Sonofoski;842845179 said:
Show me where Trump PUSHED the FBI to drop the investigation, what were exact words? If you know so much about the code, why don't you share it with us.
I will say it again, Comey cannot claim that he knew (and he certainly is not going to claim it on Thursday) whatever Trump said to him amounted to obstruction of justice without imperiling himself. He is bound by law to report any obstruction to the head of the Department of Justice. The fact that he did not report it to the Department of Justice immediately must mean that he believed none of the conversations with Trump rose to the level of obstruction.
1. It is one reasonable interpretation of the facts that what has been testified too - asking that the investigation into Flynn be let go, combined with asking for loyalty, combined with 9 occasions of asking for inappropriate things and getting more upset about not getting them, and ultimately firing the person and then saying on television that he did it because of the Russian investigation is "pushing" the FBI. Another interpretation is that he was merely asking which would still be inappropriate. However, I wasn't making a statement of fact. I was expressing a hypothetical under which Comey would be theoretically imprisoned under your argument. That argument starts with the fact that the president must have hypothetically committed obstruction since your argument is that Comey would be imprisoned if he knew of obstruction and didn't report it. It relies on the obstruction.
2. No dude. You made an assertion. You need to cite the code. And instead of citing the code you just repeat the assertion. But tell you what. Here is the code that the idiot congressman cited. (It is 18 U.S.C.A. 4.) I'm pretty sure it is the same one since you mentioned 3 years imprisonment which is the maximum anyone can get under the code. The fact that it could also be punished by a fine and that a maximum sentence is extremely unlikely in such a case escaping your notice.
Quote:
"Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."
So, where does it say he has to report it to the Justice Department? It doesn't. There is ample case law around this statute that failing to report does not violate the statute. You have to take
" affirmative steps to conceal the crime of the principals." United States v. Daddano, 432 F.2d 1119, 1124 (7th Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 402 U.S. 905, 91 S.Ct. 1366, 28 L.Ed.2d 645 (1971); Neal v. United States, 102 F.2d 643, 649-650 (8th Cir. 1939).
The mere failure to report a felony is not sufficient to constitute a violation of 18 U.S.C.A. 4. Lancey v. United States,356 F.2d 407 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 922, 87 S.Ct. 234, 17 L.Ed.2d 145 (1966). Also note that the statute says "conceals
AND does not...make known".
I'd point out that FBI agents and FBI directors become aware of felonies many times during the course of their careers and they do not necessarily immediately report them to the justice department. It is called investigation. Comey did in fact report the instance to several colleagues in the FBI. The FBI is a reasonable place for him to have reported a felony. But this is really irrelevant since the code does not require him to report. There is no evidence that he took affirmative steps to conceal. In fact, by writing a memorandum and sharing it with colleagues he pretty much insulated himself from this charge.
You got played by a congressman that knew many wouldn't look it up and knew that if they did they would see what they wanted to in a very generic statute that is not meant to apply to this and would not research further. You should know better than to trust a congressman or what you hear on cable news.
Now you can respond by just repeating the assertion again that the former director of the FBI has stupidly put himself at risk for jail time. I'll be interested to see the other code section you have that has a three year jail sentence attached and actually does require him to report to the justice department. You won't cite anything showing he is bound by law to immediately report to the justice department an attempted obstruction by the president because none exists (which is why you haven't cited it so far.)
3. He has made it clear that he will not opine on whether it is obstruction and the reason he won't is that question is an interpretation of law and that is not his job. He will provide the facts. That is what law enforcement does. Legal interpretation is for lawyers and judges, not cops.
