Secret CIA source claims Russia rigged 2016 election

I think Comey thought what he was doing was good for the country.

I’m sure he thought that, but was more concerned that he looked good doing it.

I don’t have time for a longer response, but while I agree Comey’s actions - which fwiw I do not attribute to malice - undoubtedly influenced the 2016 outcome, I do not see the point of re-litigating it now. It’s done. I mean, what’s the goal? Trial by social media? The appropriate course of action would be an IG investigation, but given this regime that’s impossible.

We now have a wholly unqualified criminal occupying the Oval Office, and there are many reasons how and why that happened - not the least of which is the larger role “mainstream” media played during the election (and from all indications, they’ve not only not learned anything, they don’t think they did anything wrong. It’s almost a lock they will make the same mistakes again.) The focus should be maintained on the actions and behavior that trump and the entire Republican party are taking now. IMO righteous indignation over Comey’s decisions at this point are counter-productive.

(I started but haven’t finished this piece, but despite the author’s friendship with Comey, I think it offers valuable perspective.)

Well, I think that to some extent he sees them as related, and they are.
To a large extent, the appearance of propriety is important for the FBI. Things that erode the trust of the people in our law enforcement are damaging to society as a whole.

Do the people have more or less trust of the FBI after this, though?

(I think Comey was placed in a horrible position, and I’m not sure there were any decisions he could make that would preserve the integrity of the FBI.)

Imho, it’s a natural consequence of the past 30 years of (mostly the GOP) weapinizing the DoJ in conjunction with eroding trust in the government at all levels.

This seems like a spectacularly bad idea.

They’ll never get standing, I think it’s mostly to have a counter narrative to Trump’s constant lying.

Seems to play directly into Trump’s narrative, that the whole Russia thing is just Democratic sour grapes.

It worked in 1972.

My suspicion is that he was trying to limit the damage as much as he could. He did what he felt was the least awful thing in a bad situation. The problem is that, because he did so, it legitimized the information that was released. If he had forced them to play their hand, then a) they would no longer hold that card and b) maybe they could have done damage control in some other manner or delegitimized that info.

So, I think he tried to do what was right (and HumanTon acknowledges this) but it can’t be denied he caused major damage.

IG Horowitz is now investigating Comey for leaking classified info. Time for another paper cup of red wine.

That’s no way to treat the man who won you the election.

As Comey noted, he reopened the investigation because he was concerned about the legitimacy of the Hillary election he was certain to occur. He’s as clumsy as he is stupid, and he has failed for the last time.

Right wing brain, the fuck does that work?

As FBI director, Mr. Comey had the legal authority to determine what bureau information was classified and what wasn’t. Once he left government, however, the determination fell to other officials

They were classified after they were released. (Boy that sounds familiar. Remember all those Clinton indictments?)

https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/987298248334462976

The GOP handling of the memos is really… just not going well.

At least you are quoting alignment appropriate characters.

It is actually a miracle. Republicans and their bigoted supporters are getting even stupider. I did not think that was even possible given Trump supporters are already the stupidest people in America. So well done!