BREAKING: Trump Fires Comey

[SteveRogers]

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There we go

Ha

Doesnt the FBI have to sign off on these recommendations before the grand juries go forward? Can someone confirm?

No. Federal prosecutors obviously rely on the FBI to conduct their investigations, but when it comes to running the grand jury and choosing who to indict, the prosecutors run the show.

[KingSweden]

Re: not anticipating blowback... never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity

[The_Doctor]

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There we go

Ha

Doesnt the FBI have to sign off on these recommendations before the grand juries go forward? Can someone confirm?

No. Federal prosecutors obviously rely on the FBI to conduct their investigations, but when it comes to running the grand jury and choosing who to indict, the prosecutors run the show.

So for our edification can you tell us how the FBI would stop an investigation? Could a new director seriously damage it?

[cinyc]

Bharara was actually retained by the Trump Administration so his firing was a bit peculiar. Additionally the FBI director has to sign off on recommendations to prosecute or not. Trump's firing him and Sarah Huckabee saying its time to drop the Russian investigation makes things look highly suspicious and draws questions if Trump and Senate Republicans will confirm an independent director who will continue the investigation.

There's a lot of ways a FBI director can quietly kill or stymie an investigation. As I've said can we really trust Trump to appoint and Senate Republicans to confirm a director who may sign off on a recommendation that may warrant prosecution of a number of Trump associates?

If you believe that why do you believe so?

Bharara was no more "retained" by the Trump administration than the other 46 Obama prosecutors fired on the same day.  No political appointee is safe in his or her job - nor should they be.  They serve at the pleasure of the President, not the other way around.

Contrary to your (and Comey's) belief, FBI directors don't make the ultimate decision on whether to prosecute.  That's ultimately up to Justice Department prosecutors, not the FBI.  Comey's belief that he should be acting as a prosecutor is one of the reasons he has been fired.  The job got to his head, and he was making bad decisions.  His misstatements to Congress last week were the last straw.

Can we really trust any President to appoint FBI director who may sign off on a recommendation that may warrant prosecution of a number of his associates?  Why is Trump any different than Obama or Clinton or Bush?   So why bother appointing FBI directors?  Screaming Russia, Russia, Russia, as you, the liberal media and the Democrats are doing, without a scintilla of evidence that Trump did anything criminal isn't going to change this calculus.  The Russia investigation is part of the FBI's domestic surveillance role, not criminal.

[TheSaint250]

Republicans...they always fall in line:

Even though Richard Burr disagreed, but whatever.

Surprised that Collins of all people agrees

[Matty]

Republicans...they always fall in line:

She said nearly word for word what has been said for MONTHS by liberals.

If you are true to your ethics and your beliefs, and if you truly believed comey was improper in how he handled himself during the clinton email investigation, and possibly violated the hatch act, then you can't help but feel as if justice was done when he got fired.

Would the executing of a child murderer/raper be invalid and unjustified if the execution was carried out by pol pot?

[Brittain33]

So no US President should be able to fire their predecessor's political appointees?  

Don't be disingenuous, cinyc. This wasn't a normal partisan turnover. Trump asked both Comey and Bharara to stay on after he took office—Comey, for another 6 years—only to fire each of them suddenly and outside of other political office turnovers when they started reaching into dangerous territory in their uncovering of crimes and corruption in the Republican's campaign and administration.

[Bismarck]

Republicans...they always fall in line:

I Put more stock in Collins than red avatar conspiracy theorists. You guys are reaching Alex Jones levels.

[ApatheticAustrian]

once again....the problem with the comey firing is not the firing but the timing.


Sources: Admin has been pressing FBI to get more aggressive on leak probes, and dissatisfied with FBI's responses
https://twitter.com/DevlinBarrett/status/862114462354083840

[Brittain33]

Bharara was no more "retained" by the Trump administration than the other 46 Obama prosecutors fired on the same day.

Bharara was explicitly asked to stay on by Trump himself.

[Brittain33]

...then you can't help but feel as if justice was done when he got fired.

On behalf of Democrats and independents everywhere: good luck with that.

It's not at all hard to believe both that a) Comey was a f&ck-up on many levels who handed Trump the presidency and b) Trump firing him today is a massive abuse of power related to Comey's investigation of Republican scandals.

[Pyro]

Republicans...they always fall in line:

Trump's excuse is not working. The responses to Collins' statement on Twitter are telling.

[ApatheticAustrian]

https://twitter.com/AtticusGF/status/862120775225966592

Burr and Sasse are FFs...




https://twitter.com/SenatorBurr/status/862092007707209730

[ProudModerate2]

Republicans...they always fall in line:

She said nearly word for word what has been said for MONTHS by liberals.

If you are true to your ethics and your beliefs, and if you truly believed comey was improper in how he handled himself during the clinton email investigation, and possibly violated the hatch act, then you can't help but feel as if justice was done when he got fired.

Would the executing of a child murderer/raper be invalid and unjustified if the execution was carried out by pol pot?

Funny how, now all of a sudden, someone like boshembechle (marty) quotes and agrees with anything Susan Collins says.
LOL.

[coloradocowboi]

Just a few facts for the blue avatars:

The Dems aren't "out of touch" and on a "witch hunt": public opinion shows that a huge majority of Americans want a special prosecutor--just go find the CNN/ORC polls or PPP polls from March.

Nobody is a hypocrite because nobody is defending Comey or his prior actions, but rather saying that this looks like a move to cover up the Russia investigation, which Sarah Huckabee Sanders' comments just a little bit ago basically confirm. So, you're making a false equivalence here. We don't want Comey, we want an investigation unimpeded by the President.

