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President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

washingtonpost.com

81–90 of 329 posts

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#81
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…

Like the Republicans in the Senate give half a shit about looking partisan. I wouldn't put it past them to appoint Scott Baio if Trump requested it.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#82

Someone better than me in English, please explain the meaning of the word 'recuse'?

I have only seen the word in the context of a court case.

A judge may recuse themselves from a case when they feel that they cannot judge it objectively (or that a strong objective argument could be made that they cannot judge it objectively). It means they withdraw from the case. So if a case should go before five judges, and two of them recuse, those two won't participate and the decision will be issued by the other three judges.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#83
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't count on it. Trump will likely put someone very right wing into the position and the attack on encryption will intensify.

So the right wing wants to reduce encryption? And the left doesn't? Republican Senator Rand Paul has been at the forefront of fighting for privacy protections. Chuck Schumer sure hasn't.

Well, change 'right wing' to 'Trumpist' and the statement becomes basically accurate.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#86
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…

>As civil service, he can only be fired for cause.

I'm not clear on what "for cause" means for an acting director of the FBI. Wasn't the justification for firing Comey that he mishandled the Clinton email investigation? It looks blown out of proportion to me, but that might count as cause.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#87
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big difference between that and outright firing. Behind the scenes pressure is politics as usual.

Sorry I quoted the wrong bit. He was actually fired. > ut the stubborn Republican FBI Director refused to go voluntarily, finally provoking Bill Clinton to telephone Mr. Sessions on July 20, 1993. The President called twice. The first call was to tell the Director he was fired. The second was to tell the Director it was effective immediately. That’s cold, man.

He was fired for misuse of funds.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#88
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.

SEE EDIT ~~ He also fired the federal judge who ruled against him in Hawaii. So it's not like this is new behavior. ~~ Don't worry though, this is fine . Ed: I'm likely misremembering bluster as taking action, since I can't find specific citations. So I retract the comment, and would strike through it (I don't like deleting text), but don't know if I can on HN.

You might be thinking of Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of NY which would have been in charge of prosecuting the Trump corp, who was fired abruptly by Trump after refusing to resign.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#89
post #44

Say what you want about the politics, but it's inarguable that Comey, whether he wanted to or not, had become a partisan lightning rod for both sides. The unbiased credibility of the FBI was at stake with Comey at the helm, and this is probably a good move for the country.

... depending on who replaces him. If we are going by previous appointments (Jeff Sessions) we could get a complete partisan hack undermining the FBI for political gain.

Re: President Trump Dismisses FBI Director Comey

#90

Someone better than me in English, please explain the meaning of the word 'recuse'?

to remove oneself from duty in a proceeding usually due to conflicts of interest.

i.e., A judge in Florida recently recused herself from a case involving USF's football coach because she was a USF alumna.

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