Fired FBI Director James Comey after his closed-door testimony to Congress, when confronted, weighed in with his thoughts about Republicans, FOX News, President Trump, and (of course) added his personal opinion about everything that has been happening and those things ongoing in the current myriad of investigations in Washington D.C. But obviously, there are numerous things that have happened — primarily with those fired or who have been forced to retire from the FBI and DOJ — that Comey totally ignores in his analysis he shared with the World.
There is a common denominator in this entire debacle, and that common denominator is NOT President Trump: it’s James Comey. HE was the FBI Director who initiated the Hillary Clinton email investigation, stopped it, and started it again. HE was the FBI Director on whose watch the Steele Dossier was brought into focus and given legitimacy. HE was the FBI Director who signed-off on the grossly negligent, fact-missing, illegal FISA warrant applications that initiated the Mueller Investigation and all this noise. HE is the one who has been caught in lie after lie told in public settings and in his contradictory testimony.
Putting it mildly: Comey in the video/audio above rails against President Trump, Trump’s supporters, and FOX News for telling and supporting lies. In fact, COMEY IS THE LIAR!
It is appropriate today that using that position as the basis for this discussion — that Comey lies — to analyze how such an important man in the Department of Justice could justify his actions in numerous false statements about much of every part of every DOJ and FBI investigation currently underway. To reasonable people, unreasonable actions like those of Comey cannot be explained in a reasonable way.
What type of liar could James Comey be?
A Sociopath
A sociopath is typically defined as someone who lies incessantly to get their way and does so with little concern for others. A sociopath is often goal-oriented (i.e., lying is focused—it is done to get one’s way). Sociopaths have little regard or respect for the rights and feelings of others. Sociopaths are often charming and charismatic, but they use their talented social skills in manipulative and self-centered ways.
Compulsive Liar
A compulsive liar is defined as someone who lies out of habit. Lying is their normal and reflexive way of responding to questions. Compulsive liars bend the truth about everything, large and small. For a compulsive liar, telling the truth is very awkward and uncomfortable while lying feels right. Compulsive lying is usually thought to develop in early childhood, due to being placed in an environment where lying was necessary. For the most part, compulsive liars are not overly manipulative and cunning (unlike sociopaths), rather they simply lie out of habit—an automatic response which is hard to break and one that takes its toll on a relationship.
Normal Lies vs. Pathological Lies
Most people occasionally tell “normal” lies as a defense mechanism to avoid the consequences of the truth (e.g. “It was like that when I found it.”) When a lie is told to cheer up a friend or to spare another person’s feelings (e.g. “Your haircut looks great!”), it may be considered a strategy for facilitating positive contact.
Pathological Liars vs. Compulsive Liars
Though often used interchangeably, the terms “pathological liar” and “compulsive liar” are different. Pathological and compulsive liars both make a habit of telling lies, but they have different motives for doing so.
- Trump Dossier: Comey testified that he briefed Trump about the salacious “dossier” before Trump was inaugurated because he’d learned that the media were about to report on it. But it’s more likely that Comey briefed Trump for the express purpose of getting its embarrassing content out into the public. Since, as soon as that meeting was over, it leaked to the press. As Graham and Grassley note in their IG letter, the press wasn’t covering the dossier before that briefing because they considered it unverified. But the mere fact that Trump had been briefed on it instantly made it newsworthy. “CNN only broke the story on the dossier because Mr. Comey briefed the President-Elect about it,” they note. In other words, it’s far more likely that Comey lied about why he briefed Trump, a briefing that just happened to get the entire Russia scandal story rolling in the press.
- Trump Memos: Comey repeatedly asserted that none of the memos he wrote about his interactions with Trump contained any classified information. That matters because Comey took these memos with him after he got fired by Trump, in violation of FBI rules. Comey then shared some of the memos with a friend, who leaked them to the press. Despite Comey’s claims, however, the Hill reported that four of the seven memos did, in fact, contain classified information. So it’s highly likely that Comey shared classified information. Comey did admit that he leaked these documents in hopes that a special counsel would be appointed to investigate Trump. We don’t doubt that’s true.
