NYT’s Comey Memo Story Doesn’t Pass The Smell Test

[Right_in_Virginia]

NYT’s Comey Memo Story Doesn’t Pass The Smell Test
The Daily Caller, May 17, 2017, Maxwell Anderson

***

While the headline is sensational, The New York Times’s report is self-contradictory at times, conflicts with statements made on-the-record and under oath, overhypes the substance of the memorandum, and is irreconcilable with other information in the public record.

First, the report concedes that the Times has not “viewed a copy of the memo,” despite the fact that the Times says memo itself “is unclassified.” If the memo is unclassified, then that raises several questions. Why did the Times not press the source for a copy of the memo? Why did the Times not seek a copy through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) before publishing? If it was truly unclassified, then the Times stood a decent chance of having the memo released.

Second, if Times’s story is true and what President Trump did amounted to obstruction of justice, then Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe likely committed perjury. Before Comey was fired, McCabe was the Deputy Director of the FBI, one of four “senior staff” positions and also the Bureau’s second-in-command. The Times report alleges that Comey “shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates,” which means that McCabe knew about the memo on May 11 when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the Russia investigation. During his testimony, Senator Marco Rubio and McCabe (who was under oath) had the following exchange:

RUBIO: Mr. McCabe, can you without going into the specific of any individual investigation, I think the American people want to know, has the dismissal of Mr. Comey in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped or negatively impacted any of the work, any investigation, or any ongoing projects at the Federal Bureau of Investigations?
 
MCCABE: As you know, Senator, the work of the men and women of the FBI continues despite any changes in circumstance, any decisions. So there has been no effort to impede our investigation today. Quite simply put sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing, protecting the American people, and upholding the Constitution.

If the Times’s report is true, including the implication that the President obstructed justice, then the President’s critics are in a double bind: Either

1.McCabe committed perjury when he said “there has been no effort to impede” the investigation; OR

2.McCabe did not consider the statements of the President to constitute an “effort to impeded” the investigation, which would mean no senior FBI officials viewed the President’s statements as an attempt to obstruct justice.

The Times reported that Comey, without material qualification, informed “senior” officials. Only four individuals within the FBI’s ranks are given “senior” titles, according to the FBI’s own website. Accordingly, if the Times’s report is true, then it is inconceivable that McCabe did not know about the memo when he testified that no interference with the investigation has occurred.

Third ....


More:  http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/17/nyts-comey-memo-story-doesnt-pass-smell-test/

[Right_in_Virginia]

I starting to think ValJar hasn't finished writing the memo yet.

[anubias]

I starting to think ValJar hasn't finished writing the memo yet.

It's a diary and will take some time to fill in all those years you know.  Have some patience, RIV! 

[240B]

Trump once told me that he was going to put all Liberals in prison camps.
And I have irrefutable proof that he told me that.
Because I wrote it down on my bar napkin at the time he said it.
So it must be true. Who can deny what my bar napkin writings say!?I