Comey testifying today, but this sounds like more DoJ BS

https://www.foxnews.com/politi...stimony-gop-rep-says

Former FBI Director James Comey’s lawyers have prevented him from answering a number of questions during Friday’s closed-door testimony before House lawmakers, according to a lawmaker in the room.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told reporters that some lawmakers have been frustrated with the testimony so far and that Comey didn’t seem upset about being told by his lawyers that he doesn’t have to answer certain questions.

"One of the disappointments of this deposition so far has been the amount of times in which the FBI believes that Congress doesn’t have a right to know," Issa said.

Issa said Comey has two attorneys, including one from the DOJ, who have “instructed” the former FBI director not to answer “a great many questions that are clearly items at the core of our investigation.” Issa said the instructions have been followed with Comey’s “gleeful acceptance.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This situation is just beyond comprehension

Comey gave a brief news conference after the congressional testimony today.

From CTH the brief statement is here:

https://youtu.be/rFHKwl1Bi2k

Comey said

- he is coming back for more questions on 17 Dec

- "For heavens sake" we are talking about Hillary Clinton's emails

- I'm not sure we need to do this at all

- a transcript will be coming out

- when asked if a govt lawyer shut down his answering questions, Comey said read the transcript. "You will not see that happening"

- "The notion that FISA was abused here is nonsense"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Comey's FISA comment seems strange. Parts of the FISA application have been made public and we see that the FBI lied in the application.

Comey is eating this up. He is untouchable and he knows it. Like all leftists the law simply does not apply.

The two-tiered justice system will be the downfall of this country. It is quite apparent to anyone who has been paying attention that some pigs are more equal than others.

“The transcipt from former FBI Director James Comey’s closed-door testimony is released by House Republicans.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the filing Saturday, is Comey’s admission regarding the FISA used to surveil Carter Page.

The former FBI official said much of the dossier was uncorroborated when it was used to obtain the warrant.

In fact, Comey said much of the dossier was unverified even when he was fired by President Trump six months later…”

https://www.oann.com/house-gop...mony-in-near-future/

Haven't had much time, but have been slowly reading Comey's testimony.

Only read to page 37 of the 235 pages. But so far it sounds like Comey is using a very similar tactic to the way Hillary Clinton answered FBI questions.

Comey frequently says he doesn't remember, or he never saw a particular document, or decisions were made several layers below him.

The more he talks, the more it is apparent he wants to hide the truth.

examples from the transcript:

Q: Do you recall who drafted the FBI’s initiation document for that late July 2016 Russia investigation?

C: I do not

Q: Do you know who approved that draft of an initial plan for the Russia investigation ?

C: I don’t

xxxxxxxxx

Q: Have you read the initiation document ?

C: I don’t think so

remember that Comey was briefing obama and obama staff in the spring of 2016 about Trump campaign people interacting w the Russians

Q: Who at the FBI has the authority to launch a counterintelligence investigation into a major political campaign ?

C: I’ve never encountered a circumstance where an investigation into a political campaign was launched

"Clinton like" parsing of words

Q: When did you learn there was a counterintelligence investigation into potential Russian ties with the Trump campaign?

C: I was briefed sometime at the end of July that the FBI has opened counterintelligence investigations of four individuals to see if there was a connection between those four and the Russian effort

Comey wouldn’t name the four individuals

CTH makes a good argument the 4 were Geo Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. More later

FBI representative Bessee said anything that goes to Mueller’s investigation is “off limits”

Q: Can you tell us the factual predicate that may have led to the launching of that counterintelligence investigation ?

C: I don’t remember precisely; and to the extent I remember, I think those are classified facts


Q: What is the crime of collusion ?

C: I don’t know of a crime that involves collusion. I think in terms conspiracy or aiding and abetting


Q: Did the FBI, in July 2016, have any evidence anyone in the Trump campaign conspired to hack the DNC server ?

