James Comey doesn’t know- a lot

 

From the interview with George Stephanopoulos, we learn that James Comey doesn’t know- a lot.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Y– that’s only part of it. You’ve taken on the mob, Martha Stewart, right in the middle of huge controversies over government surveillance, over torture. What are the big lessons you take away from that?

….

JAMES COMEY: That’s right. She agreed. Loretta Lynch I had a great relationship with and still have a lot of respect for. And she said, “I agree. But call it a matter.” And I said, “Why would I do that?” And she said, “Just call it a matter.” And I didn’t know exactly why she was doing that, but I decided in that moment that the whole world would miss the distinction between investigation and matter. And so I dropped it at that point. At my press event, I said– used the term matter, and I was right, the press missed it and said we’d confirmed an investigation.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Did– did you think she was doing that to protect Hillary Clinton?

JAMES COMEY: I didn’t know.

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GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Dig into that. Why could the attorney general not credibly announce the results of this investigation?

JAMES COMEY: Well, for a bunch of reasons. And it sort of built over the course of the investigation. First of all, we had the problem that President Obama had twice publicly basically said, “There’s no there, there.” In an interview with– on Fox, an interview on 60 Minutes I think, both times he said that. So that’s his Justice Department.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Did that surprise you?

JAMES COMEY: It really did surprise me. He’s a very smart man and a lawyer. And so it surprised me. He shouldn’t have done it. It was inappropriate–

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Did you think he was trying to color the case?

JAMES COMEY: I don’t know.

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GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Hillary Clinton’s convinced that that letter defeated her. What do you say to her?

JAMES COMEY: I hope not. I– I don’t know.

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GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You said you hoped it didn’t change the result, but what does your gut tell you?

JAMES COMEY: I really don’t know.

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GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Nate Silver has a pretty persuasive– analysis that suggests it made a huge difference.

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I– again, I don’t know the answer.

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So if I’m going to be honest, I have to say somehow it’s more than ordinary sloppiness. So my first draft, which I wrote myself, said, “Gross negligence.” It’s a lawyer term. And the reason I used that term is I wanted to also explain that I don’t mean that in the sense that a statute passed 100 years ago means it. And then my staff convinced me that that’s just going to confuse all kinds of people, if you start talking about statutes and what the words mean. What’s a colloquial way to explain it? And elsewhere in my statement I had said, “Extremely careless.” And so they said, “Just use that.” And so that’s what I went with.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And to Hillary Clinton supporters, that sounded like you’re accusing her of a crime even though you don’t prosecute.

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I get that. And then the other said saying, “You’re admitting she committed a crime, you didn’t prosecute her.” The goal was– and– and one of the mistakes I made is I don’t know what it would be.

…

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you think there’s any chance that– that writing this book will get in the way?

JAMES COMEY: I don’t know.

….

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I– I don’t think so. Given the context and the other things I’d said, I thought– and look, it was a compromise on my part to try and avoid a really awkward conversation, get out of an awkward conversation.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Was it a mistake?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I don’t know.

…

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And in fact, he did stay overnight in Moscow.

JAMES COMEY: I don’t know.

….

And I said, “Me too.” And he said, “Have you ever met Donald Trump?” And I said, “No.” And he said, “Be careful, Jim, be very careful.” And it’s one of those things that you appreciate a friend saying, it’s not really helping me, except to make me feel even more nervous, the lump in my stomach bigger. But, yeah, Jay called me– and I don’t know whether he was calling at President Obama’s request, but he seemed to be giving voice to the eyebrow raise.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So what does “be careful” mean in that context?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah, I don’t know.

…

JAMES COMEY:

And then he launched into– I didn’t ask about the business with the prostitutes, but he launched into an explanation as to how I should know that wasn’t true and that he remembered now, from talking to friends who had been with him, that he’d never stayed overnight at the hotel, he’d just changed clothes there and went to the Miss Universe pageant.

I don’t know whether any of this true, but this is what he said.

…

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: President Trump thought you were shaking him down?

JAMES COMEY: I don’t know that.

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JAMES COMEY: He didn’t say a word. President Obama has a great poker face. But he simply turned– so if I’m President Obama, he turned slightly to his left, looked at me, and went like this– and looked back at Director Clapper. So kind of gave me a– Groucho Marx is how I thought of it, double eyebrow raise. Didn’t say a word, but communicated to me at least– and I could be misreading it, ’cause I don’t know President Obama’s eyebrow raises, that sort of– sympathy and concern. Like, “Good luck with that.” And– and that was it.

…

JAMES COMEY: No way. I– I believe in the chain of command. I followed her instruction to call it a “matter,” because she told me to call it a “matter.” And I didn’t believe it was unethical or illegal. And so, yes, I would have followed their instruction.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Why do you think they didn’t order you not to send it?

JAMES COMEY: I don’t know. I don’t know.

…

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Why did Reince want to talk about that?

JAMES COMEY: I don’t know for sure. I don’t– I don’t know. He seemed to want to bring the topic up. I– I don’t– I don’t know exactly. I–

…

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve had dinner, played golf?

JAMES COMEY: Yeah. I think we played golf once in our 25 years. And– sorry, and– and I’ve had dinner with him maybe once or twice. So I know him and I can s– and I– we’re friendly. But I know his work most of all. And I’ve watched it closely. He’s not on anybody’s side. He does not care about anything except the truth. And so they can have great confidence if Bob Mueller is let– left in place to do his job, he will find the truth.

And again, I don’t know what that will be.

…

And the two most offensive:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you think the Russians have something on Donald Trump?

JAMES COMEY: I think it’s possible. I don’t know. 

…

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Did you believe his denial?

JAMES COMEY: I don’t– I don’t know. I don’t– the nature of an investigator is you don’t believe or disbelieve. You ask, “What’s my evidence? What is the evidence that establishes me whether someone’s telling me the truth or not. And ask this allegation–” I honestly never thought this words would come out of my mouth, but I don’t know whether the– the– current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013. It’s possible, but I don’t know.

He doesn’t know, but continues to traffic in it. He keeps repeating the allegation despite the lack of evidence. Comey claims a lot of things happening now are not normal. This is definitely one of them. Now we don’t know if Comey has any integrity left.

Clearly, the book is inaccurately titled. It should have been titled “Innuendo I don’t know to be true”

The Russians could have something on Comey. I don’t know.

The Russians could have something on Hillary. I don’t know.

Comey could have been trying to take down the President of the US. It’s possible. I don’t know.

But we do know one thing that Comey believes:

si autem facio, suus ‘legalis