James Comey – Johnson’s Russia List

JRL NEWSWATCH: “The Unasked FBI Question: Why? G-men rightly debunked the Steele dossier. And then peddled it anyway.” – Wall Street Journal/ Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

July 22, 2020 JRL Russia List JRL NewsBlog, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“New revelations … more emphatically underline a question nobody seems willing to ask: Why did the FBI fan a Russia collusion confabulation that it knew was unfounded, false and baseless? The obvious answer is not so much rejected as turned away from: because the FBI, and specifically … Comey, had a powerful interest in changing the subject from … Comey’s […]

JRL NEWSWATCH: “Comey says it’s possible the Russians have something compromising on Trump” – CNN/ Kate Sullivan

May 10, 2019 JRL Russia List JRL NewsBlog, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

James Comey file photo, adapted from image at fbi.gov

[first portion of CNN post:] “Former FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that it is possible the Russians have leverage over President Donald Trump. CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Comey at a town hall in Washington, ‘Do you think the Russians have leverage over President Trump?’ ‘I don’t know the answer to that,’ Comey responded. ‘Think it’s possible?’ Cooper asked. ‘Yes,’ […]

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Leave a comment FBI, James Comey, JRL NewsBlog, Newswatch, Russia, Russiagate, Russian News, U.S.-Russian Relations

NEWSLINK: “Why the CIA Needs Its Own Horowitz Report; No need to speculate: The intelligence agencies saw Trump as a de facto agent of the Kremlin” – Wall Street Journal/Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

July 1, 2018 JRL Russia List Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

Stylized Artist's Depiction of Shadowy Figures in Dark Coats and Dark Hats, One Carrying a Briefcase

“Now that the world has digested the Horowitz report, notice how much of the story it doesn’t tell. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is treated as a closed loop when, in fact, much of its decision making was based on intelligence and advice supplied by other agencies. …”

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Leave a comment FBI, James Comey, Newslinks, Russia, Russian News, Slider, Spies, U.S. Elections, U.S.-Russian Relations

NEWSWATCH: “John McCain: ‘Vladimir Putin Is an Evil Man'” – Wall Street Journal/The Saturday Essay/John McCain

May 11, 2018 JRL Russia List JRL NewsBlog, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

[note from JRL web editor: warning, contains mild profanity] “… Sir Andrew Wood, a retired British diplomat … told me he knew a former MI6 officer … Christopher Steele …. * * * I agreed to receive a copy of … ‘the dossier.’ …. The allegations were disturbing … I had no idea which if any were true. I could not […]

NEWSLINK: “When did Trump and Putin talk about ‘hookers’?” – Washington Post/Philip Bump

April 20, 2018 JRL Russia List Newslinks, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“By the top of the second page of the first memo former FBI director James B. Comey wrote to memorialize his conversations with President Trump, prostitutes are mentioned. Sex workers are a running theme in the seven memos released on Thursday evening, a function of their prominent role in the dossier of unproven allegations involving the president’s 2016 campaign and […]

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Leave a comment FBI, James Comey, Newslinks, Prostitutes, Prostitution, Russia, Russian News, Slider, U.S.-Russian Relations

NEWSWATCH: “Why the Nunes Memo is a Devastating Blow to the ‘Deep State’; The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has done its duty by releasing this memo” – The National Interest/Daniel McCarthy

February 4, 2018 JRL Russia List JRL NewsBlog, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

Department of Justice Headquarters Building file photo, adapted from image at justice.gov

“In the midst of the 2016 election, bad actors at the Justice Department tried to turn the FBI into the police arm of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). That’s the bottom line of the January 18 House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence memo released today. … a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was led, or misled, into authorizing spying on […]

NEWSLINK: “The Special Seinfeld? An investigation about nothing could become something worse” – Wall Street Journal/ James Freeman

June 19, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

File Photo of White House with South Lawn and Fountain

“‘After 7 months of investigations & committee hearings about my “collusion with the Russians,” nobody has been able to show any proof. Sad!,’ tweeted … Trump …. his argument is stronger than he suggests, because … Comey’s FBI began looking for evidence of collusion nearly a full year ago. It still hasn’t appeared, which means that Department of Justice Special Counsel […]

VIDEO & ARTICLE: “Russian Banker Sees Trump Facing Witch Hunt in New Cold War” – Bloomberg

June 1, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Sanctions, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Erik Schatzker, Jake Rudnitsky – June 1, 2017) [Video interview also at: bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-01/russian-banker-says-u-s-involved-in-witch-hunt-against-trump] U.S. politicians have turned an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the presidential elections into a witch hunt to settle domestic political scores, according to the head of Russia’s second-largest bank. “This is effectively a new Cold War,” VTB Group Chief Executive Officer […]