C: I don’t think that the FBI and special counsel want me answering questions that may relate to their investigation of Russian interference during 2016

more later

They should ask him that if he is found lying in the testimony, would he be willing to go to jail for his actions.

I know it’s part of the oath taken (if he actually did) but it should be a constant reminder.

Fucker......

The question I have is, "Is there anyone in that whole MCF who will actually provide the thread that will unravel the whole shit sandwich?"

The swamp is so deep, and wide spread, that none of them are willing to be the one to kick off the collapse. Too much money and threats to freedom for that to happen. It is not just democraPs, it includes republicans and all the rest as well.

so what's THIS guy on?

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:


so what's THIS guy on?

Compare his eyes with Ocasio-Cortez, Peter Strzok and Nancy Pelosi. There's some type of virus going around!

more on Comey's testimony

It is hard to read the Comey testimony because his answers seem to defy common sense.

Mr. Gowdy. Who is Christopher Steele?

Mr. Comey. My understanding is that Christopher Steele is a former intelligence officer of an allied nation who prepared a series of reports in the summer of 2016 that have become known as the Steele dossier

Mr. Gowdy. How long did he have a relationship with the FBI?

Mr. Comey. I don't know .


Mr. Gowdy. When did you learn he was working for Fusion GPS?

Mr. Comey. I don't know that I ever knew that -- certainly while I worked at the FBI. I think I've read that in open source, but I didn't know that while I was FBI.


Mr. Gowdy. Who did you think he was working for?

Mr. Comey. I thought he was retained as part of a Republican-financed effort -- retained by Republicans adverse to Mr. Trump during the primary season, and then his work was underwritten after that by Democrats opposed to Mr. Trump during the general election season.

Mind boggling. Steele was an FBI human source

Steele was never funded or retained by Republicans


Mr. Gowdy. Well, when did you learn the DNC had hired Perkins Coie?

Mr. Comey. I never learned that . Again, while I was Director. I think I've read it in the media, but, yeah, even today , I don't know whether it's true.

Mr. Gowdy. While you were the Director, you never knew that the DNC hired a law firm that hired an oppo research firm that hired Christopher Steele?

Mr. Comey. No, I don't think so. I don't have any recollection of being told that or reading that or learning that while I was Director.

Comey knows how wrong the FISA warrant was. He is avoiding knowing anything.

breaking up the Comey testimony into bite size chunks

Mr. Gowdy. All right. We'll get at that another way. The word "obligation" stemmed from the fact that this is a counterintelligence investigation into a political campaign. I think you testified -- and I hope you agree -- the source who was paying for that information would be relevant.

Mr. Comey. First of all, I have to disagree with your assertion that it was a counterintelligence investigation into a political campaign . I've said that earlier, that it wasn't. It was four counterintelligence files on four Americans.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

four Americans who happened to be part of the Trump campaign

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

regarding FISA:

Mr. Gowdy. If the Director were signing a court filing that had a representation in it, the Director would want to know whether or not those representations were accurate.

Mr. Comey. The Director would want to know that the process -- carefully constructed process of the FBI had been followed, that the right people had reviewed things, that the right signoffs had been held, before I would sign the certification that came with it. That's probably the most I can say about the role of the Director in a FISA.

Mr. Gowdy. Was Christopher Steele also working with or for the Bureau while he was working for Fusion GPS?

Mr. Comey. I don't know .



Mr. Gowdy. When the Bureau uses sources or informants, are there agreements signed? Are there certain obligations on behalf of the source or the informant?

Mr. Comey. Yeah, I'm not expert enough to answer that.
I'm sure that there are, but I don't know the particulars

The FBI Director doesn't know if there are agreements with the human sources ? The FBI published the "Admonishments" (the agreement) for Christopher Steele in the FBI Vault open site

Mr. Gowdy. Would it be unusual for the Bureau to tell a source or an informant, you can't have media contacts while you're working for the Bureau?

Mr. Comey. I don't know whether that's part of the standard warnings or directions to a source.

