Comey Threatened Consequences for FBI Agents Who Leaked to Giuliani

In light of the fact that FBI Director James Comey was just fired, this testimony from him last week could be significant:

In case you are unable to watch, Comey threatened that there would be “severe consequences” for anyone who leaked information to Rudy Giuliani and others about the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

As a reminder, three days before Comey released the infamous letter on October 28th, Giuliani told the hosts at Fox and Friends that the Trump campaign had “a few surprises left” during a discussion about Clinton’s emails. A few days after Comey’s letter, he was back on the program saying:

“I did nothing to get it out, I had no role in it,” he said. “Did I hear about it? You’re darn right I heard about it, and I can’t even repeat the language that I heard from the former FBI agents.”

Under questioning by Sen. Leahy, Comey indicated that they were investigating who might have leaked that kind of information to Giuliani. So someone other than Donald Trump had a reason to want to “shut that whole thing down.”

Giuliani’s ties to the New York Office of the FBI—which seems to be a hotbed of rogue agents— are deep.

The man who now leads “lock-her-up” chants at Trump rallies spent decades of his life as a federal prosecutor and then mayor working closely with the FBI, and especially its New York office. One of Giuliani’s security firms employed a former head of the New York FBI office, and other alumni of it. It was agents of that office, probing Anthony Weiner’s alleged sexting of a minor, who pressed Comey to authorize the review of possible Hillary Clinton-related emails on a Weiner device that led to the explosive letter the director wrote Congress…

Back in August, during a contentious CNN interview about Comey’s July announcement clearing Hillary Clinton of criminal charges, Giuliani advertised his illicit FBI sources, who circumvented bureau guidelines to discuss a case with a public partisan. “The decision perplexes me. It perplexes Jim Kallstrom, who worked for him. It perplexes numerous FBI agents who talk to me all the time. And it embarrasses some FBI agents.”

At this point, Giuliani is denying that he will be asked to be the next FBI director. But those kinds of statements are easily walked back, so I wouldn’t take that one to the bank just yet. It is also very possible that he might have some recommendations for the position if he himself is not the candidate. What we know is that the former NYC mayor is in Washington, D.C. today for, among other things, a meeting at the White House. He refused to say whether or not that would include a meeting with the president.

Honestly, I can’t imagine a more frightful justice system than one in which Jeff Sessions is the Attorney General and Rudy Giuliani the FBI Director. But that, or something close, could be exactly where we’re headed.

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Nancy LeTourneau
