FBI director works under the president, he's not the president's personal lawyer; his duty is to the country.

    We'll have to watch the confirmation hearings to get a sense of who this guy is.

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  7. Re:"mounting scrutiny of ties" by KeensMustard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So: presumably you a now going to urge your congressman/woman to support an investigation of Trump?

    I well recall during the campaign (when Clinton's alleged behaviour and alleged ties were still relevant) the multitudes of cries to "lock her up!" Presumably then, those outraged republicans (and yourself) now demand the same for Trump?

    To do otherwise would be hypocrisy - wouldn't it?

  8. Re: "mounting scrutiny of ties" by Lisandro · · Score: 5, Informative

    He seems awfully apologetic for a guy supposedly fired for lyring to the Vicepresident.

    Also, seriously? Trump, who has no reservations in publicly shitting anyone he doesn't like, consequences be damned, treats his former NSA with kids gloves only because the globalist elite told him so? And lets not forget, Flynn was disliked by pretty much everyone in DC. At one point even Obama told Trump no to hire the guy, for pete's sake.

  9. Re:The best thing that happened to Comey... by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, sorry, liberal here: still don't like him. Just because we don't like someone doesn't mean we support any attempt to get rid of them, and Trump's firing was obviously based upon an illegitimate rationale and worthy of criticism. But even so, it's a cruel, but entirely appropriate, twist he was fired by the person he put in office.

    If he can undo some of the damage by helping get Trump out of office, that's good, but that wouldn't make up for the colossal disaster he brought upon our nation by faking an email scandal days before the election.

    --
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