- Clinton Exoneration: Then there was Comey’s insistence that he hadn’t decided what to do about Hillary Clinton’s private email server scandal until after the FBI interviewed her on July 2, 2016. Comey told Congress that “the decision was made after that (interview) because I didn’t know what was going to happen in that interview. She maybe lied in the interview in a way we could prove.” Long after Comey made that claim, however, draft FBI memos exonerating Clinton — written months before several key figures, including Clinton, had been interviewed — came to light, suggesting that the FBI was planning to exonerate her all along.
- Then a text exchange from two top FBI officials indicated that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch also knew Clinton wouldn’t face charges before Clinton had been interviewed.
- Finally, there’s the claim Comey made when he issued his statement exonerating Clinton that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.” That, too, was not entirely true. As was noted by many federal legal experts in 2016, career agents and attorneys on the case unanimously believed the Democratic presidential nominee should have been charged. What’s more, a key term in Comey’s final statement was changed from earlier drafts from “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless.” The difference was critical because gross negligence is specifically listed as a prosecutable offense when it comes to mishandling classified material, even if there was no intent to do wrong. In other words, the only way Comey could convincingly claim that Clinton’s actions were un-prosecutable was by watering down the language.
In a piece on the Lawfare Blog, Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes note that “The FBI takes telling the truth extremely seriously.” So much so that ” ‘lack of candor’ from employees is a fireable offense — and people are fired for it. Moreover, it doesn’t take an outright lie to be dismissed.” The authors were writing this in the context of why McCabe was fired.
Don’t expect Comey to own up to any of this, even though his tell-all book is titled “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”
Tucker Carlson
Without question, the most detailed and specific commentator at FOX News is talk-show host Tucker Carlson. Much can be said for his style, his “in-your-face” interviews, and confrontational nature. But one thing is certain: Carlson is a researcher and a deep thinker. He often digs out a tidbit or two that no one else seems to have discovered.
I was intrigued during research for this story to find an example of Carlson’s investigative expertise regarding James Comey. Take a look/listen to it here:
Summary
Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is crass, self-confident, often arrogant and combative, and never leaves one wondering how he feels about anything. He is jealously loyal to those who he trusts: often to a fault, as he has discovered. Politics in D.C. is far different from the business world. And people who live and work inside the D.C. beltway are far different from average Americans.
Many feel Donald Trump met his match when he took-on James Comey and made Comey his personal foe. But I am fairly certain that Trump went into that confrontational relationship with his eyes wide open. Comey? Not so much. Let explain.
One thing the Queens mogul learned long ago to simply survive in commercial real estate in New York City is that people more often than not act differently from the perception they paint for all to see. In “Trump World,” that is far more prevalent than in everyday Middle America. And for one to survive in that Swamp requires fortitude far beyond that possessed by most, and the ability to “give it out before it gets thrown at you.” Let’s face it: building a professional career in Queens requires the ability to instantly understand those with whom one interacts. And responses to those people require instant action. Most in Washington don’t quite get that. However, most in Middle America do.
Enter Donald Trump.
We can summarize where the Trump v Comey case is by simply stating this: Trump changed the rules — changed the narrative of “conflict” that has lived almost exclusively one-sided in D.C. for generations. Washington government conflict until now has always been controlled by the “current” political party in power, either Democrats or Republicans. He changed the rules.
What if anything will happen to James Comey and his “associates” who are almost gone from the DOJ and FBI now? It’s anyone’s guess. If those decisions are left to the Mainstream Media, Democrats and Establishment Republicans, the answer is simple: Nothing. But if Trump survives, it will mean an end will have been put to the one-sided government operations that control Washington.
Only one will survive: Comey and Company or Donald Trump. No doubt, the D.C. Establishment is throwing their best game to beat the real estate mogul from Queens. Will their best be good enough?
Surviving in Queens is tough enough. But thriving in Queens says a lot. Donald Trump is NOT just a survivor.
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