Another so-called secret document leaked to the New York Times, this time allegedly explaining the real reason behind President Donald Trump firing FBI Director James Comey May 9. Trump’s detractors on both sides of the aisle insist Trump fired Comey to obstruct an investigation into alleged collusion with Russia in the 2016 election. Trump’s critics on Capitol Hill, especially House Intelligence Committee Co-chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), contend that Trump obstructed an FBI investigation firing Comey. Eight days after Comey’s firing, Acting Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to investigate Russian meddling and Trump collusion in the 2016 campaign, something that hasn’t turned up much, other than daily leaks implicating Trump’s associates, including his son Don Jr., in Russian collusion.
Today’s New York Times bombshell involves Trump’s draft letter to explain Comey’s firing, before Rosenstein issued his May 10 detailed three-page letter explaining Comey’s termination. Written by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, the draft letter mentioned nothing about Comey botching the email investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, focusing instead on Comey’s propensity to grandstand, overstep his boundaries and take matters into his own hands. Trump’s enemies want to make the case that Trump fired Comey to obstruct the ongoing investigation into Russian collusion. Given to Mueller, Trump’s enemies hope that Miller’s draft letter implicates Trump in obstruction, something the FBI hasn’t proved. Mueller knows that Trump might have had multiple reasons for terminating Comey, including that he thought he was incompetent.
Trump’s detractors hoped that it provided an inside look at Trump “real” reasons for firing Comey, namely, to obstruct the FBI investigation. When you think of Comey’s titular role in the Russian meddling and Trump collusion investigation, it’s preposterous to think that firing Comey could obstruct an investigation. Mueller knows that the investigation was in the hands of career investigators, not the former FBI Director. Every bombshell reported in the New York Times becomes proof of Trump’s culpability, especially in obstruction of justice. When Times reported that Donald Trump Jr. met June 9 with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, she was identified as a Kremlin attorney. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied knowing anything about her. Also at the meeting was Rinat Akhmetshin who the Time identified as a former Russian counter-intelligence officer.
Every Times and Washington bombshell comes with such hype, such nefarious implications, you’d think Trump and Associates were guilty of treason. When in came to Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin they were low-level functionaries, working for lobbyists for years in the U.S. If the Times and Post had their way, Trump and Associates are 100% guilt of Russian collusion. Mueller has a different set of criteria looking a criminal statutes, not gossip, innuendo and malicious rumors. Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity July 11 he met with Veselnitskaya at the request of businessman, music publicist Rob Goldstone. Trump Jr. admitted that with all the opposition research done on his father, it was worth seeing if Vselnitskaya had anything juicy about Hillary, not because she was Russian but only because Goldstone misrepresented her as having dirt on Hillary.
When the Times and Post reported the story they provided abundant detail about Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin’s alleged past connections to the Kremlin or Russian counterintelligence, despite living in the U.S. for years. Unlike the Times and Post, Mueller can’t rely on the media’s case against Trump nor can he rely on speculative motives that fit prosecutor’s obstruction of justice theories. Trump’s draft letter is a perfect example of how the media shows extreme prejudice, assuming its reveals Trump’s real motive for firing Comey. Mueller’s been so frustrated with the investigation, he’s called in the IRS criminal division to look into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, both under FBI scrutiny. Going after Flynn and Manafort for IRS infractions shows Mueller doesn’t have much.
No one in the New York Times or Washington Post entertains the idea there’s little evidence of Trump collusion in the 2016 election. Every story becomes a “smoking gun” just like the recent “bombshell” about Trump’s draft letter on Comey’s firing. Comey admitted publicly May 10 that Trump has a right to fire him for whatever reason. Comey spent considerable time proving that Trump’s assertion that the FBI had lost confidence in him was false. If rank-and-file FBI really knew how Comey overstepped his boundaries in the Hillary investigation, they’d think differently. Rank-and-file employees typically show loyalty to leadership, regardless actual performance. Trump, as Comey said, could fire him for any reason. When Rosenstein wrote in his May 9 letter that Comey breached Department of Justice protocol, the New York Times and Washington Post barely reported anything.
