Reince Priebus FBI contacts suddenly look even worse after yesterday's testimony

[kpete]

We learned about a month ago that Priebus spoke with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about Team Trump’s Russia scandal, and by some accounts, the White House chief of staff hoped to persuade FBI officials to reach out to journalists to downplay the significance of the controversy.

As we discussed at the time, there are rules in place that severely limit the communications between the FBI and the White House, though in this case, Reince Priebus either didn’t know or didn’t care about those restrictions. Politico had a report over the weekend – before yesterday’s testimony from FBI Director James Comey, obviously – about the communications.

Reince Priebus’s request that the FBI refute a report of Donald Trump associates’ contacts with Russian intelligence appears to have violated the White House’s policy restricting political interference in pending investigations, according to a copy of the policy obtained by POLITICO.

The policy says only the president, vice president and White House counsel can discuss specific investigations or cases with the attorney general, deputy attorney general, associate attorney general or solicitor general. Any other conversations require the approval of the White House counsel, according to the document.

In other words, Priebus’ chats with the deputy director of the FBI – communications that the White House has already acknowledged – were problematic on their face.

But in light of yesterday’s news, they seem quite a bit worse.

Based on what we now know, the White House chief of staff improperly communicated with a leading FBI official while an FBI counter-intelligence investigation into the Trump campaign was already underway. Priebus hoped to get the FBI’s help in knocking down reports of a scandal while the FBI was reviewing that scandal.


MORE:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/reince-priebus-fbi-contacts-suddenly-look-even-worse#break

[BannonsLiver]

1. Haven't heard much from Rinse lately

[randome]

8. I was wondering about that, too. Interesting, isn't it?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[malaise]

2. He'll be going down shortly

[janterry]

3. He's too busy

trying to think of a way to save himself.

[Fast Walker 52]

4. at this point, they are the most blatantly corrupt and criminal WH possible

they ALL need to go -- either removed from office or thrown into jail.

[SunSeeker]

5. Sure sounds like attempted obstruction of justice to me. nt

[gratuitous]

6. Sorry, but amateur hour is long over for the Trump administration

I'm not buying any assertion that Preibus "didn't know" he wasn't supposed to contact the FBI. Once you get in the big office, you're supposed to fucking know about this stuff, and the responsibility for following the rules goes right to the top. None of this "Oh, we didn't know" bullshit. Maybe that flies with the low-information voters the Republicans rely on so heavily, but it shouldn't fly with the Department of Justice. Where is the Attorney General on this?

[denbot]

7. "Where is the Attorney General on this"..

You mean the guy who lied under oath? I'm guessing he's preoccupied right about now..

[gratuitous]

9. Yeah, Jeff's got his own problems right now

But start at the beginning, and demand that proper procedure be followed. Hard to argue that you're being "partisan" or that you're going to make the Ghost of David Broder cry if you're making a legitimate request.

[Cha]

10. Kick for exposing rince