January 5, 2017: The unthinkable had come to pass. The Democrats were shattered. Donald J. Trump was president-elect. A small group solemnly convened in President Obama’s Oval Office: Mr. Obama, Vice-President Biden, Susan Rice, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and intelligence agency heads James Clapper, John Brennan, Admiral Michael Rogers and FBI Director James Comey. The meeting was to brief the president on the evidence of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election.
The “salacious and unverified” “Steele dossier” was already in the mix, but of course they say they didn’t discuss it. Despite its lack of verification, it had been widely circulated for months. Mother Jones — courtesy of then-anonymous Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS — had begun spreading the rumors that Russia had dirt on Trump back in October just before the election. The FBI and Department of Justice had obtained one FISA warrant with the dossier already –against former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. That would expire in approximately two weeks, and soon most of this cabal would be out of office. They only had 15 days to find a way to protect the country against Donald Trump.
According to Susan Rice, after Clapper, Brennan and Rogers left the room, Director Comey had a “follow on conversation” with the president and others about how to proceed. This resulted in two things: Susan Rice’s bizarre email to herself — 15 days later and 15 minutes after President Trump was sworn into office; and, Mr. Comey’s trip to New York to set the stage with the president-elect for using the media to pump the “collusion” narrative with which it had already been primed.
According to Ms. Rice’s belated email, all President Obama did was to tell everyone (twice) to go “by the book.” He was “not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective.”
Of course, one might ask, why would it be necessary to memorialize, two weeks later, whatever Mr. Obama did not say?
She continued: “From a national security perspective, however, President Obama said that he wants to be sure as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia.” Mr. Comey agreed to keep him informed of anything that might affect how classified information would be shared. Obviously, Team Obama, including Comey, both despised and distrusted Donald Trump.
The next day, January 6, Comey went to Trump Tower to meet the incoming team. After a more formal meeting that included Reince Preibus and others, Comey asked for a private conversation with Mr. Trump. By Comey’s own admissions now, he told the president-elect only about the salacious portions of the dossier — as Andy McCarthy surmised at the time.
Most importantly, for purposes of the Obama group’s plan, he set the stage for capitalizing on the lies and enabling the leaks that would follow — all the way through to the appointment of a special counsel.
The release of Comey’s classified and confidential memos reveal Mr. Comey’s abject duplicity. In his own words: “I then executed the session exactly as I had planned.” He lied to the face of President-elect Trump.
For the man who later declared “I don’t leak,” the leaks began when he left the room.
He informed Mr. Trump only on the personally scandalous allegations of the “Steele dossier” at Clapper’s direction. Remember, Clapper is the man who testified to Congress that the government was NOT collecting data on all of us — when it was (and is).
Notably, Mr. Trump wanted Mr. Comey to investigate those outrageous allegations so that he could be exonerated, but Mr. Comey declined — ostensibly because he didn’t want anyone to think the president was under investigation. This was a lie. That is exactly what he, Clapper, John Brennan and the Obama White House wanted the world to think. That is why Comey briefed Mr. Trump on the nasty personal allegations in the first place.
Comey told Trump that all the news outlets including CNN had the information already but had not run with it because they were waiting for a news hook. Comey’s “briefing” for the president-elect provided just that hook. Comey practically ran to his car to write down everything he could remember of their conversation and reported to Clapper that he had indeed briefed the President.
CNN ran with the report that the president and president-elect had been briefed on these allegation — followed quickly by BuzzFeed’s publication of the Steele dossier in its entirety—all timed to taint the inauguration with the concocted Russia-collusion.
The leaking and lying Mr. Comey continued to document his conversations with the President he despised and distrusted until he was fired.
Then Comey leaked the memos through his friend at Columbia to The New York Times “to prompt the appointment of special counsel.” Remarkably, that happened within hours—and it just turned out to be his longtime friend Robert Mueller — to whom Comey immediately provided copies of his memos.
This was all planned — and orchestrated in the Oval Office on January 5.
Sidney Powell, former federal prosecutor and veteran of 500 federal appeals, is the author of “LICENSED TO LIE: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice.” She is a Senior Fellow of the London Center for Policy Research and senior policy adviser for America First.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
