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lanlady

(7,133 posts)
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:28 PM May 2017

Comey memo says Trump asked him to end Flynn investigation

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo that Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.
“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.
The existence of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.
Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation. An F.B.I. agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.
Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of the memo to a Times reporter.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.
Mr. Comey did not say anything to Mr. Trump about curtailing the investigation, only replying: “I agree he is a good guy.”
In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo.
“While the president has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” the statement said. “The president has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”
In testimony to the Senate last week, the acting F.B.I. director, Andrew McCabe, said, “There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date.”
A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.
Mr. Comey created similar memos — including some that are classified — about every phone call and meeting he had with the president, the two people said. It is unclear whether Mr. Comey told the Justice Department about the conversation or his memos.



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/politics/james-comey-trump-flynn-russia-investigation.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

58 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Comey memo says Trump asked him to end Flynn investigation (Original Post) lanlady May 2017 OP
If that isn't obstruction of justice jpak May 2017 #1
As if we needed any more intrigue. nycbos May 2017 #2
"It's not obstruction of justice if the President does it..." regnaD kciN May 2017 #21
Message deleted by DU the Administrators lanlady May 2017 #3
exactly. Trump doesn't care about anyone if he trying to protect Flynn it's to protect himself luvMIdog May 2017 #58
impeachable offense nt geek tragedy May 2017 #4
This is bad, right? Mrs. Overall May 2017 #5
Impeachable Doodley May 2017 #6
+1 onetexan May 2017 #34
Obviously we need to look into Hillary's emails again left-of-center2012 May 2017 #7
CNN REPORTING NOW lamp_shade May 2017 #8
HOLY SHIT.... this feels like 1974 all over again groundloop May 2017 #9
Watergate on steroids! lanlady May 2017 #11
I would say the over/under would be July 4 world wide wally May 2017 #38
Message deleted by DU the Administrators GeoWilliam750 May 2017 #47
I almost hope the Republicans drag this out for another 18 months because Pence catbyte May 2017 #54
Wow it's a big news day TNLib May 2017 #10
And Comey . . . "I agree he is a good guy"$&?&&! Really!!!!????!!! That's what good guys do . . . Liberal In Red State May 2017 #12
Well, what could Comey say? canetoad May 2017 #24
I'm sure he was trying to be accommodating reflection May 2017 #50
The Republicans in Congress will make sure nothing comes from this. LonePirate May 2017 #13
One of the newblewtoo May 2017 #14
CYA documentation is also very common in the business world. Enoki33 May 2017 #41
I'm sick and tired of the inaction WilmywoodNCparalegal May 2017 #15
It just gets crazier... The Velveteen Ocelot May 2017 #16
Waiting to hear from Repug leaders! riversedge May 2017 #17
Trump: I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go, Mr. Trump told M riversedge May 2017 #18
"In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo." regnaD kciN May 2017 #19
Or maybe trumpy has a tape of the conversation??????????????? riversedge May 2017 #22
LOL, he'd have to produce the recording to prove it. tanyev May 2017 #31
My money is on Comey hamsterjill May 2017 #44
More BAD JUDGMENT from Trump riversedge May 2017 #20
This presidency is so much worse cilla4progress May 2017 #23
- Bigredhunk May 2017 #25
We Cry It Out Every Day: Ccarmona May 2017 #26
Puts a whole 'nother spin on... yallerdawg May 2017 #27
Message deleted by DU the Administrators Qutzupalotl May 2017 #28
K&R orangecrush May 2017 #29
Flynn must have something on Trump... Blue Meany May 2017 #30
I think Trump is scared of the Russian thugs. yardwork May 2017 #40
I think there's something to this paranoid floyd May 2017 #46
Gets worse every day. Dopers_Greed May 2017 #32
OH...MY.....GOD. There it is, in black and white. There it is. nt Honeycombe8 May 2017 #33
Now we know why Sessions recused himself without telling Trump, it's also why Trump blew a gasket Snake Plissken May 2017 #35
Is McCabe in on it, with Trump? Wouldn't Comey have let McCabe know of this memo? nt Honeycombe8 May 2017 #36
WaPo link BumRushDaShow May 2017 #37
urged Comey to pursue reporters in leak investigations - this is corroborated in his tweets n/t funkybutt May 2017 #43
Nobody believes Trump at this point. He has zero credibility. yardwork May 2017 #39
Who remembers the hissy fit Repugs threw caballojm May 2017 #42
Damn good point. n/t reflection May 2017 #51
OBSTRUCTION gopiscrap May 2017 #45
"Part of a paper trail" suffragette May 2017 #48
But he used air quotes, briv1016 May 2017 #49
k and r......nt. Stuart G May 2017 #52
White Hat GliderGuider May 2017 #53
A reasonable question under the circumstances. Turbineguy May 2017 #55
Oh why, oh why couldn't all of this come out before the EC voted....maybe Hill would be in office... iluvtennis May 2017 #56
Comey's notes are very good. Cha May 2017 #57

