Former FBI Director James Comey proved once again last week that he is only loyal to himself and not the president or people of the United States as he has repeatedly presented himself to be.
During his grilling before a closed session of the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committee, an official FBI email authored by Comey proved his duplicity.
The FBI email, read aloud by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) showed FBI officials may have attempted to influence media coverage of the infamous Steele dossier that opened the floodgate of Russia/Trump collusion stories.
CNN was the first to report the story of leaked information from classified briefings the FBI had with then-President Barack Obama and Trump. The subject of those briefings was Steele’s dossier.
Word of those briefings had been circulating throughout various news outlets for days, but all considered the story too risky to publish due to some of its more sensational claims.
Everything changed when CNN broke the story on January 10, 2017 just ten days before Donald Trump was inaugurated.
Up till now, Comey has consistently claimed he conducted those briefings because he wanted to prepare Trump for the “possibility” of news media coverage. That email, however, proves Comey triggered CNN’s decision to break the story before the inauguration.
The briefings in question were reportedly conducted by NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers, CIA Director John Brennan, and Comey. Comey allegedly remained alone with Trump to brief him on the more lurid details of what has since proven to be a completely manufactured dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Two sentences of the email were referenced in passing this past May in a letter from Chairman of the Senator’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) to FBI Director Christopher Wray. The entirety of its contents came to light last week.
During the closed committee session, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) read aloud from the letter and questioned Comey about the emails reference to Mike Kortan. Kortan, FBI assistant director for public affairs, retired earlier this year.
Jordan read: “According to Kortan, CNN is close to going forward with the sensitive story… CNN states that they believe the pressure has built and is unavoidable,” referencing CNN’s decision to release a story on the claims of the dossier.
CNN later ran the story without attribution and reported, “The FBI is investigating the credibility and accuracy of these allegations, which are based primarily on information from Russian sources, but has not confirmed many essential details in the memos about Mr. Trump.”
In truth, the email from McCabe shows it was Comey’s briefing with Trump that triggered CNN to release its story that in turn made the dossier claims public. In McCabe’s words: “The trigger for them is they know the material was discussed in the brief and presented in an attachment.”
During his exchange with Jordan, Comey protested that he did not know who leaked information about his private briefing to Trump.
CNN’s dossier story cited “multiple U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the briefings” in addition to a larger report on Russia’s alleged attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Jordan questioned Comey about his knowledge as to who leaked that information to which he repeatedly denied knowing who the leaker or leakers might have been. Portions of that questioning included:
Mr. Jordan: Now, just to be clear, the material that was discussed in the brief, that’s the brief you gave the President-elect?
Mr. Comey. Correct.
Mr. Jordan. All right. And somehow someone told CNN that you had done just that?… Any idea who told them that you had actually briefed the President-elect about this subject?
Mr. Comey. No.
Mr. Jordan. No idea?
Mr. Comey. No idea.
Mr. Jordan. It’s been reported that Mr. Clapper may have been involved in giving that information to CNN. Any indication that’s accurate?
Mr. Comey. No. Same answer, I don’t know.
Comey wrote in his memos and later in his published memoir that he briefed Trump concerning unverified claims of an alleged escapade involving prostitutes in Moscow in 2013. He claimed in those that the briefing was because of his concerns CNN had that information and was looking for a “new hook” to break the story.
Now, we know Comey gave CNN the spark needed to ignite the entire Russia-gate story.
