‘One of the ways you undermine an adversary is to tell them you know all about it…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey used a supposed defense briefing with newly-elected Donald Trump to spy on the president-elect, according to a report from The Epoch Times.
The meeting in question took place at New York’s Trump Tower on Jan. 6, 2017. There, Comey informed Trump of the allegations contained in the notorious Steele dossier, most notably that the Russians had compromising information on him involving “salacious” sex acts.
Three days later, the dossier was leaked to the media and went public, but it was swiftly debunked as poorly sourced and unverified information.
A recent investigation by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General determined that Comey was indirectly responsible for the leaking of FBI memos that contained classified information to The New York Times.
Other high-ups in the agency during the Obama administration also were determined to have been systematically leaking information—sometimes illegally.
Comey’s deputy director, Andrew McCabe, was later fired for perjuring himself before Congress after lying about his leaking.
Comey was fired less than five months into the Trump presidency, which in turn triggered the nearly two-year Mueller investigation.
While that investigation—after spending an estimated $30 million—found no evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, both DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz and special prosecutor John Durham have continued to investigate the collusion between the Hillary Clinton campaign and the FBI that likely was the source of the hoax.
The Steele dossier, compiled by ex British spy Christopher Steele, was commissioned indirectly by the Clinton camp through partisan research firm Fusion GPS, which used the husband–wife duo of Bruce and Nellie Ohr to transmit it to the FBI.
The agency then used the information to launch its own investigation into the Trump campaign, including the wiretapping of at least one campaign adviser, Carter Page.
In a warrant application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court, it falsely cited the Steele dossier as a verified source.
But The Epoch Times said that Horowitz’s report on Comey, released last week, revealed even more evidence of spying—not only with his direct knowledge, but conducted by the then-FBI director, himself.
“Comey told Horowitz that the information he obtained from his conversation with Trump ‘ought to be treated…[like] FISA derived information or information in a [counterintelligence] investigation,'” said The Epoch Times in an article posted Sunday.
“In other words, his meeting with Trump had very direct surveillance overtones and intentions—and directly counters what he had testified to Congress,” it said.
Comey previously insinuated before a Republican-led congressional investigative committee that the aim had been to offer full transparency to Trump.
“He needed to know this was being said,” Comey testified. “I was very keen not to leave him with an impression that the bureau was trying to do something to him.”
He reportedly told Trump point-blank at the meeting that he was not under investigation.
However, in subsequent public accounts by Comey himself, he struck a more antagonistic tone, relaying how he had met with then-President Barack Obama and CIA Director John Brennan to determine whether to divulge the dossier allegations to Trump.
They agreed to do it because “one of the ways you undermine an adversary is to tell them you know all about it,” Comey told an audience at Queens University in March.
Comey also met with key FBI players involved in the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into Trump—among them, McCabe and chief counsel James Baker—where they decided that he should use the meeting to gather additional intelligence.
“Multiple FBI witnesses recalled agreeing ahead of time that Comey should memorialize his meeting with Trump immediately after it occurred,” said the IG report.
As soon as he left Trump Tower, Comey began composing the first of the series of memoranda intended to undermine Trump, some of which he later leaked to the media.
“Comey said he had a secure FBI laptop waiting for him in his FBI vehicle and that when he got into the vehicle, he was handed the laptop and ‘began typing [Memo 1] as the vehicle moved,'” said the IG report.
Although the IG’s office referred Comey for prosecution previously, the Justice Department declined. The new report, while it confirmed the leaking had occurred, stopped short of saying Comey violated the law.
Comey took to Twitter afterward to, once again, mislead the public with a deceptively worded statement suggesting that the memos did not contain classified information and that the report exonerated him.
DOJ IG “found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media.” I don’t need a public apology from those who defamed me, but a quick message with a “sorry we lied about you” would be nice.
— James Comey (@Comey) August 29, 2019