President Trump suggested Friday that there may be “tapes” of his private conversations with FBI Director James B. Comey, whom he fired earlier this week, in an apparent attempt to threaten Comey about “leaking to the press.” James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the […]
Ivanka Trump donates half the advance from her new bookby David A. Fahrenthold
Ivanka Trump has donated $200,000 in royalties from her new book to the National Urban League and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the two charities confirmed. Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and a White House adviser, recently published the book “Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success.” Her advance for the book […]
In his first commencement address as president, Donald Trump on Saturday drew a parallel between what he faces as a political outsider in Washington and what he said the Christian graduates of Liberty University can expect to encounter in a secular world. "Be totally unafraid to challenge entrenched interests and failed power structures," Trump said. […]
‘A fast decision’ on the next FBI director could be coming, Trump says by Callum Borchers and Matt Zapotosky
President Trump said that he could have a new FBI director in place before he departs for his first overseas trip Friday, an ambitious goal that would give him just seven days to fill one of the most important and sensitive posts in government. "Even that is possible," the president said aboard Air Force One […]
President Trump collected another honorary doctorate Saturday, bringing his total back up to four. The latest award, from Liberty University, fills a void left by the revocation of a degree from Robert Gordon University in Scotland in 2015. Robert Gordon had bestowed an honorary doctorate of business administration in 2010 — a controversial move at the time […]
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File - In this March 29, 2017 file photo, FBI Director James Comey addresses the Intelligence and National Security Alliance Leadership Dinner in Alexandria, Va. Comey cut an unorthodox path as head of the FBI, time and again compelled by strongly held convictions to speak with unusual candor and eloquence about the bureau's work. It's a combination of qualities that may come back to haunt the president who fired him. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
File - In this March 29, 2017 file photo, FBI Director James Comey addresses the Intelligence and National Security Alliance Leadership Dinner in Alexandria, Va. Comey cut an unorthodox path as head of the FBI, time and again compelled by strongly held convictions to speak with unusual candor and eloquence about the bureau's work. It's a combination of qualities that may come back to haunt the president who fired him. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
WASHINGTON (AP) — James Comey cut an unorthodox path as FBI director, time and again compelled by what he described as strongly held convictions to speak with unusual candor and eloquence about the bureau's work.
It's a combination of qualities that may come back to haunt the president who fired him.
Comey's ouster Tuesday, while his FBI led an investigation into coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, raises the potential that a man long defined by his independent streak, willingness to buck protocol and even a flair for the dramatic could resurface to publicly rebut White House efforts to smear his reputation.
"He's not shy, and he's got a tremendous moral compass," said former FBI assistant director Jim Yacone. "Above all, he will want to see the truth come out."
Comey's reputation for independence predated his tenure as director, famously manifesting itself in a 2004 hospital room clash with fellow Bush administration officials over a domestic surveillance program. It was a moment in history that he recounted three years later to a captivated congressional audience.
At the FBI, where he occasionally got ahead of Obama administration messaging or sometimes split with it altogether, by injecting himself into weighty public policy discussions.
And Comey's reputation most obviously, and most damagingly, was borne out last summer with his unusual public announcement that the FBI was not recommending criminal charges against Hillary Clinton in an email server investigation.
The news conference was held without Justice Department approval, strayed from standard protocol and led to criticism of Comey's moral certitude and go-it-alone inclinations.
Democrats lambasted him for it, and for his equally unorthodox move to alert Congress just before Election Day that the FBI was revisiting a once-closed investigation.
His testimony to Congress this month that he would make the same decisions again was cited in a Justice Department memo that laid the groundwork for his firing, though Trump has since said he had already made up his mind to dismiss Comey.
"I think he showed us again and again, 'I'm independent, damn it, and that's what you want me to be,'" said Ron Hosko, another former FBI assistant director. "And I know some will interpret that as he got too big for the job — certainly with this president."
Only one other FBI director, William Sessions, has been fired, with President Bill Clinton citing his ethical breaches. Clinton spent the next eight years at odds with Sessions' successor, Louis Freeh, but never moved to fire him. FBI chiefs are appointed to 10-year terms on the theory that can remove them from political sway.
Coupled with Comey's independence in his nearly four years as director was an unusual openness about the FBI's work.
A Comey mantra when discussing reconciliation between police and minorities — "It's hard to hate up close" — also reflected his conviction that public skepticism of the bureau could be lessened by greater transparency and a better explanation of FBI actions. After learning that an FBI clerical error helped enable a gun purchase by the man later accused in the South Carolina church massacre, Comey called reporters to FBI headquarters to discuss the mistake.
