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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI have about as much sympathy for McCabe as I have for Comey
Was his firing cruel and vindictive? Yes. Should it lead to another count of obstruction of justice against the orange clown? Yes.
But let's be honest here: Comey and McCabe are the reason we have Trump. It was their tag-team mishandling of the Weiner laptop fiasco that helped throw the election. McCabe was the guy who sat on the laptop until two weeks before the election, and he was also the guy keeping the investigation into the Clinton Foundation alive well after the career prosecutors at DOJ had informed the FBI they didn't think there was a case to be brought.
Moreover, McCabe and Comey are the two who ensured that Hillary couldn't walk away from the investigation with any measure of exoneration. Comey's buffoonish press conference, where he verbally indicted her and then concluded she shouldn't be prosecuted, was a textbook example of cutting someone's legs off and then telling them they are free to run off. Even worse was McCabe's refusal to recuse himself from the investigations despite McAuliffe's huge contributions to his wife's political campaign. Imagine if Mueller announced there was no evidence that Trump obstructed justice, and then we learned that Mueller's wife had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Michael Cohen three months before Mueller was appointed. To put it mildly, that kind of apparent conflict of interest does not create a perception of legitimacy.
Comey and McCabe basically handed the country to Trump, and if that wasn't enough, they each also managed to hand the bronzed buffoon a sledgehammer he could use to crush them. They both got tripped up by the IG -- a guy who was sworn in under Obama. I mean, talk about putting a noose around your own neck and then handing the loose end of the rope to a guy who wants to kill you.
The simple truth is the FBI, and the country, are better off without these mooks.
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)these actions were betrayal of the highest order, Uponit. They were not mistakes or "mishandling." They were intentional.
McCabe was a rising star until he was caught out committing the shocking breach of ethics that ruined his career, imo so large under those circumstances as to be subversive. Comey also committed similarly subversive breaches of ethics that provided Trump a legitimate excuse for maliciously firing him.
We really need to know: WHY did the FBI's two top men take these potentially very self-injurious actions? Did they conspire with others? What ELSE did they do?
What little has been investigated isn't quite over yet. The OIG also investigated Comey's actions from 2016 and in January 2018 announced its report would finally be released in March or April. Btw, the OIG set aside a request to enlarge the Comey investigation to include Sessions and Flynn until the Mueller investigation was concluded...
Bottom line at this point, though, is that both Comey and McCabe attempted to use the power of the FBI influence the election to the benefit of the GOP and the big funders pulling its strings. Further, both were fully aware that Russia was also working to the same purpose -- to get Democrats out of power and Republicans in. Thus, they knew their actions could benefit Putin.
I'm not torn in the least. America desperately needs an independent investigation of the FBI's actions relating to the 2016 election, including and extending to actions regarding Russia's involvement.
exboyfil
(17,857 posts)It is important that the IG report become public. We cannot judge the legitimacy of the termination recommendation without it. I strongly believe that the powerful should be held to the a higher standard than the rank and file. Many agents have been terminated for the same reason given for McCabe's termination.
Of course muddying the waters are Trump's public comments on this (and I am sure the private ones are far worse). Unless our country gets back to understanding the importance of an independent Justice department and FBI, we are doomed.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)reason we have Trump. Not the sole one ,anyway . A lot of factors were involved in Hillarys electoral college loss , including Russian interference and the strategic release of hacked emails from Wikileaks all through Hillarys campaign. It was a perfect storm of many different factors .
Azathoth
(4,603 posts)Which was the culmination of months of his and McCabe's bungling. The Russian interference certainly didn't help, but Hillary nonetheless held a steady lead right till the end of October. The day after Comey's letter, her numbers went into freefall and never recovered.
This isn't just my personal theory. Hillary herself is on record asserting that's what threw the election.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)still_one
(91,940 posts)letter to the republicans in Congress, and the media reported that the email investigation had been reopened. That was a LIE. The media then begin to parade every right wing politician across the television screens propagating that LIE.
