Tag Archives: James Comey

Fox News: FBI Director Patel says he’s had to divert resources to investigate ‘copycats’ of Comey ’86 47′ post

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FBI officials told Fox News Digital the bureau needs to focus on public safety, ‘not cleaning up after political stunts’

FBI Director Kash Patel said he has been forced to divert agents to investigate “copycats” of potential threats to President Donald Trump as a result of former FBI Director James Comey’s “86 47” social media post. 

Bureau officials told Fox News Digital it needs to be focused on “public safety, not cleaning up after political stunts.”

No “cleanup” was needed. It’s not our problem that you’re a total f*ck*ng gullible fool utterly unqualified for your day job as FBI director.

FBI Director Patel says he’s had to divert resources to investigate ‘copycats’ of Comey ’86 47′ post
FBI Director Kash Patel said he has been forced to divert agents to investigate “copycats” of potential threats to President Donald Trump as a result of former FBI Director James Comey’s “86 47″ social media post.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-director-patel-says-hes-had-divert-resources-investigate-copycats-comey-86-47-post

MSNBC: Trump admin regulators launch investigation into Media Matters, adding to pattern

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If it seems as if there have been a lot of new federal investigations into Democrats and their allies lately, it’s not your imagination.

But it’s important to remember that many of the White House’s political antagonists are, in fact, facing the kind of investigations that Trump has in mind. The New York Times reported:

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday opened an investigation into Media Matters, a liberal advocacy organization that has published research on hateful and antisemitic content on X, according to two people familiar with the inquiry. The regulator said in a letter sent to the organization that it was investigating the group, which is aligned with Democrats, over whether it illegally colluded with advertisers, according to the people.

…

The public has learned in recent weeks that the administration — led by a president whose second-term “revenge tour” has been unsubtle — is also investigating and/or prosecuting a variety of Democratic officials and candidates, including Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.

This dovetails with the president directing the Justice Department to go after Christopher Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; which came on the heels of Trump pressing the Department of Homeland Security to investigate Miles Taylor, a former high-ranking DHS official. The president did this not because there’s evidence of Krebs or Taylor having done anything wrong, but because they defied him several years ago. They went on his enemies list, and now he’s exacting revenge.

Around the same time, Trump also directed the Justice Department to investigate ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s most important fundraising platform.

And did I mention the investigation into former FBI director James Comey? Because that’s underway, too.

Trump and his team are also going after law firms, universities and news organizations they consider political foes of the White House.

What’s more, given Ed Martin’s new responsibilities at the Justice Department, this overtly and abusive partisan pattern is likely to intensify.

So Trump hates everybody?

Axios recently noted, “In the final days of the 2024 campaign, Axios identified a list of perceived adversaries who fit what Trump ominously described as ‘the enemies from within.’ As president, he has taken steps to retaliate against virtually all of them.” That was two months ago. The problem is vastly worse now, and there’s no reason to believe conditions will improve anytime soon.

Trump admin regulators launch investigation into Media Matters, adding to pattern
If it seems as if there have been a lot of new federal investigations into Democrats and their allies lately, it’s not your imagination.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-admin-regulators-launch-investigation-media-matters-adding-patte-rcna208780

The Times: James Comey on Trump: ‘He’s the monster in a horror sequel’

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The former FBI director was sacked in 2017, four months into Donald Trump’s first term of office. Now James Comey is at the centre of an extraordinary row about his ‘86 47’ Instagram post

When I speak to James Comey about his past battles with Donald Trump, the state of America and his new novel about free speech and its consequences, the former director of the FBI is on holiday at the beach. He is in a relaxed mood, with no reason to suspect that within hours he will be engulfed in a fresh storm.

Comey, who was sacked by Trump in his first term in dramatic circumstances, had warned before the election that the idea of Donald back in the White House “bent on retribution and destroying the system is chilling”. So I ask if he had experienced any of that retribution.

“Well, not in Trump 2.0. But with the interviews I’m doing around the launch of this book, maybe I’ll get my own executive order. We’ll see,” he says lightly. “I dealt with most of my retribution in Trump 1.0, where I was investigated repeatedly. I had the most aggressive tax audit imaginable, and they ended up owing me $347, but it cost me thousands of dollars to get to that. I went through it in Trump 1.0. I was on the enemies list before there was an enemies list. Nothing so far in 2.0, but it’s early yet.”

A few hours later, he is under investigation by the Trump administration and the Maga world is alight with calls for his arrest and jailing. This comes as a consequence of a walk on the beach and a photograph posted to Instagram — then quickly deleted — of some shells arranged to form the numbers “86 47”.

James Comey on Trump: ‘He’s the monster in a horror sequel’
The former FBI director was sacked in 2017, four months into Donald Trump’s first term. Now James Comey is at the centre of a row about his ‘86 47’ Instagram post

https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/james-comey-fbi-interview-donald-trump-monster-in-horror-sequel-sbgd9t60g

MSNBC: James Comey’s anti-Trump message is protected speech

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The current investigation into the former FBI director is precisely what the First Amendment was designed to guard against.

