Killing Me Softly

It’s 1973 All Over Again:  Remember 1973, Roberta Flack released her Killing Me Softly album and Watergate was the big news item. Well it’s time to dig out the old albums because the 70s are back. Yesterday evening Trump shocked everyone by firing FBI Director Comey, the person responsible for investigating Russian intervention in the election and Trump team collusion.  The purported reason for the firing was Comey’s  mishandling of the probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails which is totally ridiculous because Comey’s treatment of Clinton and her emails is the reason that Trump is President. During his recent Senate testimony Comey grossly overstated the number of Huma Abedin’s emails on Anthony Weiner’s server, a mistake that led to the FBI issuing a rare clarification on Tuesday and may have been the event that gave the White House the excuse to go forward with firing Comey.  The decision was already made and the dismissal letter and rationale were written before the Abedin mistake was revealed.  Trump was acting pursuant of the advice of the Department of Justice including Jeff Sessions, who is supposed to be recused from the Russian investigation so using the Clinton email excuse is a convenient ruse to get around Sessions so-called recusal.  Trump used the dismissal letter to assert that Comey assured him three times that he is not a subject of the Russia investigation.  He can spin any story he wants, but few are fooled.  Comey was fired because of the Russia investigation.

You’re Fired:  Trump, who rose to fame firing people on the Apprentice, couldn’t even say “You’re Fired” with any degree of decency.  Comey found out he’d been axed while delivering a speech to FBI employees in California when the news of his firing appeared on a TV monitor behind him. As to the Russian investigation, as evidenced by the Nunes shenanigans and his endless tweet smacks, Trump has been trying to undermine it for months.  To that end last night spin mistresses Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kellyanne Conway were already on FOX and CNN questioning why Comey had allowed the Russian investigation to go on for so long, their performances supplemented by a few of those infamous Trump Tweets.  The Trump team appears to have underestimated the reaction to the brazen firing.  Senate Democrats are in an uproar and have scheduled an early morning special all hands meeting where Senator Schumer is expected to say that they will hold up confirmation of the next FBI Director until a special prosecutor is appointed to take over the Russia investigation. No surprise that many Republican Senators appear happy to go along with Trump, but several, including Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Burr, have expressed concern.  If just a few Republican Senators have the guts and ethics to step up, Trump’s Nixonian action will boomerang.  In any case, the FBI investigation may slow down but it’s not going away.

Dump on Yates:  As a warm up to the Comey firing Spicer spent much of his daily news conference attacking Sally Yates.  He questioned her motives for saying that Flynn was a security risk suggesting that she was one of those “nasty” Hillary Clinton supporters and was acting out of vindictiveness because her promised position in the Clinton administration had died with the election.  He even said that she was so inept that she needed her second meeting with McGahn because she had done such a poor job presenting her “story” at the first one. He refused to acknowledge that anything Yates said was serious enough to warrant Flynn’s removal and stuck with the White House fiction that Flynn was only fired because he lied to Pence. His performance was a new low even for Spicer.  While Spicer was questioning Yates veracity and capabilities, CNN revealed that Federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas to Flynn’s associates seeking business records as part of the ongoing probe into Russian meddling and Flynn’s finances.

The Plot thickens:  On Monday, during his Senate testimony, when asked by Senator Graham if he was concerned about any Trump business ties in Russia, former National Intelligence Chief Clapper said he couldn’t respond because the “issue could be a subject of ongoing investigation.”  After the hearing Senate investigators sent a request to the Treasury Department’s FINCEN, the criminal investigation division that focuses on real estate related money laundering, for any information related to Trump, his top officials and his campaign aids. During the daily news conference Spicer announced that Trump has retained a lawyer to send Senator Graham a certified letter stating that he has no connections to Russia.  It’s not clear who’s “certifying” that letter and what if anything such a letter would accomplish.  Moreover, though they now deny it, Trump’s sons have frequently bragged that their golf courses and other properties were financed with Russian money.        

Arming Kurds: Though Comey’s firing sucked most of the air out of the news cycle another notable event took place on Tuesday.  Trump announced that he has decided to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters to help recapture Raqqa from ISIS.  Turkey considers the Syrian Kurds to be an extension of the Kurdish terrorist group that operates in Turkey and has opposed arming the Syrian faction for years so this is a significant move.  Turkish President Erdogan is scheduled to meet with Trump next week in Washington.  They will have plenty to talk about.