Previous to that, the poll numbers indicated Hillary was ahead by 4-5 points. After the letter. that lead was completely erased.
padah513
(2,483 posts)I think Giuliani's "friends" in the FBI forced Comey's hand. He even said in one of those hearings that he was going to get to the bottom of it. Right after that he got fired.
Azathoth
(4,603 posts)Comey's letter didn't throw the election (which is what the other poster is saying), or that he had to send the letter, or that he got fired because he threatened to get to the bottom of Rudy Giuliani's meddling?
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)given the 40 years of relentless rw attacks on her and her husband.
nocalflea
(1,387 posts)What I don't know is the truth and I certainly don't have the perspective to make any solid judgement.
The anger, yeah, I got some of that, along with quite a few questions.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)I've never seen any evidence of this: "Even worse was McCabe's refusal to recuse himself from the investigations despite McAuliffe's huge contributions to his wife's political campaign."
Got any proof he 'refused to recuse'?
Cause from what I've read he went to great pains to make sure he followed FBI ethics guidelines, and seen NOTHING to suggest that had he been told it was not possible for him to proceed as investigator 'ethically', he'd have pursued the task.
Comey was legally obligated to tell Congress about the laptop, it's pretty much that simple. Further, I believe he was purposefully manipulated into doing so by bad actors at FBI NY, and it was Guiliani's work. And it's not Comey's fault that the shitheel GOP ran to the media with the story, nor that the media then trumpeted a bunch of bullshit about the story for days on end.
There's a fuck of a lot of armchair quarterbacking in this post/line of reasoning. You're basically expecting both men to have divined the future ... which is weak, IMHO.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Response to mr_lebowski (Reply #5)
Post removed
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Though I'll stipulate that perhaps 'legally' is a bit of an overstatement ... Comey was OBLIGATED based on his previously given 'word' to Congress. He may've not faced legal jeopardy, but he faced great professional jeopardy, were he simply to bury the news of finding the lappie.
He was set up, it's that simple, and he basically had little choice but to do as he did, and had he not, it could've seriously sullied Clinton's win ... which for all we know, he assumed was a given, and was actually what he preferred. You don't know otherwise.
Further, the note was EXTREMELY TAME and was non-committal about ANYTHING actually having been 'done wrong' by Clinton ... that was SPIN by the GOP, and the friggin Media. So, blame the RIGHT F***ING PEOPLE, why don't you?
Likewise you have NO EVIDENCE McCabe 'insisted' on not recusing himself. You're making that up.
All evidence I've read said he went to great pains to follow ethics guidelines, and had he been told by the ethics EXPERTS at the FBI that he couldn't ethically do the task due to the donations, which he in NO WAY 'hid' from anyone ... he wouldn't have accepted doing it. He followed the rules to a T.
You act like he should've known Trump would get elected and then all this other bullshit would happen ... cause he worked on the Clinton investigation. It's kinda silly.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)You never interfere right before an election. Comey knew that.
Then Trump fired him.
UCmeNdc
(9,589 posts)Trump is engaged in witness intimidation. Trump is sending a message to all career people, fall into the Trump camp or be crushed by any means necessary to protect Herr Trump.
pazzyanne
(6,518 posts)is not what the FBI did, it is what tRump and the Repugs have been doing since they took over our country in trying to smear the intelligence agencies, especially the FBI. After months of denigrating our law enforcement agencies and muddying the waters, firing McCabe just throws in one more distraction. Look over there, there's a shiny object. The agencies in question have kept our country safe for years, albeit with human glitches from time to time. I for one am not ready to give the tRump cabal a pass on what has been transpiring in the past several months. If it comes to a choice between law enforcement and tRump, law enforcement wins hands down in my book. We need to keep our eye on the ball, not on the distractions. I am just as angry about what happened to Hillary as the next person, but our country is in serious trouble and our greatest hope is our professional law enforcement agencies. The "mooks" mentioned above have long careers in service to our country and deserve our support up to and including the machinations and mudslinging which the Repugs and "our" pResident are so apt at using.
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)briefing on the Steele "dossier". Acoording to Corn and Isikoff, Trump thought the FBI/intell community told him about it to show they could blackmail him instead of understanding the purpose was to prepare him so he wasn't blindsided when it became public.