AG Lynch, Crooked Hillary also called out by president
A day after he deemed former FBI Director James Comey to be a “slime ball” and a liar, intent on exacting his revenge for his unceremonious and embarrassing firing at the hands of President Trump, the president is back with another Sunday morning tweetstorm, and this time Trump accused Comey of leaving some of the most important questions unanswered regarding his conduct during his final months in office and during the FBI’s probe of Hillary Clinton.
To start off his morning tirade, Trump lashed out at Comey for his stunning admission that the he might have behaved differently toward Clinton if her polling numbers weren’t as strong, and that Comey may not have reopened the Hillary probe if he thought she could lose.
According to excerpts of his memo leaked to the mainstream media, Comey admitted that he publicly revealed the reopening of the FBI’s probe into Clinton’s mishandling of classified information partly because he feared that, once she won, her critics would have grounds to question the legitimacy of her presidency, as we pointed out on Friday.
Trump notes – correctly according to Comey’s own statement – that the FBI director’s admission shows that he was making decisions during the investigation based on whether he believed Clinton would win.
Continuing the raging tweetstorm, Trump then complained that Comey’s characterization of former AG Loretta Lynch’s behavior during the campaign – particularly the pressure she exerted regarding the Clinton probe – validates many of the issues raised by her Republican critics, who have insisted that the former AG be investigated for her “impromptu meeting” with Bill Clinton days before Comey publicly announced the closure of the investigation.
Finally, a day after he deemed Comey a “slimeball”, Trump expands on his new nickname for the former FBI director, deeming him “Slippery James Comey”, although no relation to “Slippery Steve” Bannon.
Separately, Trump also touched on the Cohen raid – arguably the one thing that is keeping him up at night – repeating again that “Attorney Client privilege is now a thing of the past” and advising his twitter followes that “I have many (too many!) lawyers and they are probably wondering when their offices, and even homes, are going to be raided with everything, including their phones and computers, taken. All lawyers are deflated and concerned!”
As Politico pointed out last week, Trump’s aides had hoped his visit to Peru for the summit of North and South American countries, followed by a summit with Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, would distract the president from the Comey book.
But after failing to strike a Nafta deal, Trump cancelled his trip to Lima in order to focus on the Syrian airstrikes which are now also in the historical record and thus no longer preoccupying the public with their “imminence.” We imagine we’ll be hearing more from the president later today, as more details from Comey’s interview with George Stephanopoulos – set to air at 10 pm ET – start to leak.
