In what is being pushed as a “bombshell” or “blockbuster” story, the New York Times is claiming there’s a memo from fired former FBI Director James Comey stating that President Donald Trump asked him to kill the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s alleged ties to Russia.
The NY Times wrote on Tuesday afternoon:
President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.
“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.
The existence of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia.
Except there’s at minimum three huge problems with the report:
- The Times never saw the “memo.” They’re reporting on a memo that they haven’t physically seen.
- Like most of these “gotcha” stories from the Democrat Media Complex (like the Washington Post and the NY Times) intending to make a case to impeach Trump, the story is based on anonymous sources so there’s no way to verify the validity of the report.
- Acting Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, under testimony last week, said that Comey was not asked to discontinue the investigation.
- The memo is reportedly “unclassified” meaning that there’s no reason for it not to be public.
McCabe would assumably know about the memo and would have mentioned it during Senate testimony last week, considering his undeniable ties to Democrat Party politics.
The Times admitted in the fifth paragraph:
The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of the memo to a Times reporter.
Following the NY Times’ story, Congressman [score]Jason Chaffetz[/score], head of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to McCabe requesting the memo that according to the report says, “I hope you can let this go” and any related memos.
Rep. Chaffetz, who recently announced he would soon be retiring, said he has he’s ready to subpoena the requested documents if necessary:
.@GOPoversight is going to get the Comey memo, if it exists. I need to see it sooner rather than later. I have my subpoena pen ready.
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) May 16, 2017
