James Comey’s Coup D’Etat
By 
Some desperate leaks before Trump shuts the investigation down:
American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said.
The continuing counterintelligence investigation means that Mr. Trump will take the oath of office on Friday with his associates under investigation and after the intelligence agencies concluded that the Russian government had worked to help elect him. As president, Mr. Trump will oversee those agencies and have the authority to redirect or stop at least some of these efforts.
[…]
The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.
[…]
Representatives of the agencies involved declined to comment. Of the half-dozen current and former officials who confirmed the existence of the investigations, some said they were providing information because they feared the new administration would obstruct their efforts. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the cases.
Serwer:
October 2016 vs January 2017 pic.twitter.com/c1TRuiyoD5
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) January 20, 2017
There were FBI investigations related to both candidates in October. The FBI, fully aware of the consequences, only made one public.
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) January 20, 2017
Even if you think HRC ran the worst campaign ever, that level of interference by an immensely powerful domestic spy agency should alarm you.
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) January 20, 2017
And just so we all know what happened: the FBI didn't just only expose HRC. FBI sources also went to the NYT to run interference for Trump.
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) January 20, 2017
That Oct headline only happened because sources in the FBI wanted everyone to believe that Trump was in the clear re: Russia. Only reason.
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) January 20, 2017
And it’s not just that the FBI chose to inform the public about one, and only one, ongoing investigation. The investigation that the FBI did the inform the public about 1)served the longstanding partisan interests of the director and 2)was utterly trivial, and in the most decisive intervention there was absolutely no relevant new information about it. There is no possible justification for violating norms and rules to inform the public about one and not the other except to put a thumb on the scale for Trump.
Let’s put this simply and clearly: the FBI stole the election, on behalf of the minority candidate. Trump is not a legitimate president and should not be treated as such. And let us note as well that the media outlets who chose to give Comey’s letter saturation coverage are accessories after the fact.
…rewenzo in comments:
1) Our domestic security forces were investigating both Clinton and Trump
2) Clinton was being investigated for maybe improperly storing work emails on a private server, which is a trivial offense. Not only was it trivial, but by the summer the FBI and DOJ had publicly concluded that charges could not be brought, meaning the investigation was for all intents and purposes closed.
3) Trump was being investigated for being in cahoots with a foreign dictatorship which was hacking Clinton’s campaign, and this investigation is still ongoing even as he is sworn in to office.
4) The FBI at no point mentioned to anyone they were investigating Trump, and even went out of their way to leak to the media that Trump was not being investigated.
5) The Director of the FBI chose to inform the American people by letter to Congress (i.e. the opposite of a leak), in late October (the platonic ideal of an October surprise, so you know it was intentional) that they had found troubling new evidence in the investigation of Clinton which required the investigation to resume.
6) This letter was a violation of (a) longstanding FBI policy; (b) longstanding DOJ rules designed specifically for the purpose of preventing the FBI from interfering in elections and (c) the Hatch Act.
7) The FBI at the time had no way of knowing that the emails were relevant, and indeed, from all indications, must have known they were probably irrelevant.
8) The emails were quickly and easily determined to be irrelevant.
9) The FBI was in communication with members of the Trump campaign about the Clinton emails and had given Giuliani a heads up that they were going to leak the story
10) The FBI knew Clinton was being hacked by Russia, and were also investigating Trump on suspicion of being involved but did virtually nothing to warn Clinton – essentially left a voicemail.
Conservatives were making fun of John Lewis because it turned out he boycotted Bush’s first inaugural too. But the joke is on Republicans, who literally cannot win presidential elections in a legitimate fashion. This is the second straight Republican president who was awarded the presidency by an organ of the state, and not by voters.