“The president, Mr. Comey told associates, was ‘outside the realm of normal,’ even ‘crazy.'”
Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein threatened to resign after the narrative emerging from the White House on Tuesday evening cast him as a prime mover of the decision to fire Comey (washingtonpost.com)Trump had a tantrum when Comey told Trump he would not back Trump's wiretap claims about Obama (thehill.com)FBI admits 'active, ongoing investigation' includes Trump's call for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton (rawstory.com)
That’s the third sentence of a blockbuster report that just went live at The New Times:
By the end, neither of them thought much of the other.
After President Trump accused his predecessor in March of wiretapping him, James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, was flabbergasted. The president, Mr. Comey told associates, was “outside the realm of normal,” even “crazy.”
For his part, Mr. Trump fumed when Mr. Comey publicly dismissed the sensational wiretapping claim. In the weeks that followed, he grew angrier and began talking about firing Mr. Comey. After stewing last weekend while watching Sunday talk shows at his New Jersey golf resort, Mr. Trump decided it was time. There was “something wrong with” Mr. Comey, he told aides.
The collision between president and F.B.I. director that culminated with Mr. Comey’s stunning dismissal on Tuesday had been a long time coming. To a president obsessed with loyalty, Mr. Comey was a rogue operator who could not be trusted as the F.B.I. investigated Russian ties to Mr. Trump’s campaign. To a lawman obsessed with independence, Mr. Trump was the ultimate loose cannon, making irresponsible claims on Twitter and jeopardizing the bureau’s credibility.
The White House, in a series of shifting and contradictory accounts, first said Mr. Trump decided to fire Mr. Comey because the attorney general and his deputy recommended it. By Wednesday, it had amended the timeline to say that the president had actually been thinking about getting rid of the F.B.I. director as far back as November, after he won the election, and then became “strongly inclined” after Mr. Comey testified before Congress last week.
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For public consumption, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said on Wednesday that Mr. Trump acted because of the “atrocities” committed by Mr. Comey during last year’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email. But in private, aides said, Mr. Trump has been nursing a collection of festering grievances, including Mr. Comey’s handling of the Russia investigation and the perceived disloyalty over the wiretapping claim.
The story tops off a news day that was chock full of Russiagate revelations:
– Comey had requested additional money and manpower resources to probe Manafort’s Russia deals just last week.
The former government official, however, said FBI investigators “had reason to expand the investigation internationally,” including looking at “other business activities and holdings of Paul Manafort (Trump’s former campaign chairman) beyond his work in Ukraine.”
Manafort served as a consultant in Ukraine for almost a decade to some pro-Russia businessmen and a pro-Kremlin president who was ousted in early 2014. The official cited estimates that Manafort and associated businesses received between $80 million and $100 million for work done for more than a decade for political and business consulting involving Ukrainian and other foreign clients, including a Russian billionaire.
– Trump had a tantrum when Comey told Trump he would not back Trump’s wiretap claims about Obama.
President Trump was angered former FBI Director James Comey would not back his claims that former President Barack Obama wiretapped him, according to a new report.
Comey’s lack of support partially led Trump to fire him, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The Post said that Trump was also angry Comey publicly revealed the breadth of counterintelligence into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential race.
Trump also disliked Comey paying more attention to the FBI’s probe of Russian election interference than leaks from administration officials to journalists.
– And the post-Comey FBI admits the existence of an ‘active, ongoing investigation’ that includes
Trump’s call for Russia to hack Hillary Clinton.
According to recently-revealed court documents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking into a case that includes then-candidate Donald Trump’s public call for Russia to hack then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails.
During a 2016 campaign press conference, Trump made a plea directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.
“I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said in front of supporters in Florida. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
According to court filings obtained by The Sparrow Project, those remarks are now part of an FBI investigation.
Following Trump’s July statement, Buzzfeed News investigator Jason Leopold and researcher Ryan Shapiro sued the FBI to release all documents pertaining to the remarks.
In its response to the lawsuit, the FBI confirmed the existence of an ongoing investigation.
We’re going to need more popcorn…