catbyte

(34,340 posts)
54. I almost hope the Republicans drag this out for another 18 months because Pence
Tue May 16, 2017, 08:16 PM
May 2017

is in this up to his eyeballs. If we can get rid of both of them, and we can take the House in 2018, we could have a Democratic President like we should've had all along instead of President Goddamn Ryan.

It's really far fetched, I know, but a gal can dream, can't she?

TNLib

(1,819 posts)
10. Wow it's a big news day
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:35 PM
May 2017

The hits just keep coming. Breaking news breaking the other breaking news breaking the other breaking news.

I think it's going to be like this till he's out.

12. And Comey . . . "I agree he is a good guy"$&?&&! Really!!!!????!!! That's what good guys do . . .
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:36 PM
May 2017

sell their country to the highest bidder?

canetoad

(17,136 posts)
24. Well, what could Comey say?
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:46 PM
May 2017

"Flynn is a treacherous bastard and we're going to persecute him to the ends of the earth"?

reflection

(6,286 posts)
50. I'm sure he was trying to be accommodating
Tue May 16, 2017, 07:16 PM
May 2017

without backing down. To say in a private meeting "I agree he is a good guy" costs nothing and keeps a mercurial boss from firing him so he can continue to investigate.

LonePirate

(13,408 posts)
13. The Republicans in Congress will make sure nothing comes from this.
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:39 PM
May 2017

The Constitution and all laws do not apply to rich, white, male Republicans.

newblewtoo

(667 posts)
14. One of the
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:39 PM
May 2017

first things you learn to do working for the Fed is write a CYA memo after a meeting. I actually had a directory called CYA (full of memo's to file).

Enoki33

(1,587 posts)
41. CYA documentation is also very common in the business world.
Tue May 16, 2017, 06:23 PM
May 2017

Let's see how trump tries to lie his way out by smearing Comey. That has been his pattern.

WilmywoodNCparalegal

(2,654 posts)
15. I'm sick and tired of the inaction
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:40 PM
May 2017

This is obstruction of justice. Between this and the leaks of highly classified information, this man is not fit (mentally, intellectually, ethically) to be President. I've come to believe that his statement (that he could shoot someone on Fifth Ave. without consequence) is probably one of the truest things he's ever said.

Inaction by the GOP is, at this stage, intolerable and an affront to the principles of this democratic republic. What will it take for someone to say 'Enough!' and forget about party loyalty... We have reached a point of no return, I am afraid. Either something happens now, or we may as well forget all the tenets we teach in schools about the Constitution, separation of powers, no one above the law, etc.

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,607 posts)
16. It just gets crazier...
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:40 PM
May 2017

I'm old and I've experienced several bad presidents: Nixon, Reagan and Bush. All of them were awful, but they were awful in a sort of normal and conventional way. Nixon was a crook who tried to cover up his minions' attempts to illegally eavesdrop on the opposing party. Reagan was a racist and a liar who claimed he didn't know anything about the Iran-Contra affair in which the administration secretly set up the sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. And George W. Bush ... need I say more?

But Trump is different. He's not only bad, he's weird. Industrial-strength, weapons-grade weird. Galactically weird. I knew he would be a bad president, but he's bad and weird in a way I could never have imagined. It's like Fellini directed All the President's Men.

riversedge

(70,090 posts)
18. Trump: I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go, Mr. Trump told M
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:44 PM
May 2017




.....“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.

regnaD kciN

(26,044 posts)
19. "In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo."
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:45 PM
May 2017

...meaning, of course, that Trump will tweet confirmation of the account by tomorrow morning at the latest.

cilla4progress

(24,718 posts)
23. This presidency is so much worse
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:46 PM
May 2017

Than even imagined.

