Courtesy of Pam Martens
Former FBI Director, James Comey
The Republican National Committee (RNC), the organization that provides leadership and funding for the official Republican Party of the United States, has put its reputation on the line along with every Republican that’s running for public office in November by setting up an official RNC website calling former FBI Director James Comey “Lyin’ Comey.”
It has been the longstanding position of President Donald Trump that Comey is a liar. Trump fired Comey in the midst of the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election and has disparaged him ever since. Comey is highly respected by the rank and file of the FBI, the most esteemed law enforcement agency in the United States.
The RNC has apparently taken Trump’s personal loyalty pledge – the one Comey says he refused to take when asked by the President. But there’s no escape hatch for the rest of the Republican Party if Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe exposes the President as the serial liar, and potentially worse. (The Washington Post has already chronicled 2,001 lies the President told in his first year in office.)
Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who has admitted to paying $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her allegations of an affair with Trump from going public, is the Deputy Finance Chairman of the RNC. Cohen is perhaps not the best person to have his fingers tied to the money of the RNC. He is being investigated by Mueller over multiple hush money payments by Trump or surrogates. Cohen’s office, hotel room and home were raided by the FBI on Monday.
Last night the Washington Post reported that Cohen frequently tape recorded phone calls and maintained those recordings in a digital archive. The Post article raises the prospect that the FBI may have seized those recordings in their raids. The article also pointed out that attorney-client privilege would not apply to the tapes if the “conversation was conducted to further commission of a crime or fraud.” The same theory would hold true for any documents seized by the FBI.
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