He staked out public and sometimes unpopular positions on contentious social and policy issues while leading an agency historically focused solely on law enforcement.
During a tense dialogue with Silicon Valley over smartphone encryption and the balance between privacy and national security, Comey wrote opinion articles, delivered speeches and pressed his case for access to devices louder than anyone else in the Obama administration.
He floated the disputed idea that a violent crime spike might be linked to police officers peeling back from their duties out of fear of being caught on video. Even after the Obama White House and Justice Department leaders said there was no evidence to support the assertion, Comey repeated it as a possibility.
In a speech where he quoted the lyrics of the musical "Avenue Q," he declared that the U.S. was at a crossroads on matters of race and policing. He said minorities in poor neighborhoods often inherit a "legacy of crime and prison" while officers in those same neighborhoods may take "lazy mental shortcuts" in dealing with suspicious situations.
Comey's outspokenness sometimes rankled Obama administration officials. The president himself in a November interview implicitly criticized Comey's actions in the Clinton email case by asserting that when it comes to investigations, "we don't operate on innuendo" and "incomplete information."
Into the mix came Trump, an attention-grabbing leader who, in addition to professing frustration with "this Russia thing," apparently loathed sharing the spotlight with Comey. In explaining the firing, the president told NBC News he considered Comey a "showboat."
Comey declined an invitation to testify at a closed Senate committee hearing Tuesday and it's not clear when he'll speak publicly. But elements of his accounts are emerging.
Comey said that Trump requested that he pledge to the president his loyalty during a January dinner, according to a person close to the former director. Comey offered honesty instead. When Trump then asked for "honest loyalty," Comey told him he would have that, said the Comey associate, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The White House has disputed that characterization.
The firing has roiled the FBI, where Comey was generally well-regarded and praised for his leadership. Andrew McCabe, Comey's deputy and the FBI's current acting director, told a Senate panel Thursday that Comey enjoyed "broad support."
Hosko said just before his 2014 retirement, he was called into the director's office, arguably the most buttoned up inner sanctum of the nation's premier law enforcement agency. He recalls the gregarious, 6-foot-8 director sitting in a "stuffed chair and literally slumped in the seat like a kid would, with his butt barely on the chair, his knees touching the coffee table and just in a very relaxed way."
"Tell me again," Comey asked him, "what you're going to do in your retirement."
While it's not yet known what Comey himself plans to do in his post-FBI life, he's unlikely to retire from public view.
___
Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
___
Associated Press Writer Jake Pearson in New York contributed to this report.
Associated Press
Read the whole story
· · · · · ·
Germany has begun the process of upgrading 103 out-of-service Leopard 2A4 and 2A6 tanks to the latest model, the Leopard 2A7V—an upgrade that will cost the state the equivalent of 760 million euros ($833 million). The big news is that by revamping and deploying these new vehicles, the Bundeswehr is expanding its tank fleet by over 40 percent, from 225 to 320 main battle tanks.
This increase in force size is going to take time: the revamped Leopards will enter service between 2019 and 2013. There are also provisions to convert thirty-two additional tanks into specialized engineering and bridge-laying support vehicles.
Before getting our elbows greasy diving into the technical details, we should consider the expansion’s obvious significance: the additional tanks are part of Germany’s gradual rearming of the Bundeswehr after years of downsizing and declining operational readiness, due to the end of the Cold War and trust in the U.S. military to shield it from future threats. The German public, mindful of the legacy of World War II, has shown little enthusiasm for getting involved in foreign wars or maintaining a large military.
However, defense policy changed in 2014, when Moscow demonstrated its willingness to use military force to advance its foreign policy objectives in eastern Europe by seizing Crimea from Ukraine in April 2014 with “little green men,” followed by the deployment of Russian tanks (crewed by active-duty Russian Army “volunteers”) in support of Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. German security concerns have recently been further aggravated by a new element of unpredictability in the U.S. commitment to NATO. While the Trump administration recently declared that NATO is “no longer obsolete” after entering a dispute with Moscow over Syrian chemical weapons, Berlin probably still feels it may need to play a larger role as a security provider in central Europe.
