One of the things generally cited by the media as justification for charging President Trump with obstruction of justice has been the memo written by James Comey claiming that the President asked him to go easy on General Flynn. Aside from the fact that most Americans would have agreed with the President’s request to handle a matter involving an American war veteran gently, the Inspector General’s Report brings the memo about that entire conversation into question.<\/p>\n
Yesterday American Greatness<\/a> posted an article that explains the problem with the memo.<\/p>\n The article explains:<\/p>\n According to Comey, during a private meeting in the Oval Office on February 14, 2017, President Trump asked the former FBI director to drop an inquiry into Flynn about his discussions with the Russian ambassador shortly after the election. (Flynn had resigned<\/a> amid media reports he possibly violated an arcane federal law.)<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHe misled the Vice President but he didn\u2019t do anything wrong in the call,\u201d Comey claimed Trump said to him. \u201c[Trump] said, \u2018I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n According to Russian collusion truthers, those alleged comments form the most convincing evidence that Team Trump not only conspired with the Russians and tried to cover it up, but that the president broke the law by asking his FBI director to halt an investigation into one of his top advisors.<\/strong><\/p>\n The memo<\/a> is cited numerous times in the second volume<\/a> of the Mueller report to implicate the president for obstructing justice by interfering in the Russian investigation, although Comey\u2019s memo is the only evidence of such an act. (Trump has disputed Comey\u2019s description of the conversation.)<\/strong><\/p>\n Note that James Comey’s memo is the only description of the conversation. There is no second source.<\/p>\n The article continues:<\/p>\n But that portrayal of events was never the truth. The conversation in February 2017 had nothing to do with the Russia investigation, as I\u2019ve written before<\/a>: Neither Trump nor Congress nor the general public knew at that time that James Comey\u2019s FBI had been investigating Trump\u2019s campaign, including Flynn, since July 2016.<\/strong><\/p>\n And the new report<\/a> by the Justice Department\u2019s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) confirms as much.<\/strong><\/p>\n The article also notes:<\/p>\n Further, in late January 2017, Justice Department officials refused<\/a> to confirm to the White House that Flynn was under \u201cany type of investigation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n In fact, Comey himself<\/i> admitted that the discussion about Flynn wasn\u2019t related to the FBI\u2019s Russia investigation.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December,\u201d Comey said<\/a> in his June 2017 statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee. \u201cI did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The article concludes:<\/p>\n Further, in late January 2017, Justice Department officials refused<\/a> to confirm to the White House that Flynn was under \u201cany type of investigation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n In fact, Comey himself<\/i> admitted that the discussion about Flynn wasn\u2019t related to the FBI\u2019s Russia investigation.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December,\u201d Comey said<\/a> in his June 2017 statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee. \u201cI did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n It really is time to put as many of the deep state as possible in jail.<\/p>\n One of the things generally cited by the media as justification for charging President Trump with obstruction of justice has been the memo written by James Comey claiming that the President asked him to go easy on General Flynn. Aside … Continue reading