James Comey seems to be offering the Senate today a series of shrugs over troubling evidence of false evidence and possible Russian disinformation in the Russian investigation. Despite his signing off on secret surveillance, Comey is dismissing questions ...
...on the basis that he never knew of any of the memos indicating that the information in the investigation was false or even Russian misinformation. He was under a duty to confirm such facts. As someone who has billed himself as a strong leader, he is now portraying himself...
...as a passive player in these decisions. However, while he would not answer questions on the new evidence of possible Russian misinformation used by the FBI, he had no problem discussing new evidence on Trump's debt that might suggest Russian control over him.
After saying that he could not comment on the new evidence on possible Russian misinformation used by the FBI, Comey just had no problem is saying that he has read material on the Flynn case and give his conclusions on their meaning.
Comey did say that, knowing what he knows today, that he would not have signed off on the Page surveillance. That makes it unanimous with Yates and Rosenstein. Nobody now supports the surveillance request but no one takes real responsibility.
Comey just said that he was wrong to previously call the abuse of the FISA process as "nonsense." He said that he should not have had confidence in the process. However, he had no problem dismissing these concerns repeatedly and publicly until confronted with the evidence.
...Comey bizarrely just said that he was not sure if it was relevant that he should have been told that the subsource used for the Steele material was a suspected Russian agent even when he was briefed on the Steele material. He just signed the application.
...Comey previously in his book on "ethical leadership" criticized Trump and said “a leader needs the truth, but an emperor does not consistently hear it from his underlings.” That apparently does not apply to being informed that secret surveillance ...
...targeting aides of the opposing presidential candidate might be Russian intelligence disinformation. Even when being briefed on the Steele information, Comey said that he was not sure that he had to be informed of that fact before signing off on the FISA application.
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It is 6-3 in upholding the constitutionality of the board that issued rules for the covering of preventative case. This avoids a massive potential disruption on covered health care services.
...Justice Thomas dissents with Alito and Gorsuch. Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Barrett join with the liberal justices...
Five-minute warning. Once again, we have ten cases in the pipeline. We will be watching for any retirement announcements. Justices Thomas and Alito are the most obvious. Thomas may want to extend his time as one of the longest sitting justices, so the best money may be on Alito.
...Both Thomas and Alito would likely want to retire when they can be replaced with a like-minded nominee...
...Alito could well have the Mahmoud case out of Maryland on parental rights and LGBTQ material in public schools...
President Trump just announced that the United States has attacked the nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow. As discussed in today's column, Trump has history on his side in taking this action without congressional approval... thehill.com/opinion/white-…
...Since Iran has threatened to attack the United States in response to such an operation, it could trigger a series of cascading decisions. For example, under Article Five of the NATO treaty, an attack on one member is an attack on all...
...That is just one of the issues that could arise in a more prolonged conflict if Iran carries out its threat of retaliating against U.S. assets.
Today's decision upholding the Tennessee law restricting gender transition care for minors has enormous implications for a variety of transgender cases. Chief Justice Roberts declared "The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements."...
...The Court rejected the use of intermediate scrutiny that was just used by a judge in Boston to bar the Trump administration from requiring either male or female designations on passports...
...There is still room here for future challenges. The Court found that there was no discrimination on the basis of transgender status and noted that "absent a showing that SB1’s prohibitions are pretexts designed to effect invidious discrimination against transgender individuals, the law does not classify on the basis of transgender status."...