The rash of stories on Donald Trump and Russia published Tuesday leave many questions unanswered. The allegations, as sensational as some are and as damning as others are, are just that: allegations. Intelligence agencies (not to mention countless news outlets) have sought to verify them for months now, with little or no success. Though it might be nice to imagine Trump’s presidency collapsing before it’s even begun, the fact remains that we know little more now than we did last week about Trump’s ties to Russia and whether Vladimir Putin’s government has compromising information on the president-elect. There is one thing we do know, though: FBI Director James Comey’s intervention in the election last October — controversial at the time — looks completely indefensible now.

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A few hours before the explosive CNN and BuzzFeed reports landed on Tuesday, Comey was at a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked the director whether the FBI has “investigated these reported relationships [between the Trump campaign and Russia]?” Comey replied, “I would never comment on investigations … in an open forum like this.” When Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) pressed Comey on the same question later in the hearing, he repeated that “especially in a public forum, we never confirm or deny a pending investigation.” (King dryly replied, “The irony of your making that statement here, I cannot avoid.”)


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But Comey’s behavior remains inexcusable. It is a shocking and disturbing double standard: staying silent on allegations against one candidate despite reams of new information, while reviving allegations against another candidate despite absolutely no new information. Doing so two weeks before Election Day compounds the terrible error. It is unlikely that a Trump administration will punish Comey for this mistake. History, however, will not judge him so kindly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/01/11/after-the-trump-dossier-james-comey-is-running-out-of-excuses/?utm_term=.8e853a9486da

MARCO RUBIO DOESN’T LET REX TILLERSON OFF EASY

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Rubio’s opening was cutting: “Do you believe, during the 2016 Presidential campaign, that Russian intelligence services directed a campaign of active measures, involving the hacking of e-mails, the strategic leak of these e-mails, the use of Internet trolls, and the dissemination of fake news, with the goal of denigrating a Presidential candidate and undermining faith in our election process?” There was no doubt that the denigrated candidate he referred to was the one defeated by Tillerson’s soon-to-be boss.

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In the time since Trump accrued the Electoral College votes required to become President, there has been a lot of worry about the pillars and institutions of American democracy, the potential for corruption and self-enrichment posed by the new Administration, and the state of national security on a global scale. The depth and validity of those worries—whether they are urgent realities already coming to pass or are merely the overdramatic fantasies of people reading too many books about Germany in 1933—rest largely on the shoulders of Republicans in Washington, who hold the power to check the actions of Trump and his Cabinet. Today, as Rubio listed the myriad atrocities committed in Syria, and Tillerson continued to muddle, there was an indication that at least a small minority of those Republicans are taking their responsibility seriously.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/marco-rubio-doesnt-let-rex-tillerson-off-easy