@mystery-ak @Cyber Liberty @Applewood I have reread parts of Comey’s book to nail down which exact unclassified memo (it was No. 4) he gave his friend, Dan Richmond, a professor at Columbia Law School and information in it given to a reporter. See paragraph six (this paragraph is one) for how this went down. This writing starts with Comey being fired, and what happened after that.
He was in Los Angeles on
May 9, 2017, to speak to an Agent Recruiting event. Date validated by the many in the room. He was speaking to this group when he saw three silent TVs on the back wall, with the large words, “COMEY FIREDâ€. He told the group he would finish his remarks and shake hands, then go figure out what was happening.
He returned to Washington that night. On
May 12, date validated with millions who read it, the Trump tweeted: “James Comey better hope there are no “tapes†of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press.†Comey saw this as a warning to him.
On
May 16, (date validated by contact with a friend, see below) he “hoped the FBI leadership team would see what he saw in the Trump’s tweet about tapes and they would start pushing the Department of Justice to go get the tapesâ€. He thought “maybe the FBI would even urge Justice to appoint an independent prosecutor to pursue this.†He thought, being a private citizen now, he could do something “that might force them to do the right thing.â€
He decided he would “prompt a media story by revealing the president’s February 14 direction that I drop the Flynn investigation. That might force the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor who could then go get the tapes that Trump tweeted about. And, although I was banned from FBI property, I had a copy of my unclassified memo about his request store securely at home.â€
He contacted his friend Don Richman, a former prosecutor and now a professor at Columbia Law School who can validate this date of the 16th. This attorney had been giving him legal advice since his firing. He told Richman he was sending him on unclassified memo and he wanted him to share the “substance†of the memo, but not the memo itself, with a reporter so it would get out there; remember the memo is documenting Trump asking Comey to “let it go†(investigation of Flynn’s contact with the Russian government) and the Justice Department see it. Comey did not want a media frenzy resulting in reporters camping out on his driveway.
The Justice Department “shortly afterward appointed Robert Mueller, giving him the authority to investigate any coordination between the Russian government and the Trump campaign and any related matters.â€
This is the end of my writing about memos (unless something else happens about these memos.)