Mr. Gowdy. How did Chris Steele's information reach the FBI?

Mr. Comey. I don't know for sure. I have some recollection that he passed it to an agent that he knew and that that agent sent it on to headquarters. I think that's the way in which it reached the Counterintelligence Division, but I don't remember the specifics of that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Comey is being very careful to not know anything because these questions from Gowdy all address the lies in the Carter Page FISA warrant.

Comey's answer would also imply he did not know about Bruce Ohr passing Steele's information directly to the FBI

quote:

Originally posted by signewt:


so what's THIS guy on?

That's Adam Shiff for brains.

This is why Trump held his cards close to his chest. He's holding Trump Cards and will play his hand when appropriate.

Follow the money....

December 10, 2018
Comey Lied
By Daniel John Sobieski

In the normal course of events, one could understand the hundreds of “I don’t knows” and “I don’t recalls” former FBI Director James Comey during Friday’s testimony. Most FBI investigations are handled out of the field office in which the illegality allegedly occurred with the FBI Director not privy to all the details. But it was Comey who decided to run the whole Trump collusion and obstruction investigation out of FBI headquarters. He should have known and remembered every detail of his actions and those under him. He did.

Don’t count the “I can’t recalls” Just counting the contradictions and the lies would make quite a drinking game, starting the case which started it all -- Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s “process lie” about his legitimate contacts with his Russian counterparts as a national security adviser designate:

On Friday May 11, 2018, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein stating Comey testified the FBI didn’t think General Flynn lied.

In a March 2017 briefing then-FBI Director James Comey had with the House Intel Committee, he told members that the FBI agents who interviewed General Flynn “saw nothing that indicated to them that [General Flynn] knew he was lying to them.” …

The unredacted portion of the House Intel report revealed Comey testified to House Intel members the FBI agents who ambushed Flynn did not detect any deception. The report also revealed the illegal leak of Flynn’s phone call with Kislyak is what allowed the FBI/DOJ to keep a counterintel operation open on General Flynn.

The Obama-Comey deep state opened an investigation on Flynn and leaked information on his discussion with his Russian counterpart. This was during the Trump transition period. This was Flynn’s job. The FBI under Comey opened an investigation on Flynn for DOING HIS JOB! On Friday James Comey testified behind closed doors with Congressional investigators. Comey told Congress on Friday that Flynn did lie.

So which is it, Mr. Comey? Was Flynn lying or not and if you were so far above the fray, how could you know? Or are you the only liar in this scenario? Why was Gen. Flynn punished for making false statements while you are not in the dock for doing so repeatedly? Why is Flynn’s leaker and those responsible for his politically motivated unmasking not under indictment? Why are you, whose leak of a private conversation in the Oval Office with the President sparked the fraudulent appointment of a special counsel in the absence of a crime, not under indictment?

Comey on Friday asked us all to believe that the man who remembered enough to write a book suddenly had total memory loss, saying “I don’t know” or the equivalent some 245 times. Comey claimed little knowledge of the Steele dossier yet he signed a FISA warrant based on it to spy on candidate and then President Trump all while he knew it was a fraud. His defense in front of Congress on Friday was that he didn’t know it was a fraud or he forgot.

Unfortunately, Comey can’t hide behind his lies because there is evidence he did know the FISA warrant was a fraud:

Comey told investigators that the anti-Trump dossier authored by longtime British intelligence agent Christopher Steele was largely unverified before and after a FISA warrant was obtained to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, according to a report.

The Hill’s John Solomon reports:

The towering ex-FBI boss confessed that the FBI had not corroborated much of the Steele dossier before it was submitted as evidence to a secret court to support a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in the final weeks of the election.And Comey admitted much of the dossier remained uncorroborated more than six months later when he was fired by President Trump.