There is absolutely evidence that could indict Trump himself possible, and almost certainly his campaign. It's a fact that Manafort, Page, Flynn, and other were in contact with Putin's people. It's a fact that the leaks targeted against HRC were launched by hackers with ties to the Kremlin. I'm not saying it's a smoking gun, but it certainly is something that merits a serious investigation. Now, I know that some of you dgaf because you think women are made of ribs and climate change is a Chinese hoax. But most Americans haven't descended down that hole yet. See my first point.

Which brings me to that final point about that hole: I know that you know your logic is shoddy, but for the past few decades you've built an alternative media apparatus to reify your unfounded beliefs, brainwash others, and keep an unsustainable status quo in place that is based on buzzwords like freedom and justice, but really has no values--as your flippant disregard for the sanctity of this investigation demonstrates. That's the textbook definition of fascist ideology--not an insult, just a fact--so just know that nobody arguing in favor of continuing the investigation is outside of the mainstream; you are.

[Nyvin]

 Screaming Russia, Russia, Russia, as you, the liberal media and the Democrats are doing, without a scintilla of evidence that Trump did anything criminal isn't going to change this calculus.  The Russia investigation is part of the FBI's domestic surveillance role, not criminal.

You seriously think the entire Michael Flynn ordeal is "not a scintilla of evidence"?

Not to mention the plethora of other contacts to Russia that the Trump Administration has?

[The_Doctor]

Bharara was actually retained by the Trump Administration so his firing was a bit peculiar. Additionally the FBI director has to sign off on recommendations to prosecute or not. Trump's firing him and Sarah Huckabee saying its time to drop the Russian investigation makes things look highly suspicious and draws questions if Trump and Senate Republicans will confirm an independent director who will continue the investigation.

There's a lot of ways a FBI director can quietly kill or stymie an investigation. As I've said can we really trust Trump to appoint and Senate Republicans to confirm a director who may sign off on a recommendation that may warrant prosecution of a number of Trump associates?

If you believe that why do you believe so?

Bharara was no more "retained" by the Trump administration than the other 46 Obama prosecutors fired on the same day.  No political appointee is safe in his or her job - nor should they be.  They serve at the pleasure of the President, not the other way around.

Contrary to your (and Comey's) belief, FBI directors don't make the ultimate decision on whether to prosecute.  That's ultimately up to Justice Department prosecutors, not the FBI.  Comey's belief that he should be acting as a prosecutor is one of the reasons he has been fired.  The job got to his head, and he was making bad decisions.  His misstatements to Congress last week were the last straw.

Can we really trust any President to appoint FBI director who may sign off on a recommendation that may warrant prosecution of a number of his associates?  Why is Trump any different than Obama or Clinton or Bush?   So why bother appointing FBI directors?  Screaming Russia, Russia, Russia, as you, the liberal media and the Democrats are doing, without a scintilla of evidence that Trump did anything criminal isn't going to change this calculus.  The Russia investigation is part of the FBI's domestic surveillance role, not criminal.

Okay here's a question before I go on -- where do you stand on Trump and Russia? You're on record believing there should be no investigation? If so given the multiple concerns of the intelligence community (and their January assertion that Russia worked to elect Trump), and the British and other European intelligence services saying there were Trump and Russia ties and Comey taking seriously the Steele dossier (ditto McCain) do you believe all current investigations should be ended or what?

to answer your question that's why we normally have Senate confirmation of an FBI director. However Trump removed Comey at a time when Comey was doing active investigations on Trump's campaign. I don't recall when an FBI director was removed during an investigation that had as much circumstantial evidence. That's what distinguishes this from a normal situation (Obama, Bush etc as you said), especially after the Yates testimony of yesterday and Comey's testimony of March 20. It raises questions of motive here.

My question is if the Director has to sign off on the domestic surveillance section's recommendations or if he can influence the investigation? You're not clarifying that the Director can't do that.

[136or142]

...then you can't help but feel as if justice was done when he got fired.

On behalf of Democrats and independents everywhere: good luck with that.

It's not at all hard to believe both that a) Comey was a f&ck-up on many levels who handed Trump the presidency and b) Trump firing him today is a massive abuse of power related to Comey's investigation of Republican scandals.

Trump supporters are unable to hold two seemingly contradictory ideas in their head at the same time and realize both of them might be true.  This is a bit odd because Trump himself holds two genuinely  contradictory ideas in his head all the time and thinks both of them are true (sometimes both at the same time, sometimes one at a time.)

[Matty]

i love susan collins

[ApatheticAustrian]

Rubio being Rubio


Marco Rubio "surprised" by Comey's firing, "but it's a decision the president's made and we'll go from here."
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/862109016461201408

[ajc0918]

Trump puppets are getting nervous...

[cinyc]

Bharara was no more "retained" by the Trump administration than the other 46 Obama prosecutors fired on the same day.

Bharara was explicitly asked to stay on by Trump himself.

Says the guy who got fired.

And if he answered the phone call Trump made to him in the day or two before the announcement, he might still be US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  But he didn't.  Next time, don't duck the phone call from your boss if you're a political appointee. 

US Attorneys serve at the will of the President (or, I think, technically, the Attorney General), and can be fired for any reason or none at all.  46 other political appointees were fired the same day.

[Brittain33]

US Attorneys serve at the will of the President (or, I think, technically, the Attorney General), and can be fired for any reason or none at all.  46 other political appointees were fired the same day.

How many of the 46 other political appointees were personally asked by Trump to stay on in the new administration, cinyc?

[136or142]

I thought this was funny:
https://twitter.com/SarahFoxes/status/862097068151779329

[MAINEiac4434]

Collins is deplorable af. Hope she runs for Governor so I can vote against her again.