Does it seem completely crazy to you that Donald Trump would fire James Comey hours after the FBI acknowledged that the Director had actually oversold the case against Hillary Clinton by grossly overstating the number of classified e-mails that were forwarded to Anthony Weiner by his wife?
That is, why would Trump fire Comey just when it looks like the Director actually painted too unfavorable a picture of the Clinton e-mail scandal?
Well, obviously because Comey is leading an investigation into the administration’s ties to Moscow and if Comey was prone to exaggerating malfeasance with Clinton’s e-mails, well then just think of what he might do with Russia collusion evidence.
I mean just listen to this from last week’s testimony:
Does that sound like something Trump would be comfortable with from the man who is investigating the situation?
But it looks like what happened here, is that Comey’s screwup when talking about Clinton’s e-mails under oath gave Trump a perfect excuse to get rid of him.
Here’s the best read on this you’ll probably get until everyone has a chance to sit down and write something comprehensive….
President Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey on Tuesday. And while the termination happened rather quickly – mere hours after Comey’s faulty testimony was revealed – it wasn’t altogether a shock.
Over the past several weeks, Trump seemed to be in the market for a reason to get rid of Comey. This was an Obama appointee whom Trump derided during the 2016 campaign for not recommending charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server. Then, in March, Comey announced that the FBI was investigating alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. Comey has also cast doubt on Trump’s claim that the Obama administration wiretapped him during the campaign.
[…]
The beauty of what transpired Tuesday for Trump is that it was a great set of circumstances under which to do it. Comey’s foul-up – misstating facts about the Clinton investigation at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week – looked like he was overselling that case against Clinton, not Trump.
It was Democrats who could be righteously indignant about Comey’s botched claims that top Clinton aide Huma Abedin forwarded hundreds of thousands of emails – some with classified information – from Clinton’s server to her husband, disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner.
In firing Comey, Trump doesn’t look like he was covering his own behind – at least not transparently so. But from the outside looking in, it sure looks like Trump didn’t have much regard for Comey and was, in fact, suspicious of him.
And then Comey gave him a golden opportunity to cut bait.
**whispers**
You broke my heart, Fredo.. pic.twitter.com/fn3DeBmM9I— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) May 9, 2017
Sums it up….
YATES knows FLYNN has been compromised by saying in public an untrue statement (I did not talk to Russians about sanctions) and therefore susceptible to blackmail by Russians. YATES is fired.
…
COMEY knows (maybe) TRUMP has been compromised by saying in public an untrue statement (I did not talk to Russians about ???) and therefore susceptible to blackmail by Russians. COMEY is fired.
What’s a congressman to do?
What’s a citizen to do?
I think that the simplest theory is that President Showbiz saw an opportunity to get rid of someone intimately involved in the Russia investigation. The emails exaggeration and admittance of timing on the announcement of the emails investigation are Showbiz’s excuse.