All this “shocking” news about Comey’s memos on CNN tonight, and they still haven’t explained what these memos are. Was Comey required to maintain these memos? Who was the intended recipient? Are they basically just his diary?
I meant “breaking” news. Not all that shocking.
The fact these exist has been known for nearly a year. The “memos” are notes of meetings that Comey kept when he met with Trump (hell, he probably kept notes on every meeting he had, he was the head of the FBI) that he shared internally with others at the DOJ, so the notes became “memos” when he did so.
DOJ released redacted versions just now.
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/politics/james-comeys-memos-on-his-meetings-with-trump/2913/
To hear Republicans tell it, these memos prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no collusion nor obstruction of justice and that Donald is so innocent he makes Jesus look like Satan. In reality, there is little that we didn’t know before except perhaps his obsession with the pee-pee tape and how he asked Comey to prove that it didn’t happen.
Wait, I thought Comey was a liar?
He only lies part of the time. When his words support The Donald, they are gospel and the words of a saint. When they contradict The Donald, he is the greatest liar the world has ever seen.
Did they find the memos in Al Campone’s vault? 
Where is the outraged tweet about leaks this morning?
TWEET! Goddammit, TWEET!
There.
Sorry, perhaps I wasn’t clear enough with my question. Is it a requirement, or at least a standard practice, for an FBI Director to write memos about his encounters with his boss? If so, have memos like these from former FBI Directors ever been released in the past?
Also, it strikes me that Comey wasn’t doing much to help Trump. It doesn’t appear that he even said anything as simple as “We can’t do that”, or “it doesn’t work that way”. It’s almost like he was being a psychologist and in awe that a Washington outsider has no clue about standard protocol and what is or isn’t acceptable.
I’m about as far from being a fan of Trump as possible, but I can see how these memos can be interpreted as Comey being negligent towards , or even sabotaging Trump to some extent.
For example, it I take on a new job, I would expect those that report to me to be open about how things operate, who to go to/who to avoid, etc. Comey appeared to be the type to hold back important information, while secretly giggling in the corner at his boss’s missteps.
Trump isn’t a standard president, so “standard practice” isn’t particularly applicable, if you ask me. I’d probably have done something similar, standard practice or no.
Yeah, Comey knows that contemporaneous FBI memos/notes carry some weight so he used them to cover his ass/defend himself when dealing with a lying slippery bastard. I doubt it’s standard practice at all.
My understanding is that it’s not unusual for government officials (not just the FBI director) to write down their personal notes from meetings with other senior government officials immediately after those meetings, and that’s what the content of the Comey memos is.
As I understand it, what makes these different is:
- Comey has said that he felt it was very important for him to take these notes immediately after his meetings with Trump, because he was disturbed by Trump’s requests, and wanted to document things. From Wikipedia:
- After being fired, Comey shared his notes with other people, as squeegee noted above.
When I get a new boss I kind of expect him to know how to do his fucking job.
Have you been as disappointed, as often, as I?
Based on what I’ve heard and read, the answer is definitely “no”.
Legally, your immediate thoughts, in the heat of the moment, are generally admissible as inherently reliable. Comey had prior experience dealing with mobsters, and as he has since said that Trump gave him the same vibe of demanding loyalty over truth. He was absolutely writing these memos to throw Trump under the bus, when the time was right: he must have realized that he would eventually be fired, since he wasn’t going to stop investigating Russia, and he must have suspected (if not outright known) that Trump either was in charge of that Russia connection or knew enough to cover for those who were.
Since Watergate it has generally been the practice of the President to not have a direct relationship with the director of the FBI. There is expected to be an informal division, since the FBI might be tasked with investigating the administration (on any number of issues). Comey has said that it was very shocking - and made him quite uncomfortable - that Trump kept trying to meet privately with him. In fact, Comey said in one interview that he only agreed to have dinner with Trump because he was led to believe that he would be part of a group, and was disturbed to discover that he was sitting at a table for two.
Given this break from tradition, and considering (as we now know) that the FBI was already investigating Trump’s team for ties to Russia, and especially when you combine those two items with the fact that Trump kept seeming to lean on Comey to halt the Russia investigation, I can totally understand why Comey wanted to put words down immediately thereafter.
You’ve had bosses? I always imagined you worked in a commune or sold fruit by the side of the road.
If you read the memos, you’ll see lots of redacted parts. One such part refers to Mike Flynn; Trump was incensed that he had delayed the scheduling of a return phone call to another (redacted) world leader, who had left a message of congratulations. Trump did not want to keep this person waiting.
News now reports that this foreign leader was Vlad Putin.
Trump was mad Putin wasn’t made a top priority. Comey was investigating what Putin did to America. Comey noted Trump’s subservience in his memo.
I thought he grew dope. Still do.
NOBODY grows dope in Nipples, MN!