JAMES COMEY FRIENDSHIP WITH ROBERT MUELLER CONFLICT OF INTEREST DURING RUSSIA PROBE

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/338210-trump-allies-hit-mueller-on-re...

Trump allies hit Mueller on relationship with Comey

President Trump’s legal team is zeroing-in on the relationship between former FBI directors Robert Mueller and James Comey to argue that their long professional partnership represents a conflict of interest that compromises Mueller’s integrity as special counsel.

The effort to make the case about a conflict of interest around Mueller’s investigative body comes amid reports that Mueller is looking into whether Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice for allegedly asking Comey to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump later fired Comey.

The president tweeted Friday that he is under investigation for firing Comey — proceedings Trump ripped as a “witch hunt.”

Those making the case that Mueller is compromised because of his relationship with Comey point to a Justice Department statute that says recusal is necessary when there is the “appearance” of a “personal” conflict of interest.

“Mueller is compromised by the close professional — and I would sure think personal — relationship with Comey,” said Bill Otis, the former special counsel for President George H.W. Bush. “That is an encompassing standard…that should be interpreted broadly so that the public will have maximum confidence in the outcome of the special counsel's work, however it winds up.”

That is not the view of many others in the legal community, who are irate that some would seek to cast doubt on the veracity of Mueller’s special counsel by alleging that he is incapable of conducting a fair investigation.

Mueller, a decorated Marine Corps veteran, has a sterling reputation as an independent investigator.


“Mueller is absolutely not compromised by his professional relationship with Comey,” said Richard Painter, the White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush. “This is just an effort to undermine the credibility of the special counsel.”
Spokespeople for Trump’s legal team and Mueller’s special counsel declined to comment.

These heavy questions and many more hung over Washington on Friday as Mueller built the special counsel’s staff by hiring a dozen top-level prosecutors.

Mueller’s hires have experience in complicated investigations, including Watergate, Enron and Mafia prosecutions. That’s raised speculation that the special counsel investigation might extend to Trump’s business empire, which the president has tried to shield from public scrutiny.

“The biggest risks in these kinds of cases are the collateral offenses,” said Jonathan Turley, a legal professor at George Washington University.

Vice President Pence has obtained legal counsel, as has Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen. Members of Trump’s transition team are being told to preserve materials that might be relevant to the special counsel’s investigation.

“If I worked at the White House right now I’d quit,” said Painter. “There’s no way I’d stick around and wait for someone to throw me under the bus.”

The administration’s allies are pushing back back furiously on the special counsel investigation, pointing to donations some prosecutors made to Democratic candidates. Trump’s backers are also fuming over the latest round of anonymous leaks, which they say are designed to keep a shadow of suspicion over the White House.

Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein took the unusual step Thursday of releasing a statement warning that reports citing anonymous officials are not to be trusted, suggesting that the leaks revealing the obstruction investigation into Trump did not come from the Justice Department or the special counsel.

Still, speculation is growing that Trump is laying the groundwork to have Mueller removed as special counsel, an action that Trump’s allies warn would backfire and potentially lead to impeachment.

“It would be a mistake to fire Mueller at this point,” said Bill Barr, a former attorney general in the George H.W. Bush administration.

The fate of Rosenstein is also the subject of intense speculation. There are questions about whether the deputy attorney general, who wrote the memo the administration initially used to justify firing Comey, will have to recuse himself from the investigation if he becomes a witness in the obstruction case.

“The safest thing is probably for him to recuse himself,” said John Wood, a former U.S. attorney.

Again, the legal community is split here.

“Rosenstein needs to stay on to protect the integrity of the investigation,” said Robert Ray, the former independent counsel for the Whitewater case. “If Rod thinks he needs to recuse, I’m sure he will, but for the life of me I don’t see a basis for it.”

But the allegations that Mueller is too close to Comey have moved to the forefront of the debate around the special counsel and go to the heart of whether the special counsel can conduct an impartial investigation around Trump and his associates.

https://libertywriters.com/2017/06/president-trump-just-rushed-spilled-beans-hil...

IT’S OVER! President Trump Just RUSHED OUT And Spilled The Beans On Hillary Clinton

President Trump doesn’t mess around and launched a brutal attack on Hillary Clinton. Trump slammed her and called the probe by special counsel “the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very conflicted people!”




Trump slammed crooked Hillary in his Thursday afternoon tweet storm. Look what he said here: “Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, ‘bleached’ emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction?”


This is true. Clinton did destroy multiple blackberries with hammers and her team did use a software to delete all the emails.

You remember what the Whitehouse said about the use of Hillary Clinton’s hammers.




“Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?” Trump asked.

Karnal wrote on Jun 18^th, 2017 at 3:03pm:


this thread is " drain the swamp "

if you do not like how president trump is draining the swamp

or his tweets about as much ,

here is a video that may be more to your liking ..

Liberal Media MELTDOWN after Trump's Victory

Now he's shifting to news about news.

All is in accordance with the DP.

Now he's back to Trump winning the erection again.

Fatty's Fake News Network, fair, fake and false.

it_is_the_light wrote on Jun 18^th, 2017 at 4:19pm:


Yes, dear one, I can admit it. Mr Trump won the erection.

He is now busy making new swamps for his people to fall in.

All is in accordance, no?

AFTER MADDOW DENIES CONNECTION TO GOP SHOOTER, PEOPLE NOTICE SOMETHING MISSING FROM HER SHOW

Jack Davis for Western Journalism reports, After the possible connection between MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and the rifleman who attacked congressional Republicans on Wednesday was laid bare for the world to see, MSNBC responded at first with a disavowal from Maddow and then failed to repeat it on the re-broadcast of her show.

http://www.westernjournalism.com/msnbc-runs-but-doesnt-re-run-disavowal-of-baseb...

MSNBC Runs But Doesn’t Re-run Disavowal Of Baseball Shooter’s Connection With Maddow

After the possible connection between MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and the rifleman who attacked congressional Republicans on Wednesday was laid bare for the world to see, MSNBC responded at first with a disavowal from Maddow and then failed to repeat it on the re-broadcast of her show.

James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleview, Ill., who shot House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and five others at a baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., was a political liberal who supported the presidential campaign of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and who often wrote to his local newspaper on the subject of income inequality.

On Wednesday, after Hodgkinson was identified as the shooter, the Belleview News-Democrat ran a selection of Hodgkinson’s letters to the editor.

“One of my favorite TV shows is The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC,” he wrote on July 29, 2012. “On a recent show she stated that 17 very rich men are supplying the Republican Party with more than 60 percent of their campaign contributions.”

On Wednesday night, Maddow disavowed any connection with the gunman.

“Hodgkinson once submitted a letter to the editor that cited statistics about political donations that he says he heard on this TV show, because he said he watched this TV show,” she said.

Looks like in Trumpitopia the solution to obstruction of justice is more obstruction of justice.

This guy throws stones at anyone who is not 100% covering up his mistakes.