# Comey Memo: Trump Told Him - Shut Down Flynn Probe **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 16, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792 "2017-05-16T21:40:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/441 "2017-06-08T17:11:04Z")
Watching that brutal line of questioning from McCain, I could only think of [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79YUknp1T7I). I mean, shit, did his staff even look at his questions before he headed out there? ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/442 "2017-06-08T17:13:41Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > When the news footage shows the hairy yam surrendering to the prison to begin his sentence, how will you spin that? > > ETA > Lock him up, lock him up. I am glad you guys have these fantasies. You need to have some outlet for the hatred. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/443 "2017-06-08T17:13:49Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Watching that brutal line of questioning from McCain, I could only think of [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79YUknp1T7I). > > I mean, shit, did his staff even look at his questions before he headed out there? I was thinking Grandpa Simpson. Or- it could be clever. By feigning senility, McCain is drawing attention away from the actual testimony and provide cover for the Donald. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/444 "2017-06-08T17:15:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Here’s what stood out to me about the testimony: > > Comey said Trump lied about their meetings and defamed him and the FBI. > > Comey recorded notes of their meetings in significant part because of his assessment of Trump as a person – Comey said that he was worried that Trump might lie about those meetings later. > > Comey admits to some personal weakness/cowardice in not directly challenging Trump when he made inappropriate requests or statements. > > Comey doesn’t confirm or deny that the Steele dossier is valid. > > Comey mentions (directly or indirectly – don’t remember exactly how) that the investigation had found facts that would make inevitable Sessions’ recusal from the investigation. > > McCain needs to see a neurologist. > > What else? It jumped out at me when Comey mentioned the Vice President (with talk of putting out a correction after having said “not being investigated”), but I don’t know that that means anything. Comey says the media gets stuff wrong, and specifies a NYT article in particular. Trump was, at the time of Comey’s firing, not under personal investigation in either counter intelligence or criminal sense (not heard the criminal rumor anywhere but online and wonder if it came from Mensch and Taylor - I recall them spouting something about RICO, but don’t know it was supposed to be federal or state). Lynch investigation/matter issue…not sure how important that is now, but it did get mentioned. Comey had his friend leak the memo with the loyalty request because he wanted to get a Special Counsel. EDIT: Comey said there he had no doubt there was Russian hacking and interference in the election, but also no doubt that vote totals were not changed. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/445 "2017-06-08T17:17:44Z")
[Here’s video footage of Uncle Leo in action](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/sen-john-mccains-bizarre-exchange-with-james-comey/2017/06/08/bb19f12c-4c69-11e7-987c-42ab5745db2e_video.html), complete with the cutline, “June 8, 2017 12:41 PM EDT - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked former FBI director James Comey a series of questions at a Senate Intelligence Hearing, but appeared to be confused about FBI investigations, on June 8 at the Capitol. (Reuters)” “Hello!” ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/446 "2017-06-08T17:17:51Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Good thing Mueller probably isn’t relying on shocking gotcha revelations for his investigation 🙂 Excuse me, I have seen enough TV to know that legal cases are decided by last minute surprise witnesses. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/447 "2017-06-08T17:18:32Z")
One last post from the 538ers - the final takeaway: > [@](#): > > Nate: Repeating myself here, but my big takeaways are that 1) Comey is quite directly saying that Trump fired him because of Russia and 2) the Republicans don’t really have any good counterarguments to this and, overall, have legalistic messages that are targeted toward assuaging their Fox News base rather than winning over swing voters. > > Perry: Overall, Comey owned the day. His story is now the story. The hearing was basically him reciting his take. The Republicans didn’t poke any real holes in his story. And they didn’t even really try. > > Clare: I think what we saw here today was Comey — an excellent witness — coming out hard against Trump. You also saw the Republican lines of defense coalescing, noting that Comey says Trump wasn’t under investigation, questioning why Comey wouldn’t publicly say so (when he’d spoken out about the Clinton emails), and generally saying that Comey overread his conversations with Trump about Flynn. > > Julia: This hearing cut against the conventional wisdom that what brings you down is the cover-up, not the crime. That may prove to be true eventually, but Russia interference was a very clear theme, alongside the inappropriateness of Trump’s solo meeting with Comey. One other note, though: Potential obstruction of justice was a much smaller theme relative to its overall importance. > > Harry: We did learn some interesting things during the hearing. I thought the fact that Comey said he leaked material after he left office to try to trigger a special prosecutor was quite newsworthy. The other big thing, to me, was Comey’s calling Trump a liar. In terms of the Republicans, I didn’t think they managed to poke holes in Comey’s testimony. Blunt probably came the closest. > > Ben: My takeaway is that Republicans are still standing by Trump for now. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the “Comey was the leaker” thing used to try to undermine his credibility. (Although all the lavish praise for him as a public servant may make that argument more difficult.) ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/448 "2017-06-08T17:18:38Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#): > > LOL. A fired disgruntled employee rants about his former employer. We all have access to Trump Jr’s Twitter feed; you don’t need to repost his comments. Maybe you could just “like” them. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/449 "2017-06-08T17:19:27Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > Because the comments made it seem like he was almost incoherent. Makes me wonder how effective any committee with clowns like that on it could be. Do people vote for these senators? That was embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/450 "2017-06-08T17:19:33Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Here’s what stood out to me about the testimony: > > Comey said Trump lied about their meetings and defamed him and the FBI. > > Comey recorded notes of their meetings in significant part because of his assessment of Trump as a person – Comey said that he was worried that Trump might lie about those meetings later. > > Comey admits to some personal weakness/cowardice in not directly challenging Trump when he made inappropriate requests or statements. > > Comey doesn’t confirm or deny that the Steele dossier is valid. > > Comey mentions (directly or indirectly – don’t remember exactly how) that the investigation had found facts that would make inevitable Sessions’ recusal from the investigation. > > McCain needs to see a neurologist. > > What else? Comey would not answer if Trump colluded “in a public forum.” ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/451 "2017-06-08T17:19:53Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Comey doesn’t confirm or deny that the Steele dossier is valid. This seems a bit misleading. Comey consistently refused to respond with any substantive comments about the investigation. So this has no bearing on the validity of the Steele dossier. ISTM that Comey strongly implied that the FBI did not take the Steele dossier seriously, at least at the time Comey spoke to Trump. Because [per Comey’s testimony](https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-jcomey-060817.pdf), Trump told Comey he was considering asking him to investigate the dossier so as to prove that it was false. Comey’s response was that if Trump did that, then “_that might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t …_”. This seems to indicate that the FBI was not already investigating this dossier - if they were, then the response makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/452 "2017-06-08T17:20:03Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > The Donald hasn’t tweeted yet (probably because he’s had his phone taken away from him) but Donny Jr has been tweeting madly. Not good enough for free booze! > > ETA: Cotton won’t be POTUS, but he can dream… I would have sworn that Trumpelthinskin restraining himself, or allowing anyone else to restrain him, in that regard was about as likely as me coming home to find Scarlett Johansson waiting on the bed in a sheer edible French maid outfit. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/453 "2017-06-08T17:20:48Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#): > > Makes me wonder how effective any committee with clowns like that on it could be. Do people vote for these senators? That was embarrassing. McCain is not on the committee. He was invited as a special guest. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/454 "2017-06-08T17:24:14Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I don’t think it’s code at all. When I tell one of my employees “I hope you’re not late again tomorrow,” it’s actually more than a hope. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” Also, was McCain upset that there is a double standard because the Trump campaign was under investigation into colluding with the Russians, and therefore there should have been an equal investigation into the Clinton campaign? I had no idea what he was trying to get at. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/455 "2017-06-08T17:26:39Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > He sounds like he’s senile. > > Besides referring to Trump as “Comey” a couple of times, he’s completely confused as to the difference between the email investigation of Clinton and the Russia-election investigation. Oh, no. No, he absolutely is not. McCain’s line of questioning was quite deliberate. The GOP planned every word. The confusion between the subject at hand and the e-mail investigation was one hundred percent intentional. The Trumpists will hear that and only that. ---
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/456 "2017-06-08T17:26:50Z")
Bookies in the UK have the odds of Pres.Trump leaving before his [term ends](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-impeachment-odds-increasingly-point-to-an-early-exit-2017-05-17) ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/457 "2017-06-08T17:27:02Z")
Wow, this is quite the hatchet job by Comey. He pulled no punches and really went after Trump. For someone who supposedly prides himself on being apolitical and went through lengths to keep the FBI apolitical this was a remarkably political hearing. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/458 "2017-06-08T17:27:54Z")
I for one, am sick of Comey. He played a large part in Hillary’s defeat. Now he’s trying to take out Trump. We can thank him if Pence gets the big job. Comey has done more than enough damage. Its time to get off the stage. I never knew the names of the former FBI Directors, except Hoover. That’s how it’s supposed to be. They shouldn’t be on the stage making news and influencing political events. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/459 "2017-06-08T17:30:54Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > [Here’s video footage of Uncle Leo in action](https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/sen-john-mccains-bizarre-exchange-with-james-comey/2017/06/08/bb19f12c-4c69-11e7-987c-42ab5745db2e_video.html), complete with the cutline, “June 8, 2017 12:41 PM EDT - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked former FBI director James Comey a series of questions at a Senate Intelligence Hearing, but appeared to be confused about FBI investigations, on June 8 at the Capitol. (Reuters)” > “Hello!” After watching, I’m going to have to agree with everyone that what McCain said makes no sense at all. He seems to think Clinton and Trump were both being investigated in regards to Russian interference/collusion. Or at least think they both should be. He seems fixated on the idea that Clinton and Trump are being treated differently because their (completely separate) investigations were not completed at the same time and with the same result. I really do feel like McCain seems confused and may have some sort of cognitive impairment, probably age-related. Unless he has a history of doing this in decades past? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792/460 "2017-06-08T17:31:47Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > I would have sworn that Trumpelthinskin restraining himself, or allowing anyone else to restrain him, in that regard was about as likely as me coming home to find Scarlett Johansson waiting on the bed in a sheer edible French maid outfit. Every time I get to the end of that sentence I forget the beginning of it, for some reason… …mmm…strawberry… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comey-memo-trump-told-him-shut-down-flynn-probe/786792.md?page=24)