The original FISA warrant application submitted in October 2016, along with the three 90-day renewal, were labeled “Verified application. “The FBI has reviewed this verified application for accuracy in accordance with its April 5, 2001 procedures, which include sending a copy of the draft to the appropriate field office(s),” the applications read. Along with being unaware of the dossier’s veracity, Comey did not know that Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department’s fourth-highest ranking official before his demotion last year, was a go-between for collecting so-called intelligence from Steele after the FBI terminated its relationship with the agent for alleging leaking information to the media. Further, Solomon reports that Comey could not recall that Steele’s relationship with the bureau had even been terminated. "His memory was so bad I feared he might not remember how to get out of the room after the interview,” an unnamed congressman told Solomon. “It was like he suddenly developed dementia or Alzheimer’s, after conveniently remembering enough facts to sell his book,” said another.

Indeed, if the Steele dossier was “salacious and unverified” when he briefed the new President, it was also salacious and unverified when the FISA warrants he signed off on incorporating it were issued, with Comey an active participant on committing a fraud upon the court.

Perhaps the most interesting dip into disingenuousness was Comey’s insistence that the man who made him a multi-millionaire, Robert Mueller, was merely a passing acquaintance:

“Are you best friends with Robert Mueller?” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, asked Comey, according to a transcript of the hearing released Saturday by Goodlatte and Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).

“I am not,” Comey said. “I admire the heck out of the man, but I don't know his phone number, I've never been to his house, I don't know his children's names.”

Comey added: “I think I had a meal once alone with him in a restaurant. I like him. I am not a -- I'm an associate of his who admires him greatly. We're not friends in any social sense.”

Again Comey is lying. Their “long-standing relationship” was confirmed by that Trump-loving vast right-conspiracy rag called the Washington Post:

They’ve been described as law enforcement twins and “brothers in arms.”

#COMEY & #Mueller were brothers in arms in famous 2004 standoff over domestic surveillance. Cagey choice by DAG Rosenstein.

-- Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) May 17, 2017

Once again, James Comey and Robert Mueller -- two respected FBI veterans -- have found themselves sharing the same high-profile headlines.

The two men’s working relationship can be traced back to at least December of 2003, when Comey joined Mueller in Washington after he became John Ashcroft’s deputy attorney general, according to a 2013 Washingtonian article about the two men’s long-standing relationship.

“He and Mueller spent many hours together, developing a close partnership -- and watching together the disarray in the government over how to respond to the unfolding war on terror,” Washingtonian notes…

Perhaps the most interesting -- and lucrative -- aspect of this long-standing relationship between these “brothers in arms” that Comey now denies, is how then-FBI director Mueller used his position to enrich casual acquaintance Comey. It is worth noting the cozy financial relationship between two former FBI directors, James Comey and Robert Mueller, which goes a long way towards explaining their joint animus to President Trump and their passionate desire to bring down his presidency.

Robert Mueller owes his job as special counsel to long-time friend Comey, who famously leaked government documents written on government computers on government time to the New York Times via a professor friend regarding conversations with President Trump. Comey owes a great deal of his financial wealth to Robert Mueller.

Seamus Bruner, Government Accountability Institute Researcher and author of Compromised: How Money and Politics Drive FBI Corruption, recently explained how former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller leveraged their government contacts to enrich themselves when Comey briefly left government service to work for major government contractor Lockheed Martin:

Bruner noted the growth of Comey’s net worth between 2003 and 2009, after Comey left the Department of Justice to join Lockheed Martin as senior vice president and lead counsel.

“It doesn’t really make much sense why [Lockheed Martin] would pay [James Comey] upwards of six million dollars in a single year,” assessed Bruner. “But one reason -- aside from his security clearance -- is that his buddy Robert Mueller is running the FBI. They begin passing 100-million-dollar-plus contracts to Lockheed Martin.”

Bruner continued, “One of these contracts was actually worth a billion dollars, and it was protested formally by the other bidder: IBM... The contracts flowed from Robert Mueller’s FBI to James Comey’s private sector employer, Lockheed Martin, and James Comey made many millions over a short period of time."

Bruner described Comey as “one of the prime examples of this kind of cashing in on government contacts.”

