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On January 6, 2017, two weeks before Trump was inaugurated, Comey came into Trump Tower to participate -- along with the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the CIA and the Director of the NSA -- in a briefing of President-Elect Trump about the recently published joint US Intelligence assessment about alleged Russian meddling in the USA's 2016 Presidential Election. The assessment was titled Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution and was being released to the public on that same day, January 6. However, the publication had a secret annex that comprised the Steel Dossier.
After the four Directors briefed Trump about the assessment, FBI Director Comey remained alone in the room with Trump and spent five minutes telling him about the secret annex.
I then began to summarize the allegation in the dossier that he had been with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel in 2013 and that the Russians had filmed the episode. ... Before I finished, Trump interrupted sharply, with a dismissive tone. H was eager to protest that the allegations weren't true.
I explained that I wasn't saying the FBI believed the allegations. We simply thought it was important that he know they were out there and being widely circulated. ....
He again strongly denied the allegations, asking -- rhetorically, I assumed -- whether he seemed like a guy who needed the services of prostitutes.
He then began discussing cases where women had accused him of sexual assault, a subject I had not raised. He mentioned a number of women, and seemed to have memorized their allegations. As he began to grow more defensive and the conversation teetered toward disaster, on instinct, I pulled the tool from my bag: "We are not investigating you, sir." That seemed to quiet him.
My job done, the conversation ended, we shook hands and I left the conference room.
(A Higher Loyalty, pages 224-225, emphasis added)
The tool that Comey pulled from his bag was a deception. Comey intended for Trump to misunderstand that the FBI was not investigating Trump about the alleged Russian meddling in the election. However, Comey intended that later he always would be able to say that he had assured Trump only that the FBI was not investigating Trump about being with prostitutes in Moscow.
Comey's autobiography brags a lot about his own superb ethics.
Suppose that the FBI actually was investigating Trump about Russian meddling in US elections. Since Comey was a superbly ethical official, it would be unethical if he assured President-Elect Trump falsely that there was no such FBI investigation.
However, Comey could assure Trump that there was no FBI investigation of Trump for being with prostitutes in Moscow. Comey told Trump ethically that there was no FBI investigation about Trump and prostitutes. If Trump misunderstood Comey's assurance, then that was Trump's own fault.
That deception was the tool that Comey took out of his bag and used against Trump on that January 6..
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On the previous day, January 5, Comey had discussed with the FBI's general counsel, James Baker, what Comey intended to tell President-Elect Trump on January 6. Comey and Baker were concerned that telling Trump about the prostitutes allegation might be interpreted by Trump -- and later by historians -- as a subtle blackmail. In other words, the FBI had information about Trump being with prostitutes in Moscow, and so Trump better not cause any trouble for the FBI, which could leak that information to the public and so cause trouble for Trump. Comey and Baker called such subtle blackmail "pulling a J. Edgar Hoover", and they did not want to be ever accused of such an unethical act.
The bit about "pulling a J. Edgar Hoover" made me keen to have some tool in my bag to reassure the new president. I needed to be prepared to say something, if possible, that would take the temperature down. After extensive discussion with my team, I decided I could assure the president-elect that the FBI was not currently investigating him. This was literally true. We did not have a counterintelligence case file open on him. We really didn't care if he had cavorted with hookers in Moscow, so long as the Russians weren't trying to coerce him in some way.
The FBI's general counsel, Jim Baker, argued powerfully that such an assurance, although true, could be misleadingly narrow: the president-elect's other conduct was, or surely would be, within the scope of an investigation looking at whether his campaign had coordinated with Russia. There was also the concern that the FBI might then be obligated to tell President Trump if we did open an investigation of him.
I saw the logic of this [Baker's] position, but I also saw the bigger danger of the new president, who was known to be impulsive, going to war against the FBI. And I was determined to do all I could, appropriately, to work successfully with the new president. So I rejected Jim Baker's thoughtful advice and headed to Trump Tower with "we are not investigating you" in my back pocket.
(Ibid, pages 216-217; emphasis added)
When we read the above passage, we should not assume that FBI General Counsel Baker knew whether FBI Counterintelligence was conducting an investigation of Trump. Baker is a lawyer who provides legal advice ; he is not involved in the management of the FBI's counterintelligence investigations. Baker knew it was not his business to even ask Comey whether there was such an investigation. Baker knew only what Comey decided to tell him about that.
It's likely that Baker assumed -- and Comey perceived that Baker assumed -- that there was no such investigation. Comey said nothing to contradict such an assumption.
In this situation, exactly what did Baker advise Comey to do when Comey met with Trump on the following day? From the above passage, I infer that Baker advised Comey to refrain from telling Trump anything at all about the Dossier. Perhaps Baker thought that the Dossier should not have been included as a secret annex to the joint assessment.
So, when "rejected Jim Baker's thoughtful advice" by insisting that, on the following day, he would tell Trump about the Dossier -- in particular, about the prostitutes allegation. Comey insisted on doing so, because he had "a tool in his bag" -- the deception of Trump. Comey intended to trick Trump into thinking falsely that there was no counterintelligence investigation about Trump colluding with Russian Intelligence. Comey's "tool in the bag" was that he would tell Trump misleadingly only that there was no investigation specifically about Trump being with prostitutes in Moscow.
Comey -- in particular FBI Counterintelligence -- did not care about the prostitutes in Moscow, so long as the Russians weren't trying to coerce Trump in some way. In other words, Comey and FBI Counterintelligence indeed did care about the prostitutes in Moscow, but it was literally true that an FBI counter-intelligence investigation had not begun yet, specifically about Trump and those prostitutes.
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On March 30, 2017, Comey denied to Trump a second time that the FBI was investigating him. In the previous week, Comey had confirmed publicly that the FBI was investigating "possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign" (ibid, page 258, emphasis added). For that reason, Trump phoned Comey on March 30 to clarify whether Trump himself was being investigated.
I also explained [to Trump] that we [the FBI] had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those congressional leader that we were not personally investigating President Trump.
He repeatedly told me, "We need to get that fact out."
I did not tell the president, mostly because I knew he wouldn't want to hear it, that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most important that it would create a duty to correct that statement should that status change.
(Ibid, pages 258-259; emphasis added)
Since FBI Counterintelligence indeed had been investigating Trump for several years, Comey indeed was reluctant to make public statements that the FBI "did not have an open case" on him. FBI Counterintelligence was "not personally investigating President Trump" when the FBI briefed congressional leaders in March 2017.
What are Comey's weasel words in the above passage?
* Personally
* An open case
* A number of reasons.
* Most important.
Of course, FBI Counterintelligence had been investigating Trump for many years, but the case was not "open" right at the moment when the FBI was briefing the congressional leaders. There were a number of reasons for not making a public statement -- one of which was that FBI Counterintelligence indeed had been investigating Trump for many years.
In his autobiography, superbly ethical Comey is deceiving his readers, just as he deceived Trump on January 6 and March 30, 2017.
When the Republican Party takes control of Congress in January 2023, a top priority should be to determine and to reveal when FBI Counterintelligence began its investigation of Donald Trump. That investigation began no later than 2012 -- perhaps already in the mid-1990s.
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