Questions are swirling following the launch of a federal investigation into former FBI Director James Comey over a now-deleted social media post of seashells arranged in the numbers “8647” on the beach. (“Eighty-six” is commonly understood to mean “get rid of.” President Trump is the 45th and 47th President of the United States.) Was Comey calling for the assassination of Trump? Or was he, as he has since stated, expressing a political opinion about Trump? 

If Comey’s post amounted to a siren song, beseeching others to kill the president, he can be punished for his speech. But should Comey’s post be viewed as political advocacy, which I argue it should, he is entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment. The genuine threat is not that a president’s life is in danger, but that the Trump administration is attempting to silence the speech of political adversaries. Even if it is unlikely that Comey faces anything more than a slap on the wrist for his post, the decision to open an investigation in and of itself should be worrisome. Comey has access to the media and resources to defend himself. Not everyone does. And the prospect of chilling political speech critical of government officials should concern all of us. 

Opinion | Trump can’t just wish James Comey into a jail cell. Not legally, anyway.
The current investigation into the former FBI director is precisely what the First Amendment was designed to guard against.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-investigation-james-comey-free-speech-rcna207797

Raw Story: Marjorie Taylor Greene complains nothing gets done ‘even though we’re in charge’

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Marjorie Taylor Greene said Sunday she isn’t satisfied with what Donald Trump’s administration has so far been able to accomplish.

After commenting on former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis, the MAGA ally turned to X to talk about how little Trump’s team has been able to find out about those who tried to assassinate him.

“Thomas Crooks shot Pres Trump and we still know nothing even though we are in charge,” she wrote Sunday.

She continued, saying that “Ryan Routh tried to assassinate him and we still have not seen his trial,” before turning to a more current development. “James Comey threatens to assassinate him and publicly calls for it and he’s on his way to a best seller.”

She then added, “Trump makes a phone call to Zelensky and gets impeached. Trump says ‘go peacefully and make your voices heard’ and gets impeached again. Bannon and Navarro go to jail for refusing to show for a sham congressional subpoena, but Christopher Wray walks free for refusing to show for our congressional subpoena.”

“Don’t tell me to get outraged when nothing is done to hold these people accountable. No accountability means people stop caring,” she concluded.

Must be really difficult being one of MAGA’s biggest airheads! She just rambles from ancient history episode to another.

Marjorie Taylor Greene complains nothing gets done ‘even though we’re in charge’

https://www.rawstory.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-complains-charge

Alternet: BUSTED: James Comey’s cryptic ‘8647’ doesn’t mean what Trump voters say it means

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem [Bimbo #2], FBI Director Kash Patel and other far-right MAGA Republicans are calling for an investigation of former FBI Director James Comey in response to an Instagram post that depicted seashells in the sand forming the numbers “8647.”

The slang expression “eight-six” means to “remove” or “eject,” and Donald Trump is the 47th president of the United States. Noem [Bimbo #2], in a May 15 post on X, formerly Twitter, claimed that Comey was promoting violence against President Trump.

Noem [Bimbo #2] tweeted, “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump. DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”

But Noem’s [Bimbo #2’s] critics are reminding her that the term “eight-six” doesn’t automatically have a violent connotation. When restaurant workers, for example, say that they need to “eight-six” an order, it means cancel the order. Or a bar might “eighty-six” a customer who has had too much to drink.

Liberal firebrand and former MSNBC host Keith Olberman, in response to Noem’s [Bimbo #2’s] tweet, posted, “Listen, you lying witch, he didn’t call for assassinating anyone. Since you murdered your daughter’s dog maybe you ought to S— about this.”

BUSTED: James Comey’s cryptic ‘8647’ doesn’t mean what Trump voters say it means

https://www.alternet.org/comey-86-noem-trump

Associated Press: Bondi [Bimbo #3] signals probe into Signal chat is unlikely, despite a long history of similar inquiries

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Even as President Donald Trump insisted “it’s not really an FBI thing,” the reality is that the FBI and Justice Department for decades have been responsible for enforcing Espionage Act statutes governing the mishandling — whether intentional or negligent — of national defense information like the kind shared on Signal, a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications but is not approved for classified information.

The Justice Department has broad discretion to open an investigation, though Attorney General Pam Bondi, who introduced Trump at a Justice Department event this month, signaled at an unrelated news conference on Thursday that she was disinclined to do so. She repeated Trump administration talking points that the highly sensitive information in the chat was not classified, though current and former U.S. officials have said the posting of the exact launch times of aircraft and times that bombs would be released before those pilots were even in the air would have been classified.

Bondi signals probe into Signal chat is unlikely, despite a long history of similar inquiries
FBI Director Kash Patel may not have been part of a Signal chat in which other Trump administration national security officials discussed detailed attack plans.

Pam Bondi signals probe into Signal chat is unlikely | AP News