THE COMEY CONUNDRUM

 BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN JAMES COMEY, RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

Former FBI Director James Comey knows how to play the G-Man as a straight arrow on television, but he’s a cynical Washington operator in real life. His orchestration of the appointment of his friend Robert Mueller as special counsel to take down President Trump in the fictitious Russia collusion scandal (and all its penumbras and radiations) represents a striking case in point. Comey’s hand in it should discredit the Mueller operation all by itself.

Comey is a sort of Rosetta stone for the Russia investigation. Interpreting him and his works might allow one to decipher the hieroglyphics. I’m not saying I’ve done it or that I can do it. Comey is way over my head, but I’m not alone. Few have the requisite background, knowledge, expertise and motivation to do it. Yet it needs to be done.

It is reported, for example, that Comey insisted on inserting the infamous Fusion GPS Trump Dossier in January’s final intelligence community report on Russian meddling in the election. Its inclusion lent it a credibility that it appears not to deserve, to put it mildly.

As we all know by now, there is something funny about that Trump Dossier. Two knowledgeable witnesses from Fusion GPS asserted their right agains self-incrimination before the House Intelligence Committee yesterday.

This week Comey emerged as a player in the bombshell story of the Russian bribery plot behind the sale of Uranium One to the friends of Vladimir Putin. The plot was uncovered by the FBI under Comey’s directorship. Yet the FBI’s informant in the case was barred by Obama’s Department of Justice from testifying to Congress about it.

John Solomon and Allison report today in the Hill: “The information the [FBI informant] possesses includes specific allegations that Russian executives made to him about how they facilitated the Obama administration’s 2010 approval of the Uranium One deal and sent millions of dollars in Russian nuclear funds to the U.S. to an entity assisting Bill Clinton’s foundation. At the time, Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of State on the government panel that approved the deal, the [informant’s] lawyer [Victoria Toensing] said.” When do we get to hear from James Comey on this story?

This week we learned that an early draft of Comey’s absolution of Hillary Clinton for violating the Espionage Act is dated May 2, 2016. The draft is entirely redacted; the date appears in a related email.

Comey testified to Congress that it was then Attorney General Loretta Lynch tarmac meetingwith Bill Clinton that compelled him to seize control of the prosecutorial decision from the Department of Justice. That meeting took place in Phoenix on June 27, 2016. The timeline undermines Comey’s testimony. It’s almost enough to make you think we’re dealing with a character whose shadiness rivals the Clintons’ own.

NOTE: I had completely forgotten the video of Comey that I clipped for “Comey: ‘I am not a weasel” (below). Ed Driscoll reminded me of it here. As for Comey, the gentleman doth protest too much, methinks.

 

 

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