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[sluissa]

Comey has also been rather cagey at Congress recently since he's been not wanting to answer questions in a hearing, even behind closed doors.

If it weren't for the fact that Trump is likely to replace him with his own choice should he step down, I think he should step down because he's too mired in the whole political stuff. I thought he was elected from among his peers or something though, wasn't sure how the FBI chief selection works.

Chosen by the president, confirmed by the senate. They have a term limit of 10 years (ever since J. Edgar Hoover although that was waived once by congress). They can, however, be removed from their position or resign, however I'm not sure of the process of removal, if they can just be fired by the president or if congress has to be involved.

[smjjames]

The difference is that he is accusing Obama of doing it illegally, the FBI wiretaps were legal.

The server thing was related to a bank I believe, but they didn't find anything there either. Think it was said that it pretty much could just have been computers pinging the server and to each other, which is normal.

Even if the investigations didn't turn up anything and Trump and co. say they didn't do anything wrong, they somhow keep making themselves look bad.

Comey has also been rather cagey at Congress recently since he's been not wanting to answer questions in a hearing, even behind closed doors.

If it weren't for the fact that Trump is likely to replace him with his own choice should he step down, I think he should step down because he's too mired in the whole political stuff. I thought he was elected from among his peers or something though, wasn't sure how the FBI chief selection works.

Chosen by the president, confirmed by the senate. They have a term limit of 10 years (ever since J. Edgar Hoover although that was waived once by congress). They can, however, be removed from their position or resign, however I'm not sure of the process of removal, if they can just be fired by the president or if congress has to be involved.

Oh I see. And yeah, there would be a big fight in the Senate (Democrats especially) if Trump put in some sort of loyalist or anybody that has even a hint that they would choose politics over their job.

[Frumple]

By the way, the investigation turned up nothing.

Just to check, but you do realize that article is not saying that, right?

[Baffler]

By the way, the investigation turned up nothing.

Just to check, but you do realize that article is not saying that, right?

Law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.

Seems to pretty clearly be nothing to me.

[sluissa]

By the way, the investigation turned up nothing.

Just to check, but you do realize that article is not saying that, right?

Law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.

Seems to pretty clearly be nothing to me.

That article is 4 months old at this point. Written before the election even took place.

[Sergarr]

By the way, the investigation turned up nothing.

Just to check, but you do realize that article is not saying that, right?

Law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.

Seems to pretty clearly be nothing to me.

And even the hacking into Democratic emails, F.B.I. and intelligence officials now believe, was aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump.

This particular part was proven wrong later. There was a whole joint CIA-FBI-NSA report on how Russian efforts were actually aimed at electing Trump.

So, while the investigations "so far" have not turned up anything, later investigations did turn up something.

[Starver]

Wiretaps happened. That isn't even a secret, both of these make mention of wiretaps on Trump's people and a server in Trump Tower as the President says. It's only "baseless accusations" now that it didn't turn anything up and they need a new angle of attack.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html?_r=0

Mr. Manafort is among at least three Trump campaign advisers whose possible links to Russia are under scrutiny. Two others are Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign, and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative.

The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.

Russian diplomats are routinely wiretapped.  If Trump people called the Russian diplomats (as they did) their communications were wiretapped but not themselves.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/10/fbi-chief-given-dossier-by-john-mccain-alleging-secret-trump-russia-contacts

The Guardian has learned that the FBI applied for a warrant from the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court over the summer in order to monitor four members of the Trump team suspected of irregular contacts with Russian officials. The Fisa court turned down the application asking FBI counter-intelligence investigators to narrow its focus. According to one report, the FBI was finally granted a warrant in October, but that has not been confirmed, and it is not clear whether any warrant led to a full investigation.

So, nothing here to suggest wiretaps of Trump Tower ever happened at the behest of Obama. Or possibly even happened at all...

[Starver]

The server thing was related to a bank I believe, but they didn't find anything there either. Think it was said that it pretty much could just have been computers pinging the server and to each other, which is normal.

It was a non-governmental enquiry that picked up an unexpected result.

(Whether it is 'normal' really needs more information, probably not now available.

[Sergarr]

Who was it that secretly said to Russian President, "Tell Vladimir that after the election I'll have more flexibility?" @foxandfriends

Anyone has an idea what Trump meant here?

[Frumple]

By the way, the investigation turned up nothing.

Just to check, but you do realize that article is not saying that, right?

Law enforcement officials say that none of the investigations so far have found any conclusive or direct link between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.

Seems to pretty clearly be nothing to me.

Might want to read it a few more times, then. Unsourced "law enforcement officials" pointedly not mentioning the existence of not yet conclusive or indirect links is very, very far from the FBI or investigators directly involved stating on the record that the investigations found nothing. That the closest thing in that article to something like that (the bit specifying no direct connection to russian election operations, which is again very different from "nothing") was very specifically worded, also implies something (that the writer was spinning things for something very specific,* at the absolute least).

Also probably worth noting the article was from back in October, when the media in general was in full fuckery mode. It shows. Title completely unsupported by content, nebulous claims trying to insinuate more than they're actually saying, digressions littered throughout about shit that had little to nothing to do with the specific subject, all the usual mess trying to blow something up far beyond what they have grounds to actually do. FTFE

*And no, I'm not saying they were trying to spin things in one way or another political bias wise. Reader attention and article dissemination, though...

[Rolan7]

Who was it that secretly said to Russian President, "Tell Vladimir that after the election I'll have more flexibility?" @foxandfriends

Anyone has an idea what Trump meant here?

But what did he mean by this?
(Wonderful NSFW meme)

[sluissa]

Who was it that secretly said to Russian President, "Tell Vladimir that after the election I'll have more flexibility?" @foxandfriends

Anyone has an idea what Trump meant here?

Obama was caught during a photo op on a microphone he thought was off talking to Putin Medvedev during a meeting before the 2012 election telling Putin Medvedev he'd have more flexibility to negotiate with him regarding something or other after the 2012 election was over.

EDIT: Did some googling, it wasn't Putin directly, it was Medvedev he was talking to. Medvedev then said he'd relay that to Putin.

Here is a link to a story about it: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nuclear-summit-obama-medvedev-idUSBRE82P0JI20120326

[Frumple]

Vaguely amusing trump's misquoting there, heh.

[Sergarr]

I wonder if John Schindler is a reliable source, because if yes, then holy shit is Trump in trouble something may probably happen:

AHEM: US IC has considerable SIGINT featuring high-level Russians talking about their collusion with Team Trump.

You heard it here 1st.

[PTTG??]

Twitter is not a source.