Answers To Comey’s Questions
Former FBI Director James Comey published an article titled, “What I Would Ask Robert Mueller.”
Below are the obvious answers to Comey’s “questions” on Russia, with the answers coming from Mueller’s report itself in addition to other documentation.
- Did you find that there were a series of contacts between the Trump campaign and individuals with ties to the Russian government?
Perhaps Comey failed to read Mueller’s actual report, which concluded:
“The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation.
“In particular, the investigation examined whether these contacts involved or resulted in coordination or a conspiracy with the Trump Campaign and Russia, including with respect to Russia providing assistance to the Campaign in exchange for any sort of favorable treatment in the future. Based on the available information, the investigation did not establish such coordination.”
Comey should also refer to one section of the Mueller report which related that Russia didn’t even know how to contact the incoming Trump administration after the billionaire mogul won the 2016 election. The Mueller report details the hilarity of Russian President Vladimir Putin having trouble reaching Trump’s team to offer simple congratulations.
- In particular, did you find that a Trump foreign policy adviser learned that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails?
This will be answered together with Comey’s next “question.”
- Did you find that the Trump foreign policy adviser said the Trump campaign had received indications from the Russian government that it could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to candidate Clinton?
Once again, Comey is trying to stir things up based on questions that were already answered inside Mueller’s report.
A reminder: as referenced above, Mueller concluded, “The investigation did not identify evidence that any U.S. persons knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the IRA’s interference operation.”
Anyway, Comey here is referring to one episode involving George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy panel adviser tangentially involved with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The Justice Department’s filing against Papadopoulos documents that he was allegedly told by Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic plagued by allegations of suspicious associations, that on a trip to Moscow “he (the Professor) learned that the Russians had obtained ‘dirt’ on then-candidate Clinton.” No evidence has been presented that Papadopoulos spoke about emails at his meeting with Downer or that Misfurd mentioned emails.
Misfurd himself denies mentioning emails during his meeting with Papadopoulos, as per his testimony to the Justice Department. At one point, Papadopoulos said he thought emails were mentioned but Papadopoulos later explained that any reference to emails was not to the future hack of the DNC but to Hillary Clinton’s private email server, a subject of international news reportage at the time of his meeting with Downer.
- Did you find that senior members of the Trump campaign met with Russian representatives at Trump Tower after being told in an email that the meeting was part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump?
Here, Comey seems to ignore Mueller’s finding of no evidence of any coordination between Russia and Trump’s campaign. His question seems to suggest wrongdoing on the part of Trump’s team.
Comey should refer to multiple extensive Breitbart News investigations by this reporter into the infamous brief meeting at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016 between individuals tied to Russia, Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign officials. Those probes point to the increasing likelihood of the confab being set up as a dirty trick against Trump’s presidential campaign.
Three Russian participants at the meeting have ties to the controversial Fusion GPS outfit, and two have confirmed ties to Clinton. Fusion infamously produced the anti-Trump dossier that launched the FBI’s Russia probe under Comey.
Also, email logs brought to light show numerous emails were exchanged between a Clinton associate, Fusion GPS and Trump Tower participants, with the subjects of some of those emails listing the Magnitsky Act, which sanctions Russian officials and was by all accounts the very topic of the Trump Tower meeting.
Questions are also raised by a timeline showing numerous personal meetings between Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and Trump Tower participants. A Clinton associate, Ed Lieberman, was listed as being present at one and possibly two of those meetings.
Separately, Lieberman met with one Russian participant the same day as the Trump Tower meeting, according to separate testimony.
- Did you find that, despite the fact that candidate Trump said he had “nothing to do with Russia,” his organization had been pursuing a major Moscow project into the middle of the election year and that candidate Trump was regularly updated on developments?
Comey is peddling conspiracies, suggesting that a proposed draft project discussed generally and briefly by a real estate company that routinely builds oversees – a potential project with no secured financing, land or developer – could amount to wrongdoing. Trump did not secure any real estate project in Russia, but even doing so would not have been illegal.