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President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

washingtonpost.com

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Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#91
post #31
post #9

Hopefully there's a silver lining and that this means the encryption backdoor push (led by Comey) will slow to a crawl or be forgotten. He was already preparing a push for FISA Amendments renewal together with Dianne Feinstein (who is apparently having a change of heart about her own retirement).

When I watched the hearing I think I heard Comey say that he + the intelligence community did not want encryption backdoors, but instead wanted to look for 'alternatives' (w/e that would mean). However, I would imagine Trump would be the opposite, and be calling for backdoors. I wouldn't be surprised if he compared encryption to suspicion of terrorism..

There is no alternative to backdoors. Other than trying to ban encryption again.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#92
post #4

"Trump just fired the man leading a counterintelligence investigation into his campaign, on the same day that the Senate Intelligence commitee requested financial documents relating to Trump's business dealings from the treasury department that handles money laundering." -Comment from reddit that sums up how strange this is.

The implication of this comment only holds if the replacement FBI Director drops the investigation. The FBI Director themselves are not conducting the investigation, but have instructed the investigation to be conducted. It stands that we should expect the investigation to continue in Comey's absence. Should it cease, this comment would gain merit.

The reasons cited for the dismissal appear valid on their face: the handling of the Clinton email investigation had a measurable impact on the election and perhaps could have been handled better.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#93
post #9

Hopefully there's a silver lining and that this means the encryption backdoor push (led by Comey) will slow to a crawl or be forgotten. He was already preparing a push for FISA Amendments renewal together with Dianne Feinstein (who is apparently having a change of heart about her own retirement).

Unfortunately that mode of thinking seems to be bipartisan. Recall Clinton's stance on the San Bernardino case:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/12/hillary-clinton-...

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#95

I'm pretty sure the customary reply from the MAGA camp will be that these are all political appointees, and serve at the President's pleasure. All that is formally true. But it doesn't make it any less uncanny that such a person would be fired at the very moment he ramps up an investigation into Trump's business activities.

The reply from the MAGA camp is "Trump will appoint someone to go after his political enemies for personal gain" except they're happy about it:

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=comey...

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#96
post #74
post #61

The FBI director is supposed to have a 10 year term. That went in after J. Edgar Hoover died. Nobody wanted another J. Edgar Hoover FBI Director for Life situation, but having the FBI director be a "pleasure of the President" appointment made it too political. This makes Andrew G. McCabe acting FBI director. He's in the civil service, not a Presidential appointment. He was an FBI agent and worked his way up. From wha…

The looming senate fight to confirm a replacement is going to be absolutely massive.

That depends on how well the GOP sticks together: they only need a simple majority vote to confirm.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#99
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's not what he did. there already was an investigation. What comey announced right before the elections was that they had found more of clinton's emails in another, unrelated case. That invesigation was into Anthony Weiner, who was married to Clinton's advisor Huma Abedin. Weiner was sexting a 15-year-old, Abedin was forwarding some emails to weiner's computer to be printed out. In investigating weiner's computer…

Just in order to keep the record straight, I find it necessary to point out that Comey's specific testimony (last week) on the forwarding of emails was false, and that false testimony may be directly related to his being dismissed today. https://www.propublica.org/article/comeys-testimony-on-huma-...

just as likely, if not more likely, that he was fired for correcting the record today. (doubtful but who knows)

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#100
post #4

"Trump just fired the man leading a counterintelligence investigation into his campaign, on the same day that the Senate Intelligence commitee requested financial documents relating to Trump's business dealings from the treasury department that handles money laundering." -Comment from reddit that sums up how strange this is.

The man at the FBI leading the investigation into the Trump / Russia connection was fired upon recommendation from Sessions who said he was recusing himself from all Russia / Trump investigations. Looking corrupt as hell? Most certainly.

At this point Trump is looking more and more like Nixon on fast-forward.
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