Comey infuriated Trump with refusal to preview Senate testimony: aides

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters


Wed May 10, 2017 | 5:32pm EDT

By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason | WASHINGTON

The anger behind Donald Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday had been building for months, but a turning point came when Comey refused to preview for top Trump aides his planned testimony to a Senate panel, White House officials said.

Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had wanted a heads-up from Comey about what he would say at a May 3 hearing about his handling of an investigation into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

When Comey refused, Trump and his aides considered that an act of insubordination and it was one of the catalysts to Trump’s decision this week to fire the FBI director, the officials said. "It gave the impression that he was no longer capable of carrying out his duties," one official said. Previews of congressional testimony to superiors are generally considered courteous.

Comey, who testified for four hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it made him feel "mildly nauseous" that his decision to make public his reopening of a probe into Clinton's handling of classified information might have affected the outcome of the Nov. 8 presidential election. But he said he had no regrets and would make the same decision again.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-comey-decision-idUSKBN1862WP?il=0

[UltravioletDingo]

1. Right now, Trump is still fuming

and I love it. He absolutely detests the media response to the Comey firing.

[Sculpin Beauregard]

2. Trump is a fucking idiot. Why would he think the investigator owed info to the investigatee?

[MFM008]

3. Refused to swear

A personal loyalty oath to Der Furer as well.

[wishstar]

4. Lying Sessions "recused" himself from Hillary Clinton email matters, not just Russian investigation

Since he was yelling to lock her up on the campaign trail, he stated he was recusing himself. He is totally out of line being involved in Comey's email testimony and firing, not just because of his Russian contacts

[barbtries]

8. yep, but what i don't know

is this actionable? if he stays in office it's a bad day for so many people. it's probably a small blessing that sessions is in up to his eyeballs in the russian scandal.

[NewRedDawn]

5. But. But. But.

I thought Comey told Trump on 3 occasions that he was not being investigated? LOL. So he refuses to give them a heads up on testimony to the Senate, but gives him a heads up on charges against Trump. Cant make this shit up.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

15. Somehow I doubt he ever told Trump that even once.

But you know, liars are gonna lie.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Authoritarians, Autocrats, and Dictators value loyalty above all else. . . nt

[iluvtennis]

7. Is the FBI required to preview their findings/testimony/etc with the White House?

I would think not. Isn't the FBI supposed to operate independent of the WH and partisan politics.

[Leith]

9. Good

At this point, anything that pisses shitgibbon off is A-okay by me.

[Justice]

10. They didn't want heads up on Clinton email server investigation, they wanted heads up on Russian

investigation. Make no mistake.

[Leghorn21]

11. Wanh wanh wanhhhh - somebody get this bawling infant a teething ring and shove it in

his goddamn pouty-mouth!! cheezuz

[iluvtennis]

12. 4 things about the Comey firing

Link to tweet

[SleeplessinSoCal]

13. does trump still say Russia had nothing to do with hacking?

I haven't heard clarity on that.

[SergeStorms]

14. He hasn't spoken about it at all.

He's making believe it doesn't exist, I guess. He believes what he does as Dictator of the United States is no one's business but his own.

This is more of that "fake news" he keeps selling to his cult followers. "Nothing to see here, folks. Move along now. His assholiness will tell you when he needs you to believe something. That is all".

[SleeplessinSoCal]

18. He has his 30% base believing what he says, not what Priebus delivers.

He speaks in code. Yesterday's security breach had better turn some heads.

[PunkinPi]

16. Here's a Reuters article from January on the topic...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-cyber-idUSKBN14S0O6

President-elect Donald Trump accepts the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia engaged in cyber attacks during the U.S. presidential election and may take action in response, his incoming chief of staff said on Sunday.

Reince Priebus said Trump believed Russia was behind the intrusions into the Democratic Party organizations, although Priebus did not clarify whether the president-elect agreed that the hacks were directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He accepts the fact that this particular case was entities in Russia, so that's not the issue," Priebus said on "Fox News Sunday."

...

With less than two weeks until his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has come under increasing pressure from fellow Republicans to accept intelligence community findings on Russian hacking and other attempts by Moscow to influence the Nov. 8 election.

Of course Trump doesn't implicate Putin directly, seems he only took the position that it was the Russians because of pressure from repubs.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

17. Accepting the fact and delivering the message aren't enough for his stupid base.

Reading about the security breach is showing a normalizing not just of POTUS, but also Putin.

(thanks for the info)

[PunkinPi]

19. Very true, and you're welcome! nt