You I received a comment the other day which read: ”The Rogue Agent theory was invented by Comey and Mueller. The Russian Collusion Hoax was invented by Comey and Mueller. The Boston Marathon Lie (The FBI didn’t know the Tsarnaevs) was invented by Comey and Mueller. Can anyone see a pattern?”
We are asked if we see a pattern. The first one I see is this is part of the idea the FBI and our intelligence agencies are corrupt and intent on undermining America (or at least Trump who often confuses himself with America.) Strange that after more than seventy years protecting us they suddenly changed when Trump got elected.
The second pattern I see is one of total wrongness when the facts are examined. The most obvious example of that is that even though the FBI had evidence that Trump’s campaign was being assisted by Russia, which I don’t think even the writer who commented doubts (or perhaps I’m wrong there) it never made public its knowledge. Rather it was held back at the insistence of Senators Mitch McGovern who knew it would hurt Trump’s chances. Mueller had nothing to do with the FBI at the time but Comey was its director. Had Comey wanted he certainly could have put it out but he didn’t. Rather than hurting Trump the FBI through its silence helped him.
On the other hand, lest we forget, the FBI severely damaged Hillary Clinton. Comey who was the director at the time publicly announced within two weeks of the election when early voting was underway that he had reopened the investigation into Hillary’s emails. Hard to argue from that blunder that Comey was intent on hurting Trump.
Before continuing it is good to give a brief review of some facts. John Connolly was indicted on December 22, 1999, and convicted in May 2002 and sentenced in September 2002. From 1996 to 2001 James Comey was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. In January 2002 to December 2003 he was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Robert Mueller between August 1998 and August 2001 was the U,S, attorney for the Northern District of California, January to May 2001 he was a Deputy U.S. Attorney General , and on September 4, 2001 named director of the FBI a week before 9/11..
It would seem the suggestion Connolly was a rogue agent was done before he was indicted in 1999. Neither Comey nor Mueller had any interest in what was happening in Boston at that time. Hard to put it on them that he was called a rogue agent.
The Boston Marathon took place on April 15, 2013. On April 18 the FBI released images of the Tsarnaev brothers requesting help in locating them. Some believe the FBI knew, or should have known, who they were because an agent had interviewed the older brother, Dzhokhar a year or so prior to the bombing.
Comey at the time was in private practice. In May 2013 it was announced he would be named FBI director. Mueller left the job September 4, 2013. Clearly Comey knew nothing about the investigation; no one has shown Mueller or anyone in the FBI office knew the identity of the Tsarnaevs before exhibiting their photos. In any event it’s not a Comey/Mueller operation.
Finally, the “Russian collusion hoax”, assuming that is a hoax, existed before Mueller was appointed to investigate it. That was why he was appointed. In spite of evidence that seemed to support the idea of Russian collusion he decided there was none. Hard to say he invented it and then pooh-poohed it. As for Comey, as noted, he had information to believe there was possible collusion between Trump and Russia. He never had a chance to follow-up on it because he was fired by Trump just before Trump met with Russians in the Oval Office and bragged about having done it.
I guess the real pattern I see is someone not letting the facts interfere with a make-believe story to add onto the intrigues of the Deep State!
As for Comey favoring Trump: hogwash! Comey bailed out Clinton during the 2016 Campaign; Comey found that Hillary handled classified information in an “extremely careless” manner, changing the initial reports synonymous finding that she criminally handled that information in a “grossly negligent” manner, a statutory crime.
Comey also bailed Hillary out after she deleted and acid-bleached 35,000 emails, whose contents we’ll never know. If they were only about weddings and grandchildren, why acid-bleach them?
Comey also illegally assumed the role of Attorney General and said he would not prosecute Hillary. Not the FBI director’s job to decide who to prosecute. It’s the AG’s Office.
Hard to argue Comey wasn’t favoring Hillary.
(2) Loretta Lynch secretly met with Bill Clinton in an airport hanger or tarmac at the Phoenix Airport to talk about their grandchildren. Because that meeting was spotted by a local reporter, she announced she was differing to Comey, de facto designating Comey the new temporary Attorney General to investigate Hillary, which she had no power or authority to do.
It’s no secret the Obama Administration, including Comey, favored Hillary.
Comey’s hostility to Trump was apparent during the exoneration of Hillary and his continuing hostility to Trump has been amply demonstrated ever since.
After Watergate, Frank Church of the Church Committee said, “The CIA is a rogue elephant, raging out of control.” That could be said of Brennan, Clapper, Comey and others in the Deep State of today and since 2016, at least.
Comey favored Clinton and rook a dive for her in his preachy manner, letting her off with a “tsk, tsk.” But when her emails turned up Weiner’s laptop, he cared even more for his self-promoted reputation for rectitude.