The Leopard 2 has for several decades stood among the top main battle tanks in the world, alongside the American M1 Abrams. Both vehicles share potent Rheinmetall 120-millimeter guns, boast advanced sights and fire-control systems permitting accurate fire on the move, and tip the scales at well over sixty tons in weight due to their heavy composite armor, which renders their frontal armor virtually immune to most Cold War–era antitank rockets and missiles. The Abrams and Leopard 2 are also relatively nimble for heavy main battle tanks, able to cruise over forty miles per hour.
Comparing the M1 and Leopard 2 leads to a sort of Coke-Pepsi rivalry—which is to say that they both do roughly the same thing, but there are enough little differences to inspire die-hard advocates for each. The Leopard 2’s diesel engine is often favorably compared to the loud, gas- turbine engines used in the M1, affording the German tank greater operational range. The M1A2 tanks used by the U.S. Army benefit from ultra-dense depleted-uranium armor and ammunition that enables superior defensive performance and higher penetrating power, respectively. However, Germany has political issues with using depleted uranium, so the later Leopard models compensate with highly sloped wedge-shaped turrets with spaced composite armor, as well as longer-barrel guns (fifty-five-calibers instead of forty-four) to generate greater kinetic energy for their tungsten armor-piercing shells, in order to (mostly) catch up to the punch of American DU rounds.
Nearly 3,500 Leopard 2s have been produced in numerous variants over the years, each version boasting improvements in armor protection and firepower since the first in the series entered service in 1979. Leopard 2s currently serve in the armies of eighteen countries, including Canada, Indonesia, Poland, Qatar, Spain, Sweden and Turkey.
Although the Abrams has seen a lot more combat over the decades, the Leopard 2 has been battle tested—though not against the Soviet tanks it was designed to duel with. In Afghanistan, Canadian and Danish Leopard 2s serving in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force survived hits from IEDs and rocket-propelled grenades, though a few were damaged and one Danish crew member was mortally wounded by a mine explosion. In return, the Leopard 2s were praised by coalition commanders for providing effective fire support for international forces battling the Taliban.
The Leopard 2 did not fare so well when Turkey deployed a battalion of them in December 2016 as part of its campaign to capture ISIS-held Al Bab near the Syrian border. Deadly antitank weapons have proliferated in the Syrian conflict, and much less well-armored Turkish M60 Patton tanks had suffered heavy losses to both ISIS and Kurdish rebels. In a series of attacks, ISIS destroyed or disabled as many as ten Leopard 2s using old Russian antitank missiles. Some of the Leopard 2s were even “captured” before being knocked out by coalition air strikes.
Read the whole story
· · ·
Новости Радио Свобода: точность, оперативность, беспристрастность
Download audio: https://audio.rferl.org/RU/2017/05/13/20170513-140000-RU081-program_hq.mp3
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9:22 AM 5/13/2017 - Russia and US Presidential Elections of 2016 - Google News: Investigators seek former Trump adviser's bank records as Russian probe widens - Fox News
More Cyber Victims Emerge as Agencies Search for Clues Saturday May 13 th , 2017 at 9:23 AM WSJ.Com: World News 1 Share Governments and executives scrambled to recover from a cyberattack that wreaked havoc on computer systems around the world, as the list...
More Cyber Victims Emerge as Agencies Search for Clues Saturday May 13 th , 2017 at 9:23 AM WSJ.Com: World News 1 Share Governments and executives scrambled to recover from a cyberattack that wreaked havoc on computer systems around the world, as the list...
News Reviews and Opinions: 7:16 AM 5/13/2017 - U.K. Health Service, Targeted ... newsreviews-1.blogspot.com/2017/05/716-am…
Posted by mikenov on Saturday, May 13th, 2017 12:34pm
US Treasury Department unit set to provide financial records in Trump-Russia investigation read.bi/2pHTezX via @bi_politics
Posted by mikenov on Saturday, May 13th, 2017 12:56pm
Новости Радио Свобода: точность, оперативность, беспристрастность
Download audio: https://audio.rferl.org/RU/2017/05/13/20170513-130000-RU081-program_hq.mp3
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NPR News: 05-13-2017 9AM ET
Download audio: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-500005/npr.mc.tritondigital.com/NPR_500005/media/anon.npr-mp3/npr/newscasts/2017/05/13/newscast090622.mp3?orgId=1&d=300&p=500005&story=528251206&t=podcast&e=528251206&ft=pod&f=500005
Hourly News Summary
Download audio: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-500005/npr.mc.tritondigital.com/NPR_500005/media/anon.npr-mp3/npr/newscasts/2017/05/13/newscast090622.mp3?orgId=1&d=300&p=500005&story=528251206&t=podcast&e=528251206&ft=pod&f=500005
Hourly News Summary
Governments and executives scrambled to recover from a cyberattack that wreaked havoc on computer systems around the world, as the list of victims grew to include Germany’s main rail operator and a swath of the Russian banking system.
