Media miss real news on Comey

Fired FBI boss admitted telling president that he was not the subject of Russian investigation

Your headline and story “Comey testifies he was fired over Russian probe,” barely mentions that fired FBI director James Comey admitted under oath he told President Trump on three separate occasions that he was not, and never had been, the subject of any intelligence agency investigation regarding collusion with the Russians.

You should have led with that.

For months on end, the Albuquerque Journal/Associated Press have pushed the narrative that people associated with the Trump campaign were being investigated for colluding with the Russians. The revelation that the whole thing was a complete fabrication is cast off in one sentence, deep in the article, and then it’s off to the races with your next drummed-up accusation that Trump committed obstruction of justice.

In his testimony, Director Comey called the media “seagulls chasing bread crumbs” who almost always get it wrong when citing unnamed sources. Despite this just criticism, Comey himself failed to correct the record and allowed, even encouraged, a false, fake, slanderous story to continue unabated for months. Given that he refused to set the record straight about his boss, despite being requested to do so, the Russian investigation may have indeed figured into the decision to fire Comey, but not for the reasons you state.

Here is what I found interesting: Comey testified that members of the Senate and Congress also knew that President Trump was not, and had never been, under investigation. We should ask why our own senators, (Martin) Heinrich and (Tom) Udall, perpetrated the collusion narrative for lo these many months, when, according to Comey, they must have known all along it was a lie. Has Senator Heinrich allowed our president to be slandered in order to keep his base happy and increase fundraising? A review of his public statements on this matter is certainly in order. In any case, Heinrich’s current accusations regarding “obstruction of justice” should be treated with skepticism, as coming from a partisan grandstander.

Regarding this latest lie du jour, Trump committed obstruction of justice, your headline might be, “Comey admits under oath that President Trump did not obstruct the Russian investigation.”

Instead, Comey testified that Trump told him he wanted the investigation to continue and wanted to know if anyone in his circle was implicated.

Or how about, “Comey states under oath that President Trump never asked him to stop the Michael Flynn investigation,” but rather expressed to him, once and in private, that Flynn was a “good guy” and he hoped there was a favorable outcome — a sentiment that Trump had expressed the next day at a press conference, just as after the election he said he hoped they’d go easy on (Hillary) Clinton.

Last but not least, your headline could read, “Comey outs himself as an FBI leaker.” We look forward to future headlines on this particular topic.

C’mon, folks, given his less than illustrious track record, it really shouldn’t be difficult for both Democrats and Republicans to agree that James Comey deserved to be fired.