The Russian Shadow behind the Comey Dismissal

May 11, 2017 JRL Russia List United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

(The Kennan Institute –wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – MAXIM TRUDOLYUBOV – May 10, 2017) Maxim Trudolyubov, Senior Fellow with the Kennan Institute and editor-at-large with Vedomosti, has been following Russian economy and politics since the late 1990s. He has served as an opinion page editor for Vedomosti and editor and correspondent for the newspaper Kapital. The Trump’s administration’s highest-level meeting with Russia is […]

NEWSLINK: “It Was Inevitable That Trump Would Fire James Comey; The FBI director repeatedly ventured into matters above his pay grade” – The National Interest/ Jacob Heilbrunn

May 10, 2017 JRL Russia List United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“It was probably inevitable that Donald Trump would fire FBI Director James B. Comey. The surprising thing may be … that Trump waited as long as he did. Comey has repeatedly displayed lamentably bad judgment. … [In]Washington … [i]nstitution after institution has come into disrepute because of bungling by top government officials. Comey’s missteps are not an aberration, but part of a […]

NEWSLINK: “FBI’s Comey: Russia is ‘greatest threat of any nation on Earth’ to U.S. democratic process” – CNBC/ Jacob Pramuk

May 4, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Media, Internet, Social Media, Television, Newslinks, Science, Technology, Engineering, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“#FBI Director James #Comey told senators Wednesday that #Russia remains involved in American politics, saying he thinks the country poses the ‘greatest threat’ to the U.S. political process of any in the world. During a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham – a foreign policy hawk – asked Comey ‘what kind of threat’ Russia presents ‘to the […]

NEWSLINK: “Russia-gate’s Unasked Questions; Comey’s testimony settles nothing” – The American Conservative/Philip Geraldi

March 28, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Newslinks, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

“… If the #FBI began its investigation of team #Trump in late July – after the nomination process but before the election – and the Trump campaign office was located in Trump Tower, doesn’t that confirm that Donald Trump is right when he insists that his office was ‘wiretapped’ during the summer even if his word choice was not apt? […]

Why the Comey Hearing Was Frightening to a Russian

March 22, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Economy, Business, Investment, Trade, Oil, Gas, Energy, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – March 21, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. Monday’s hearing on Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election and the alleged contacts between Donald Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin yielded inspiring news for […]

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“How did the intelligence community know that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee? CrowdStrike told them so. From the March 20 House Intelligence Committee hearing …”

March 21, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

How did the intelligence community know that the Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee? CrowdStrike told them so. From the March 20 House Intelligence Committee hearing: Congressman Will HURD: Have you been able to — when did the DNC provide access for — to the FBI for your technical folks to review what happened? FBI Director COMEY: Well we never […]

NEWSLINK: “Notes From the House Select Intelligence Hearing on Russia; In one of the most anticipated congressional hearings in years, James Comey and Mike Rogers took turns saying nothing” – Rolling Stone/Matt Taibbi

March 21, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

[DJ: To be contrasted with Michael McFaul’s enthusiastic minute-by-minute Twitter feed at @McFaul] “The hearing on Russia’s involvement with the American electoral process began with an army of reporters swarming ’round the committee heads: Republican chair Devin Nunes of the Fresno area, and Democrat and ranking member Adam Schiff of Los Angeles. … The two witnesses were top dogs from […]

NEWSWATCH: “Intelligence panel chair asks why Democrats denied FBI access after Russian hacking (excerpt)” – McClatchy/ANNA DOUGLAS

January 16, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, JRL NewsBlog, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

… [Senator Richard] Burr wanted to know why the Democratic National Committee didn’t give the FBI direct access to servers and devices that had been compromised in a cyberattack. FBI Director James Comey told Burr the agency and its investigators had made ‘multiple requests at different levels’ for access to DNC infrastructure and John Podesta’s devices for the purposes of […]

NEWSWATCH: “Comey: DNC denied FBI’s requests for access to hacked servers” – The Hill

January 11, 2017 JRL Russia List Cybersecurity, JRL NewsBlog, Spies, Spy Allegations, United States, U.S.-Russian Relations

“The FBI requested direct access to the … DNC … hacked computer servers but was denied, Director James Comey told lawmakers …. The bureau made ‘multiple requests at different levels’ … but ultimately struck an agreement with the DNC that a ‘highly respected private company’ would get access and share what it found with investigators. ‘We’d always prefer to have […]

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Leave a comment Cybersecurity, Democrats, FBI, Hackers, Hacking, James Comey, JRL NewsBlog, Newswatch, Russia, Russian News, Slider, Spies, U.S. Elections