Celebrating Mass in Saturday morning, 100 years after three shepherd children in Fátima reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary there, Pope Francis canonized two of the visionaries as saints, saying Mary had given them a still-timely warning and message of hope.
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Saved Stories - None | ||||
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Get Ready, Russia: Germany Is Expanding Its Tank Forces by 40 Percent | ||||
Germany has begun the process of upgrading 103 out-of-service Leopard 2A4 and 2A6 tanks to the latest model, the Leopard 2A7V—an upgrade that will cost the state the equivalent of 760 million euros ($833 million). The big news is that by revamping and deploying these new vehicles, the Bundeswehr is expanding its tank fleet by over 40 percent, from 225 to 320 main battle tanks.
This increase in force size is going to take time: the revamped Leopards will enter service between 2019 and 2013. There are also provisions to convert thirty-two additional tanks into specialized engineering and bridge-laying support vehicles. Before getting our elbows greasy diving into the technical details, we should consider the expansion’s obvious significance: the additional tanks are part of Germany’s gradual rearming of the Bundeswehr after years of downsizing and declining operational readiness, due to the end of the Cold War and trust in the U.S. military to shield it from future threats. The German public, mindful of the legacy of World War II, has shown little enthusiasm for getting involved in foreign wars or maintaining a large military. However, defense policy changed in 2014, when Moscow demonstrated its willingness to use military force to advance its foreign policy objectives in eastern Europe by seizing Crimea from Ukraine in April 2014 with “little green men,” followed by the deployment of Russian tanks (crewed by active-duty Russian Army “volunteers”) in support of Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. German security concerns have recently been further aggravated by a new element of unpredictability in the U.S. commitment to NATO. While the Trump administration recently declared that NATO is “no longer obsolete” after entering a dispute with Moscow over Syrian chemical weapons, Berlin probably still feels it may need to play a larger role as a security provider in central Europe. The Leopard 2 has for several decades stood among the top main battle tanks in the world, alongside the American M1 Abrams. Both vehicles share potent Rheinmetall 120-millimeter guns, boast advanced sights and fire-control systems permitting accurate fire on the move, and tip the scales at well over sixty tons in weight due to their heavy composite armor, which renders their frontal armor virtually immune to most Cold War–era antitank rockets and missiles. The Abrams and Leopard 2 are also relatively nimble for heavy main battle tanks, able to cruise over forty miles per hour. Comparing the M1 and Leopard 2 leads to a sort of Coke-Pepsi rivalry—which is to say that they both do roughly the same thing, but there are enough little differences to inspire die-hard advocates for each. The Leopard 2’s diesel engine is often favorably compared to the loud, gas- turbine engines used in the M1, affording the German tank greater operational range. The M1A2 tanks used by the U.S. Army benefit from ultra-dense depleted-uranium armor and ammunition that enables superior defensive performance and higher penetrating power, respectively. However, Germany has political issues with using depleted uranium, so the later Leopard models compensate with highly sloped wedge-shaped turrets with spaced composite armor, as well as longer-barrel guns (fifty-five-calibers instead of forty-four) to generate greater kinetic energy for their tungsten armor-piercing shells, in order to (mostly) catch up to the punch of American DU rounds. Nearly 3,500 Leopard 2s have been produced in numerous variants over the years, each version boasting improvements in armor protection and firepower since the first in the series entered service in 1979. Leopard 2s currently serve in the armies of eighteen countries, including Canada, Indonesia, Poland, Qatar, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. Although the Abrams has seen a lot more combat over the decades, the Leopard 2 has been battle tested—though not against the Soviet tanks it was designed to duel with. In Afghanistan, Canadian and Danish Leopard 2s serving in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force survived hits from IEDs and rocket-propelled grenades, though a few were damaged and one Danish crew member was mortally wounded by a mine explosion. In return, the Leopard 2s were praised by coalition commanders for providing effective fire support for international forces battling the Taliban. The Leopard 2 did not fare so well when Turkey deployed a battalion of them in December 2016 as part of its campaign to capture ISIS-held Al Bab near the Syrian border. Deadly antitank weapons have proliferated in the Syrian conflict, and much less well-armored Turkish M60 Patton tanks had suffered heavy losses to both ISIS and Kurdish rebels. In a series of attacks, ISIS destroyed or disabled as many as ten Leopard 2s using old Russian antitank missiles. Some of the Leopard 2s were even “captured” before being knocked out by coalition air strikes. | ||||