“We followed the money and realized that James Comey made well over ten million dollars from when he left the public sector in 2005 and by the time he returned to serve as FBI director [in 2009],” said Bruner. “He even made over six million dollars in a single year at the top government contracting corporation, Lockheed Martin; they get over $50 billion a year in government contracts.”

James Comey is a serial liar and arguably a serial felon who supervised and directed Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page in an organized deep state coup to keep Hillary Clinton out of prison and Donald Trump out of the White House. And along the way he picked up a few million bucks thanks to a long-standing friend, colleague and benefactor, Robert Mueller, whom he then rewarded a license to overthrow a sitting President of the United States.

Read more: https://www.americanthinker.co...d.html#ixzz5ZIf9fTOu

Ratcliffe questioning Comey

Mr. Ratcliffe. Mr. Comey, do you recall that you signed a FISA application on October 21st, 2016, relating to Carter Page?

Mr. Comey. I don't recall the date. I do remember signing such a FISA in October.


Mr. Ratcliffe. Would you have reviewed the FISA application before you signed it?

Mr. Comey. Yes.

Mr. Ratcliffe. Do you recall that the FISA application would have been titled -- or was titled "verified application"?


Mr. Comey. No, I don't recall that .



Mr. Ratcliffe. Don't all FISA applications state that they are verified applications?

Mr. Comey. I don't know. I don't -- sitting here today, I can't remember the word "verified."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

page 1 of the Carter Page FISA Warrant :




Comey avoids the word "verified" because the warrant justification was not "verified". Not verified then, and not verified now.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mr. Ratcliffe. What did the FISA application that you signed on October 21st of 2016, aver in terms of probable cause for a warrant on Carter Page?

aver = allege as a fact in support of a plea

Ms. Bessee (FBI rep). Congressman, he can only respond to information that's not classified or that's been put out there in the public. If there is something that he can look at, because, as you know, part of that -- parts of that application is classified.


Mr. Ratcliffe. I was told that -- that the Director didn't want to review any classified information today and that he came here without any provisional clearances because he didn't want them, but yet he was prepared to answer any questions that may pertain to classified information. Is that incorrect?

Mr. Kelley (Comey lawyer). That is incorrect. We were told in advance that this would not deal with anything law enforcement sensitive or classified information.



Mr. Ratcliffe. Who told you that?

Mr. Kelley. House counsel. Not so much who told me, so much as a representation made before a United States district judge.


Mr. Meadows. So, Mr. Chairman, I would recommend that there are two different statements that the attorney just made. One was classified; the other was law enforcement sensitive. I can't imagine that House counsel would have inadvertently agreed to that. We need to check with Mr. Hungar and make sure that we're consistent with that.

Chairman Goodlatte. We'll do that. The House counsel's position is very clear, that the Congress does not recognize an ongoing investigation prohibition on answering questions. We do obviously recognize a classified, and we're prepared to create that environment, if necessary , to ask that question in that environment

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Because so much of the material is not available to the public, I sometimes wonder if things can possibly be as bad as they appear to be. Comey's testimony certainly reinforces that he and the FBI are fighting hard to keep the truth from us

adding: I scanned more of the transcript. Comey's testimony gets even more bizarre. Will post more in a bit.

the full transcript of his testimony can be found here:

https://thehill.com/homenews/h...fore-house-lawmakers

Comey was not under oath, but he is required by law to answer Congress truthfully.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sdy,

More Comey testimony. Ratcliffe is still doing the questions

Mr. Ratcliffe. Did the FISA application that you certified, or verified, allege that there was probable cause to believe that Carter Page was working for or with the Russian Government?

Mr. Comey. I don't remember specifically. My recollection is it was -- it was submitted to the court as part of an application where the Department of Justice was alleging that he was an agent of a foreign power, namely, the Russian Federation, but I can't remember what it said about probable cause.

So Comey is telling the FISA court that Carter Page, a former member of the Trump campaign, is a Russian agent. But doggone, Comey says he just can't remember why the FBI would say that.

