Juan Lee Pettimore said:
I'm seriously confused on this whole ordeal. Did Comey lie to Congress? Clear and convincingly, no doubt about it? No way to wiggle out? Or is this one of those deals where you say "well, here, he said this, and then he kind of alluded to something else over here, but if you interpret it in one specific way, you could potentially make the claim…"
If it's the former, indict him and prosecute him. If it's the latter, then this is uncalled for. With that being said, the leftist talking point about the prior prosecutor not seeing enough to indict is pathetically stupid. That guy was as partisan and corrupt as they come.
Simple answer yes he lied multiple times. But Count #2 is going to be the easiest to prove. Count #2, involves Comey falsely testifying he did not direct former his FBI Special Government Employee (SGE) Daniel Richman [Person 3] to leak information to New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt. Richman was also Comey's roommate in college.
This second count is easily evidenced through the prior investigation of OIG Michael Horowitz and all prior witness statements therein. Again, that includes testimony to Horowitz given by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
Additionally, the second count is evidenced by the direct testimony of Daniel Richman himself, who was hired by James Comey and given special access privileges to classified information systems. Richman was subpoenaed to the grand jury as a witness during the assembly of the case against Comey. Count #2 is the easiest to prove beyond any reasonable doubt.
If the lie is proven it lends credence to the obstruction of congress charge because one caused the other. Ted Cruz walked him write into the lie by the way he worded the quest. Cruz made mention of McCabe testifying before Congress which he did but then Cruz asked the direct question twice to Comey and Comey swung at the pitch in the dirt. Cruz asked him "Did you ever authorize anyone at the FBI to act as an anonymous source to the media?" And the way he set the question up it left the impression that he was talking about McCabe, but he specifically used the words "Anyone at the FBI" that's the hook. Richman had the SGE status so he was part of the FBI, and when Comey was fired he kept his work product notes from the dinner/meeting he had with Trump where he claimed Trump demanded his loyalty. Comey gave a copy of those notes to Richman and he leaked them to Michael Schmidt.
Comey admitted himself that he did it to force a special counsel investigation. Comey's argument was those were his own personal notes and he didn't consider him work product or classified however, Inspector general beg to differ because it was considered a work product. And as I said earlier, Richman testified himself that he was the leaker and that he got the notes from Comey.
Everything on the subject is very well documented in the Mueller thread that's been going on for years on this site. Here's also the links to the sourcing.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/comeys-memo-leak-contact-had-special-government-employee-status-at-fbi.amphttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/us/politics/comey-memos-inspector-general.htmlhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/justice-dept-inspector-general-fbi-director-face-questions-from-congress-on-report/2018/06/18/eee1842e-727a-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.htmlhttps://nypost.com/2019/08/29/james-comey-violated-fbi-policies-by-leaking-classified-information-doj-watchdog/ "We're going to turn this red Prius into a soup kitchen!"