Hourly News Summary: NPR News: 05-13-2017 2PM ET | ||||
NPR News: 05-13-2017 2PM ET Download audio: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-500005/npr.mc.tritondigital.com/NPR_500005/media/anon.npr-mp3/npr/newscasts/2017/05/13/newscast140623.mp3?orgId=1&d=300&p=500005&story=528273999&t=podcast&e=528273999&ft=pod&f=500005 Hourly News Summary | ||||
Trumps Changing Story on James Comeys Firing | ||||
Readers discuss the latest revelations, including the presidents request for a loyalty vow and calling the F.B.I. director a showboater. | ||||
FBI chief sacking: White House denies Comey loyalty pledge - BBC News | ||||
| ||||
Times Journalists Use Words, Photos, Graphics and Video. And now, a Comic Strip | ||||
No Laughing Matter: the opinion sections new graphic comic strip dramatizes the troubles that plague Syrian refugees resettling in New England. | ||||
Trump Fires Comey and Putin Smiles | ||||
Russias campaign to undermine American democracy got a boost, calculated or not, from the firing of James Comey. | ||||
Source: 4 to be interviewed for FBI Director post Saturday - Politico | ||||
| ||||
Acting FBI director McCabe, Sen. John Cornyn among 4 who will interview for FBI director job - Washington Post | ||||
| ||||
McCabe, Sen. Cornyn Among 4 to Be Interviewed in FBI Search: Sources - NBCNews.com | ||||
| ||||
" Looking Like a Liar or a Fool: What It Means to Work for Trump | ||||
The aftermath of the firing of James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, has reinforced the idea that the only person who can defend President Trump is Trump. | ||||
Off-Duty FBI Agent Fatally Shoots Dog After Attack in Santa Clarita - KTLA | ||||
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FBI: Teacher said he had sex with student on most nights - WTVD-TV | ||||
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FBI agents concerned about future of Russia probe - CNN | ||||
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Off-duty FBI agent shoots, kills pit bull attacking his dog in Newhall - KABC-TV | ||||
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Ex-FBI Official Mocks Trump: Give Him A Pacifier, Put Him In His Crib - HuffPost | ||||
| ||||
Trump: 'We could make a fast decision' on new FBI director - Washington Post | ||||
| ||||
Is President Trump Obstructing Justice? | ||||
His entire pattern of behavior is obstruction of the rule of law and democratic norms. | ||||
Trump Sticks a Fork in Comey | ||||
Over cake with extra ice cream for the president Trump threatens Comey with just deserts. | ||||
What Were Losing in James Comey | ||||
He was a man who could stand up to power and tell the truth and that scared President Trump. | ||||
Donald Trump Does Not Surprise | ||||
The president is unfit for office, but we knew that already. | ||||
Clapper: Comey uneasy about dinner with Trump - YouTube | ||||
Published on May 12, 2017
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says he never ruled out evidence of collusion between Trump associates and Russia during the campaign. CNN's Jim Sciutto reports
| ||||
Russia - Google News: Trump: James Clapper said I have no Russia connections. Clapper: No I didn't. - Vox | ||||
Russia - Google News | ||||
AP News | The Standard Speaker | ||||
It's a combination of qualities that may come back to haunt the president who fired him. Comey's ouster Tuesday, while his FBI led an investigation into coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, raises the potential that a man long defined by his independent streak, willingness to buck protocol and even a flair for the dramatic could resurface to publicly rebut White House efforts to smear his reputation. "He's not shy, and he's got a tremendous moral compass," said former FBI assistant director Jim Yacone. "Above all, he will want to see the truth come out." Comey's reputation for independence predated his tenure as director, famously manifesting itself in a 2004 hospital room clash with fellow Bush administration officials over a domestic surveillance program. It was a moment in history that he recounted three years later to a captivated congressional audience. At the FBI, where he occasionally got ahead of Obama administration messaging or sometimes split with it altogether, by injecting himself into weighty public policy discussions. And Comey's reputation most obviously, and most damagingly, was borne out last summer with his unusual public announcement that the FBI was not recommending criminal charges against Hillary Clinton in an email server investigation. The news conference was held without Justice Department approval, strayed from standard protocol and led to criticism of Comey's moral certitude and go-it-alone inclinations. Democrats lambasted him for it, and for his equally unorthodox move to alert Congress just before Election Day that