Mr. Ratcliffe. Would it have averred that there was probable cause to believe that he was in a position to influence the Trump campaign or Trump campaign officials?

Mr. Comey. I don't remember that .


Mr. Ratcliffe. But you did review it?

Mr. Comey. Yes. I remember reading it for the purpose of signing the certification that the FBI Director has to sign.

He just doesn't remember much about it. Very convenient

Mr. Ratcliffe. Do you recall that part of the probable cause submitted to the court was the -- what you've referred to as the Steele dossier?

Mr. Comey. I don't.

The Steele dossier material was the lead material in the justification. That was part of the heavily redacted FISA warrant that was made public

Comey testifies that the dossier was based on sources and subsources rather than personal knowledge of Christopher Steele.

Mr. Ratcliffe. All right, so, if there were other sources or subsources, would you agree that that information would be double and triple hearsay ?

Mr. Comey. I don't know . Could be. I don't know.


Mr. Ratcliffe. Do you know whether each application -- or do you know whether the application that you signed states that the FBI has reviewed this verified application for accuracy?

Mr. Comey. I don't remember that specifically. It sounds like the kind of thing that would be in there as a matter of course, but I don't remember



Mr. Ratcliffe. So I want to relate to you some of the testimony that we've already received. FBI Deputy Director Andy McCabe testified before Congress that the FBI could provide no points of verification to verify the Steele information other than the fact that Carter Page had traveled to Russia in July of 2016 . Were you aware of that when you signed the application on October 21st of 2016?

Mr. Comey. I don't remember any of that right now


Mr. Ratcliffe. Bill Priestap who -- what does Bill Priestap do at the FBI?

Mr. Comey. I think he's still the Assistant Director in charge of the Counterintelligence Division.

Mr. Ratcliffe. Okay. He testified that corroboration of the Steele dossier was in its, quote/unquote, infancy, at the time of the application that you signed on October 21st, 2016. Did you know that?

Mr. Comey. I don't remember hearing that , but that makes sense to me, if my recollection is correct, that we got it in September or maybe October. It would, by definition, be in its infancy in October.

no wonder Comey couldn't remember the word "verified" in the warrant


Mr. Ratcliffe. All right. And do you know when Christopher Steele was terminated as a source for the FBI?

Mr. Comey. I don't. And I don't know for a fact that he was terminated.

this is incredible. The FBI released documents that Steele was terminated 1 Nov 2016. (His name was not used, but the description of that source fit Steele perfectly)

Mr. Ratcliffe. So have you reviewed any FBI source validation report on Christopher Steele?

Mr. Comey. I have not .


Mr. Ratcliffe. So those things that I've just related to you about testimony as I've represented it from Andy McCabe and Bill Priestap, and the report as I've represented it to you from the FBI, does that cause you any concern about the fact that you signed a verified application for a warrant to surveil Carter Page when the Steele dossier was only minimally corroborated or in its infancy in its corroboration?

Mr. Comey. I don't know enough or remember enough 2 years later to have a reaction . I don't know their testimony. I haven't looked at the thing.



Mr. Ratcliffe. Who is Sally Moyer?

Mr. Comey. A lawyer in the General Counsel's Office.


Mr. Ratcliffe. If she testified -- and I'll represent to you that she testified that the FISA court -- it was 49-51, maybe 50-50, that the FISA court would have approved the warrant without the Steele dossier. If I represent that to you, does that cause you concern that the court was relying on a document that was largely unverified and minimally corroborated?


Mr. Comey. No. Because it asked me to assume the truth of the last part of your question, and I don't know that to be the case.



Mr. Ratcliffe. As you've sat here today -- as you sit here today, have you heard anything about the fact that Christopher Steele was terminated for leaking information to the press?

Mr. Comey. As I sit here today, since I left the FBI, I've read stuff in the media about that. I don't believe I had ever heard anything about that while I was still at the FBI.

