NYT’s Comey Memo Story Doesn’t Pass The Smell Test

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
While the headline is sensational, The New York Times’s report is self-contradictory at times, conflicts with statements made on-the-record and under oath, overhypes the substance of the memorandum, and is irreconcilable with other information in the public record.

First, the report concedes that the Times has not “viewed a copy of the memo,” despite the fact that the Times says memo itself “is unclassified.” If the memo is unclassified, then that raises several questions. Why did the Times not press the source for a copy of the memo? Why did the Times not seek a copy through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) before publishing? If it was truly unclassified, then the Times stood a decent chance of having the memo released.

Second, if Times’s story is true and what President Trump did amounted to obstruction of justice, then Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe likely committed perjury. Before Comey was fired, McCabe was the Deputy Director of the FBI, one of four “senior staff” positions and also the Bureau’s second-in-command. The Times report alleges that Comey “shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates,” which means that McCabe knew about the memo on May 11 when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the Russia investigation. During his testimony, Senator Marco Rubio and McCabe (who was under oath) had the following exchange:

RUBIO: Mr. McCabe, can you without going into the specific of any individual investigation, I think the American people want to know, has the dismissal of Mr. Comey in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped or negatively impacted any of the work, any investigation, or any ongoing projects at the Federal Bureau of Investigations?

MCCABE: As you know, Senator, the work of the men and women of the FBI continues despite any changes in circumstance, any decisions. So there has been no effort to impede our investigation today. Quite simply put sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing, protecting the American people, and upholding the Constitution.


http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/17/nyts-comey-memo-story-doesnt-pass-smell-test/
 

philibusters

Active Member
While the headline is sensational, The New York Times’s report is self-contradictory at times, conflicts with statements made on-the-record and under oath, overhypes the substance of the memorandum, and is irreconcilable with other information in the public record.

First, the report concedes that the Times has not “viewed a copy of the memo,” despite the fact that the Times says memo itself “is unclassified.” If the memo is unclassified, then that raises several questions. Why did the Times not press the source for a copy of the memo? Why did the Times not seek a copy through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) before publishing? If it was truly unclassified, then the Times stood a decent chance of having the memo released.

Second, if Times’s story is true and what President Trump did amounted to obstruction of justice, then Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe likely committed perjury. Before Comey was fired, McCabe was the Deputy Director of the FBI, one of four “senior staff” positions and also the Bureau’s second-in-command. The Times report alleges that Comey “shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates,” which means that McCabe knew about the memo on May 11 when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about the Russia investigation. During his testimony, Senator Marco Rubio and McCabe (who was under oath) had the following exchange:

RUBIO: Mr. McCabe, can you without going into the specific of any individual investigation, I think the American people want to know, has the dismissal of Mr. Comey in any way impeded, interrupted, stopped or negatively impacted any of the work, any investigation, or any ongoing projects at the Federal Bureau of Investigations?

MCCABE: As you know, Senator, the work of the men and women of the FBI continues despite any changes in circumstance, any decisions. So there has been no effort to impede our investigation today. Quite simply put sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing, protecting the American people, and upholding the Constitution.


http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/17/nyts-comey-memo-story-doesnt-pass-smell-test/

In regards to your three questions:

1) If the memo is unclassified why didn't the NYT's source give them a copy?

That is a good question and one the NYT's should answer. It could be that their source didn't have a copy or something like that. But we benefit from finding out the answer to that.

2) Why didn't the NYT use a FOIA request to get a copy?

I think they wanted to run with this story now when the story was hot, not wait 60 days and possibly have the story die down or get scooped by another paper.

3) Did McCabe commit perjury. Did he give a misleading answer?

I am going to say no for the first question of whether he committed perjury. I think he would argue he was giving his subjective opinion that Trump hadn't interfered with the FBI investigation. He didn't misstate a fact, he maybe gave a false opinion, but try to prove an subjective opinion was false! Whether he mislead or not is another question. Lets say for argument sake he felt Trump was impeding the investigation. In that case he clearly gave a false opinion to Congress.
 
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