the FBI was revisiting a once-closed investigation. His testimony to Congress this month that he would make the same decisions again was cited in a Justice Department memo that laid the groundwork for his firing, though Trump has since said he had already made up his mind to dismiss Comey. "I think he showed us again and again, 'I'm independent, damn it, and that's what you want me to be,'" said Ron Hosko, another former FBI assistant director. "And I know some will interpret that as he got too big for the job — certainly with this president." Only one other FBI director, William Sessions, has been fired, with President Bill Clinton citing his ethical breaches. Clinton spent the next eight years at odds with Sessions' successor, Louis Freeh, but never moved to fire him. FBI chiefs are appointed to 10-year terms on the theory that can remove them from political sway. Coupled with Comey's independence in his nearly four years as director was an unusual openness about the FBI's work. A Comey mantra when discussing reconciliation between police and minorities — "It's hard to hate up close" — also reflected his conviction that public skepticism of the bureau could be lessened by greater transparency and a better explanation of FBI actions. After learning that an FBI clerical error helped enable a gun purchase by the man later accused in the South Carolina church massacre, Comey called reporters to FBI headquarters to discuss the mistake. He staked out public and sometimes unpopular positions on contentious social and policy issues while leading an agency historically focused solely on law enforcement. During a tense dialogue with Silicon Valley over smartphone encryption and the balance between privacy and national security, Comey wrote opinion articles, delivered speeches and pressed his case for access to devices louder than anyone else in the Obama administration. He floated the disputed idea that a violent crime spike might be linked to police officers peeling back from their duties out of fear of being caught on video. Even after the Obama White House and Justice Department leaders said there was no evidence to support the assertion, Comey repeated it as a possibility. In a speech where he quoted the lyrics of the musical "Avenue Q," he declared that the U.S. was at a crossroads on matters of race and policing. He said minorities in poor neighborhoods often inherit a "legacy of crime and prison" while officers in those same neighborhoods may take "lazy mental shortcuts" in dealing with suspicious situations. Comey's outspokenness sometimes rankled Obama administration officials. The president himself in a November interview implicitly criticized Comey's actions in the Clinton email case by asserting that when it comes to investigations, "we don't operate on innuendo" and "incomplete information." Into the mix came Trump, an attention-grabbing leader who, in addition to professing frustration with "this Russia thing," apparently loathed sharing the spotlight with Comey. In explaining the firing, the president told NBC News he considered Comey a "showboat." Comey declined an invitation to testify at a closed Senate committee hearing Tuesday and it's not clear when he'll speak publicly. But elements of his accounts are emerging. Comey said that Trump requested that he pledge to the president his loyalty during a January dinner, according to a person close to the former director. Comey offered honesty instead. When Trump then asked for "honest loyalty," Comey told him he would have that, said the Comey associate, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The White House has disputed that characterization. The firing has roiled the FBI, where Comey was generally well-regarded and praised for his leadership. Andrew McCabe, Comey's deputy and the FBI's current acting director, told a Senate panel Thursday that Comey enjoyed "broad support." Hosko said just before his 2014 retirement, he was called into the director's office, arguably the most buttoned up inner sanctum of the nation's premier law enforcement agency. He recalls the gregarious, 6-foot-8 director sitting in a "stuffed chair and literally slumped in the seat like a kid would, with his butt barely on the chair, his knees touching the coffee table and just in a very relaxed way." "Tell me again," Comey asked him, "what you're going to do in your retirement." While it's not yet known what Comey himself plans to do in his post-FBI life, he's unlikely to retire from public view. ___ Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP ___ Associated Press Writer Jake Pearson in New York contributed to this report. Associated Press | ||||
Comeys firing is a gift to the FBI | New York Post | ||||
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NPR News: 05-13-2017 2PM ET | ||||
NPR News: 05-13-2017 2PM ET Download audio: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-500005/npr.mc.tritondigital.com/NPR_500005/media/anon.npr-mp3/npr/newscasts/2017/05/13/newscast140623.mp3?orgId=1&d=300&p=500005&story=528273999&t=podcast&e=528273999&ft=pod&f=500005 |
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