I heard the same pitch from Paul Ryan ("he's learning as it goes") and i cannot believe people are using it as a justification. If you are a grown adult asking the FBI director to drop an investigation on your NSA without understanding the implications you're simply too incompetent to be in office.
While Lynch's actions are absolutely regrettable, there is a world of difference between asking to call an investigation "a matter" and outright asking to shut it down.
Bull. Quote: "I took it [Trump's remarks] as a direction. It’s the President of the United States we me along, saying this is what he is hoping I’m going to do. I did not obey that. But that the way I took it.”
Comey directly implicated Trump. He just declared under oath that the POTUS was pressuring him into dropping an active investigation on a staff member.
Bullshit. Comey was very careful in explaining that even when Trump didn't explicitly order the investigation to be dropped, he felt it as an implicit directive. "Let the Flynn matter go", "get rid off" or "lift this cloud" (sic) are all very clear statements, specially coming from the goddamn POTUS.
I'm pretty shocked that people trying to spin this scandal as Comey confirming Trump was under no personal investigation. A former FBI director just declared that a President asked him to drop an active investigation into one of his staff members. How is the US congress not starting impeachment procedures already?
While I agree with you that Trump is a lying, self-serving douche, I do think that there is a good possibility he did not knowingly try to obstruct justice in that he did not realize that asking (or insinuating) Comey to drop the Flynn investigation could possibly be obstruction.
Likely, but that's hardly an excuse. The POTUS asked the FBI director to drop an active investigation; Trump was either actively trying to cover for Flynn or too incompetent to be in office.
You don't need a crime for an impeachment. Impeachment is a political process, not legal.
See the definition of High Crimes and Misdemeanors which are basis for impeachment. Despite the jargon, there's little related to actual legal crimes in there.
FWIW, WA is insanely popular outside the US. I've lived both in South American and Western Europe and it seemed like everyone with a phone was using it.
Again, i'm not arguing against this. Just trying to explain that believing Flynn was imposed on Trump is, at best, naive. He likes him.
"Yeah, because it is totally inconceivable that a person is good, and yet lied about something innocuous (or even forgettable) like having a conversation.". You should raise that point to the current administration. They didn't give him the benefit of the doubt.
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.
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“I took it as a direction.". That is a verbatim quote. Comey went into long, detailed explanations of how Trump asked him repeatedly to do this.
No. She asked for the investigation to be publicly called a "matter".
Now, this is pretty terrible coming from a AG addressing the head of the FBI, but she did certainly not ask for the investigation to die.
Seriously?
I heard the same pitch from Paul Ryan ("he's learning as it goes") and i cannot believe people are using it as a justification. If you are a grown adult asking the FBI director to drop an investigation on your NSA without understanding the implications you're simply too incompetent to be in office.
No.
“I took it as a direction. It’s the President of the United States we me along, saying this is what he is hoping I’m going to do.”
That's a literal quote from the goddamn FBI chief talking about the POTUS.
Again, no. I also watched it live and what Lynch requested was to call the Clinton investigation "a matter" (sic).
Not that i condone this, and Loretta Lynch should answer about this statement. But it is a far, far cry from asking the FBI to stop an investigation.
While Lynch's actions are absolutely regrettable, there is a world of difference between asking to call an investigation "a matter" and outright asking to shut it down.
Bull. Quote: "I took it [Trump's remarks] as a direction. It’s the President of the United States we me along, saying this is what he is hoping I’m going to do. I did not obey that. But that the way I took it.”
That is not true. Read his deposition again.
Comey directly implicated Trump. He just declared under oath that the POTUS was pressuring him into dropping an active investigation on a staff member.
Bullshit. Comey was very careful in explaining that even when Trump didn't explicitly order the investigation to be dropped, he felt it as an implicit directive. "Let the Flynn matter go", "get rid off" or "lift this cloud" (sic) are all very clear statements, specially coming from the goddamn POTUS.
I'm pretty shocked that people trying to spin this scandal as Comey confirming Trump was under no personal investigation. A former FBI director just declared that a President asked him to drop an active investigation into one of his staff members. How is the US congress not starting impeachment procedures already?
While I agree with you that Trump is a lying, self-serving douche, I do think that there is a good possibility he did not knowingly try to obstruct justice in that he did not realize that asking (or insinuating) Comey to drop the Flynn investigation could possibly be obstruction.
Likely, but that's hardly an excuse. The POTUS asked the FBI director to drop an active investigation; Trump was either actively trying to cover for Flynn or too incompetent to be in office.
You don't need a crime for an impeachment. Impeachment is a political process, not legal.
See the definition of High Crimes and Misdemeanors which are basis for impeachment. Despite the jargon, there's little related to actual legal crimes in there.
I disagree. There's pretty much of "there" there. Comey just declared under oath that Trump asked him to drop an investigation of Flynn.
No. You need a public declaration, which is what Comey delivered just today. We're only talking about a former FBI director here.
Comey, for all its faults, is a fantastic witness. Watching the GOP pundits and Trump's lawer trying to spin his deposition is surreal.
This. I'm surprised this comes as news to anyone.
Well, anything sounds bad when you say it with that attitude.
WhatsApp had two severe outages (the second one was pretty much worldwide) just over the past month.
FWIW, WA is insanely popular outside the US. I've lived both in South American and Western Europe and it seemed like everyone with a phone was using it.
But he's so fluffy!
Only the most popular IM application in history, with over 1 billion users.
IBM's stock price has been in freefall since Jan 2017 and looks like it will reach 2015-2016 lows.
Again, i'm not arguing against this. Just trying to explain that believing Flynn was imposed on Trump is, at best, naive. He likes him.
"Yeah, because it is totally inconceivable that a person is good, and yet lied about something innocuous (or even forgettable) like having a conversation.". You should raise that point to the current administration. They didn't give him the benefit of the doubt.
Not me. It seems to confound the parent poster which believes Flynn was somehow imposed to Trump.
My point is Trump likes Flynn and wouldn't have fired him if it weren't for public pressure after his Russian ties were published.
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.