Steele was terminated 1 Nov 2016. Comey was fired 6 months later. But Comey claims he never heard about Steele being terminated.

BTW after these exchanges, is there any doubt that Steele was a confidential human source for the FBI ?

Mr. Ratcliffe. Okay. So, if Christopher Steele -- again, I know you don't know whether he had been terminated, but if he was and he continued to provide information as a source to the FBI, who would have authorized that?

Mr. Comey. I don't know. And it's too much of a hypothetical for me to even begin to answer. I don't know. Because I don't know -- I don't know whether any of the -- the preamble to your question is true.


Mr. Ratcliffe. Are you aware that Christopher Steele had a relationship -- and by "relationship," I mean a working relationship -- with Bruce Ohr?

Mr. Comey. Am I aware that he had a working relationship with Bruce Ohr? No


Mr. Ratcliffe. Are you aware of any communications or contact between Christopher Steele and Bruce Ohr?

Mr. Comey. I am not aware .

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Comey's credibility has been destroyed in this testimony.

A bit more to come. The REPs hit a lot of the hot buttons. Comey's answers are like Alice in Wonderland

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
More Comey testimony. Ratcliffe is still doing the questions...

The Left has been getting with this for 20 years, at least. Anyone remember this classic from the 1990's?

Thanks for sorting this stuff out for us, sdy. I hope that the committee gets it too, and nails Comey to the wall on his return visit. I’m not very optimistic about that, though.

Sadly, it appears that Wray is every bit the swamp creature that Comey is.

Oh, and the bulging eyes? Never heard of an epidemic of hyperthyroidism, but hey, there’s always a first time.

Continuing on w Comey testimony

Comey's testimony is stunning in that he keeps denying knowledge of things that have been widely reported and documented.

You can't trust anything Comey says.

Maybe he is using a tactic of denying knowledge of everything to protect himself when the truth eventually gets out about the Carter Page FISA warrant and how the unverified dossier was used.

A less likely possibility is that Andrew McCabe kept Comey in the dark, and Comey never paid attention to any of the details.

Either way, James Comey is a man who never should have had the position of FBI Director.

Testimony:

Talking about Bruce Ohr passing Steele inputs to the FBI (after Steele was terminated as a formal FBI source)

Mr. Meadows. Are you aware of any other time where a DOJ attorney actually acted as a conduit to provide information that would go into a FISA application?

Mr. Comey. What do you mean by "conduit"?


Mr. Meadows. Well, with Mr. Ohr, Mr. Steele, it's been widely reported -- I'm sure you've read the reports, Director Comey, but in testimony, we would have an interaction between
M r . Steele , M r. Simpson , and Mr. Ohr, and then that information was given to two individuals at the FBI , xxx and yyy.
Are you aware of any other time where a DOJ attorney was used in that manner to give information that ultimately went into a FISA application?

M r . Corney. I can 't remember a circumstance like that.


M r . Ratcliffe. Director Corney , does the FBI and the Department of Justice, is there a duty to present exculpatory evidence to the FISA court?

M r . Corney. I don 't know whether there 's a legal duty. We certainly consider it our obligation , because of our trust relationship with Federal judges, to present evidence that would paint a materially different picture of what we 're presenting


Mr . Ratcliffe. So, if there was -- if the FBI and the Department of Justice had information that was contradictory to the predicate for which the warrant is being sought before the FISA court , you would expect that information to be presented to the court so that they could weigh the sufficiency of all of the information?

Mr. Comey. In general, I think that's right. You want to present to the judge reviewing your application a complete picture of the evidence, both its flaws and its strengths

it has reported by REPs who saw the FISA application that such "flaws" in the FBI material were not revealed to the FISA court

In response to a long question by Meadows (REP):

Mr. Comey. This -- Counsel, this I've said publicly, and it's been cleared, I think, in my book, so I'm going to say it again. My recollection is the first information we had, certainly the first information that came to my attention that Americans might be working with the Russians as part of their efforts, came at the end of July -- I think the 31st is too late, but the last week of July -- when we received information from an allied nation about the conversations their ambassador had in England with George Papadopoulos.