Can we now return to letting adults run the country? Deplorables be damned!

 

Ccarmona

(1,180 posts)
26. We Cry It Out Every Day:
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:54 PM
May 2017

"WHERE ARE THE REPUBLICANS". It's the death of this Country if they keep quite and complicit, and they don't care.

yallerdawg

(16,104 posts)
27. Puts a whole 'nother spin on...
Tue May 16, 2017, 05:54 PM
May 2017

“It makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had an impact on the election.."

"Oops. Did I do that?"

 

Blue Meany

(1,947 posts)
30. Flynn must have something on Trump...
Tue May 16, 2017, 06:02 PM
May 2017

The Donald is a narcissist; he uses people and discards them when they're not serving to inflate his image in the eyes of the world. He would not care about Flynn at all if he couldn't implicate him in something.

paranoid floyd

(254 posts)
46. I think there's something to this
Tue May 16, 2017, 06:39 PM
May 2017

This occurred to me as well Blue Meany. Trump cares for no one, yet he'll go to the mat for Flynn over and over. Does Flynn know where the bodies are buried?

Snake Plissken

(4,103 posts)
35. Now we know why Sessions recused himself without telling Trump, it's also why Trump blew a gasket
Tue May 16, 2017, 06:09 PM
May 2017

when he found out Sessions recused himself. It was Sessions job to get Comey to stop investigating anything to do with Russia.

BumRushDaShow

(128,514 posts)
37. WaPo link
Tue May 16, 2017, 06:18 PM
May 2017
Notes made by former FBI Director Comey say Trump pressured him to end Flynn probe

By Devlin Barrett, Ellen Nakashima and Matt Zapotosky May 16 at 6:05 PM

President Trump asked the FBI to drop its investigation into his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and urged the FBI director James B. Comey instead to pursue reporters in leak investigations, according to private notes taken by Comey, according to people familiar with the matter.

According to a set of notes written by Comey following a February meeting with the president, Trump brought up the counterintelligence investigation into Flynn and urged Comey to drop the probe in the wake of the national security adviser’s resignation.

“I hope you can let this go,’’ Trump said, according to the Comey notes, which were described by associates. Comey’s written account of the meeting is two pages long and highly detailed, the associates said. The details of Comey’s notes of the meeting were first reported by The New York Times.

Officials have previously said that Trump and his senior staff have been pressing the FBI to prioritize leak investigations over the bureau’s ongoing probe into possible coordination between Russian officials and Trump associates. On Tuesday, people close to the matter said Comey kept detailed notes of his multiple conversations with Trump.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/notes-made-by-former-fbi-director-comey-say-trump-pressured-him-to-end-flynn-probe/2017/05/16/52351a38-3a80-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html

yardwork

(61,539 posts)
39. Nobody believes Trump at this point. He has zero credibility.
Tue May 16, 2017, 06:19 PM
May 2017

White House denials are meaningless at this point.

caballojm

(270 posts)
42. Who remembers the hissy fit Repugs threw
Tue May 16, 2017, 06:24 PM
May 2017

when Bill Clinton met with Loretta Lynch on a tarmac in Phoenix? I'm sure the silence will be deafening now. Hypocrites.

suffragette

(12,232 posts)
48. "Part of a paper trail"
Tue May 16, 2017, 06:48 PM
May 2017

"The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation."

Given how important this one memo is, Trump and his cabal have got to be sweating about it only being "part" of what Comey has.

Turbineguy

(37,293 posts)
55. A reasonable question under the circumstances.
Tue May 16, 2017, 09:03 PM
May 2017

If you're a 4 year old. "If I put the part of the cookie that I didn't eat back in the jar......?"

iluvtennis

(19,835 posts)
56. Oh why, oh why couldn't all of this come out before the EC voted....maybe Hill would be in office...
Tue May 16, 2017, 09:29 PM
May 2017

...Trump is DISGUSTING. Impeach him now.

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