Matt, one fact you left out: Comey was the United States Deputy Attorney General from December 2003 to August 2005 in the administration of President George W. Bush. John Connolly was indicted in Miami in May 2005. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wyshak was the moving party behind Connolly being recharged in Miami for a murder he was acquitted of in Boston. The zealot Wyshak’s multi-year persecution of Connolly, fanatically accelerated during Comey’s tenure, was no doubt green-lighted by Comey and then FBI director Muellar. Remember, Wyshak was the lead prosecutor in Miami, and worked zealously to persuade Miami prosecutors to indict John Connolly on charges John was acquitted of in Boston.
(2) I recall reading a book by MattofBoston, “DEF”, that was highly critical of the FBI, saying agents were involved in 150 shootings and the FBI found all were justifiable, and arguing the FBI was mainly concerned with saving face, saving its reputation, not justice.
The FBI never allowed local authorities to charge any of its agents. Yet they allowed John Connolly to be put in double jeopardy in Miami and H. Paul Rico to be charged by a clerk in a Family Court in Tulsa Oklahoma for the Wheeler murder, (An indictment was never issued for H. Paul Rico’s arrest, as I understand it. On overly zealous Oklahoma cop relying only on the lying words of the serial killer Martorano got the murder warrant from Tulsa Family Court.) Wheeler owned Hi-Li and was an associate of Callahan. Martorano killed both Wheeler and Callahan. The book ”RICO” written by FBI agents who knew Rico, totally exonerated RICO. It’s a good, convincing book!
Rico was arrested in October 2003 and died in an Oklahoma prison in January 2004. Comey was United States Deputy Attorney General from Dec 2003 to August 2005, and did nothing to help RICO. Comey did nothing to intercede in John Connolly’s second false prosecution in Miami.
(3) Most importantly, the civil litigation against the U.S. Government claiming the FBI improperly supervised its agents in Boston were initiated and pursued after John Connolly was indicted in 1999 and convicted in 2002. The FBI and US Attorneys Office developed a defensive strategy that the FBI was not liable but that certain “rogue agents” were liable. Muellar was head of the FBI when this defensive strategy was devised, and Comey was a Deputy Attorney General when most of these civil trials were on-going. There is no doubt that both participated in legal strategies (including devising and green-lighting the “rogue agent” theory) during these highly publicized trials.
4. Here are quotes from a New York Times article that ties the “rogue agent” theory to the FBI’s prior neglect in investigating 9-11, too:
“What happened in Boston is not just a John Connolly, rogue street agent problem,” said Representative Bill Delahunt, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has been participating in the investigation by the Government Reform Committee.
”What we have revealed here is an institution in dire need of reform, with no accountability, no transparency and a total lack of controls,” said Mr. Delahunt, a local district attorney for more than 20 years.”
The New York Times article continued:
“A Congressional investigator, speaking on condition his name not be used, said the Boston case, like the disclosures about the bureau’s failure to investigate terrorist activities before Sept. 11, revealed ”a culture of concealment, where the F.B.I. got itself into a protective mentality and cared less about justice being done than about protecting itself when agents made mistakes.”
5. CIVIL ACTIONS: The New York Times article continues: “While Justice Department’s criminal division prosecuted Mr. Connolly, its civil division, which handles lawsuits against the department, has had to defend his actions.
“One danger for the F.B.I. in these lawsuits, with 6 filed so far and perhaps 10 more to come soon, is that the standard of proof is lower than in the criminal trial in which Mr. Connolly was acquitted of the most serious charges against him, including complicity in murder.”
What happened, however, is the Justice Department decided not to defend Connolly; it decided to label him a “rogue agent” and throw him to the wolves. This also was the defect, the black eye on the book “Black Mass.” It relied mostly on findings of facts from Civil Trials where both the government defendant and the plaintiffs (family members of those murdered by Martorano and Flemmi, mostly) were casting FBI agents in the worst possible light; civil trials where no one was defending the alleged “rogue” FBI agents.
CONCLUSION: Connolly is retried in Miami for the murder charges he was acquitted of in Boston. Muellar and Comey held supervisory positions (Muellar, head of FBI 2001-2013; Comey, deputy Attorney General, Dec 2003-Aug 2005) during the development of the “rogue agent” criminal prosecutions of Connolly in Miami and Rico in Oklahoma, and during the development of the “rogue agent” defensive strategy deployed during the Civil Trials.
Bill:
Niced try. But rogue agent theory came up in 1999 not in the times you discuss.
Simple ‘clerical error’ and missing FBI 302s.
“Michael Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, appears on Fox Late Night to discuss the stunning letter from the DOJ that for the past two years they have attributed the wrong notes to the wrong FBI agent. What a mess:
Henry:
Is that where you are getting your information from, Fox News. Worse listening to Flynn’s attorney a contributor to Fox News. Let’s wait. They presented their defense including what you referred to in court. Let’s see how it works out. From what I read the government shot big holes in it.