That was the beginning of it, which is the first time we turned to trying to figure out whether any Americans were working with the Russians.

this is important. Comey goes on record that it was the Australian diplomat reporting the Papadopoulos conversation that triggered the counterintelligence investigation


Mr. Meadows. So any information that was collected prior to that would have been done without the FBI's knowledge, without your direct knowledge? Is that what you're telling me?

Mr. Comey. I don't know what you mean by "any information that was collected."

it is highly likely the FBI had spies working the Trump campaign before late July 2016.

Mr. Meadows. So any counterintelligence collection that was done by the FBI would have been done without your knowledge prior to the last week of July 2016?

Mr. Comey. I'm sorry to keep quibbling, but I don't know what you mean by "any information collected." The FBI has lots of collection going on all the time.

Comey knows where this is going. He is dancing away. Stefan Halper was working Trump campaign people


Mr. Meadows. As it relates to Russian interference and the potential use of people within the Trump campaign, was there any initiation on the part of the FBI to collect information prior to the last week of July of 2016? And if so -- well, answer that question.


Mr. Comey. So I want to make sure I'm getting it right.

Was there --

Mr. Meadows. I want you to get it right, too, because it's at conflict with -- what you're saying is at conflict with what we've had in other testimony.

Mr. Comey. Okay. Well, I mean, I can't help that. I'll tell you what I -- what I know, that, if you're asking, was there any information that the FBI had that people associated with the Trump campaign might be working with the Russians -- if we had any such information before the end of July? Is that the question?


Mr. Meadows. Well, you can answer that question.

Mr. Comey. Yeah, I'm not aware of any information before the end of July on that subject --

Mr. Meadows. Right.

Mr. Comey. -- and it was our first information at the end of July that prompted the opening of those four files

if the four files were on Papadopoulos, Page, Flynn, and Manafort - why was that all triggered just by the claims about Papadopoulos ?

Mr. Meadows. So, prior to the end of July, did you direct or did you have knowledge of the FBI trying to collect information about the possible Russian-Trump campaign -- and I won't use the word "collusion" -- but interactions as it relates to the 2016 Presidential election?

Mr. Comey. Not that I'm aware of. I'm sure there was lots of effort to figure out what the heck was going on with the Russians because we saw their effort blossom in the middle of June. But I'm not aware of any information before that at the end of July about the possibility that Americans were working with the Russians.

Mr. Meadows. So, if Mr. Baker or anyone within the FBI had actively engaged in that prior to the last week of July of 2016 , that would have been without your knowledge?

Mr. Comey. See I don't --

Mr. Meadows. That's what you're testifying --

Mr. Comey. -- it's possible I knew at the time. I don't remember any information before the end of July that bore on that topic.


Mr. Meadows. Director Comey, you were saying that you had no knowledge that Perkins Coie was actually involved with the Democrat National Committee and involved in this particular investigation that ultimately was initiated. Is that correct?

Mr. Comey. I, when I was FBI Director, don't remember ever being told anything about Perkins Coie. I think I've since read stuff in the media, but not when I was Director.

Mr. Meadows. So are you saying that James Baker, your general counsel , who received direct information from Perkins Coie , did so and conveyed that to your team without your knowledge?

Mr. Comey. I don't know .

Mr. Meadows. What do you mean you don't know? I mean, did he tell you or not?

Mr. Comey. Oh, I -- well


Mr. Meadows. James Baker, we have testimony that would indicate that he received information directly from Perkins Coie; he had knowledge that they were representing the Democrat National Committee and, indeed, collected that information and conveyed it to the investigative team.

Did he tell you that he received that information from them? And I can give you a name if you want to know who he received it from.

Mr. Comey. I don't remember the name Perkins Coie at all .

If you have been following this story, Comey's testimony is completely unbelievable