James Comey is just covering FBI’s ass with wiretap rebuke, but it’s a bodyblow to Donald Trump
If you’re Donald Trump, here’s how you know you’re having a bad weekend and your debilitating Russia scandal may be past the point of no return: FBI Director James Comey, who basically got Trump elected by misleading the public about a real investigation into Trump and a fake investigation into Hillary Clinton, is now calling out Trump for being a liar.
That’s today’s stunning new development, as Comey is directly rebuking Donald Trump’s claim that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. Trump made the bizarre false claim yesterday, in a last ditch effort at distracting the American public from the Russia scandal which has now enveloped a nearly double digit number of his advisers. Comey reminded us all today that he plays for Team Comey, and not necessarily Team Trump. And it represents one of the most fundamental bodyblows to Trump’s collapsing presidency to date.
If Trump’s claim were true, it would have meant that President Obama had the FBI wiretap Trump Tower. Because the President has no such power, if the FBI had done so at his instruction, it would have meant the FBI committed a crime (there was an alleged FISA warrant properly granted to the FBI by a judge). And so James Comey appears to have taken Trump’s false accusation of a crime personally, compelling him to state the obvious: that it’s not true.
This leaves Donald Trump all alone in his claim about the Obama wiretap, with nothing but a phony Breitbart article to go on. Comey’s public rebuke paints Trump a desperate man trying to stave off his Russia scandal by any pathetic means possible. It also means that if any Trump-loyal Republicans in Congress were planning to use this as an excuse for a nonsense investigation into President Obama, that just became much more difficult to pull off. Trump will presumably attack Comey on Twitter today as soon as he finishes playing golf. Contribute to Palmer Report
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report