Why Were Republicans So Desperate To Release the Embarrassing Comey Memos? -FOX "News" Reporting

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Since the start of the year—but particularly since the start of the book tour—Republicans have suggested that the memos Comey had leaked were actually classified documents and that he had perjured himself about this in Senate testimony. This was the only actual substantive “lie” that White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was able to point to last week when she was asked to justify the Republican campaign calling him a liar. “Even the media has reported that officials have determined that Comey leaked four memos—at least four that we know about—with classified information,” Sanders said. (This gets a bunch of alleged facts wrong, but see below to understand what Sanders likely was trying to say.)


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............It seems as though they thought the memos would prove Comey had illegally leaked classified information and lied about it. It seems as though they were basing this entirely on a bit of contradictory—and likely inaccurate—Fox News reporting. And it seems that this contradictory, likely inaccurate reporting was done by Fox News to help validate this Donald Trump tweet, which was sent two days after Comey’s Senate testimony:

James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal!

Link to tweet

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Finally, it seems that the memos released prove the exact opposite: the apparently leaked documents were never and still aren’t classified.

Ultimately, this is likely why on Thursday night we learned that Putin was allegedly discussing Russian hookers with Trump, that the president appears to have been obsessed with the pee tape to a previously undisclosed degree, and apparently had his chief of staff ask the FBI director if Mike Flynn was being bugged.

In the likely event that there are more rakes out there in this investigation, House Republicans should think very carefully about where they step next.



More, plus links:
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/04/why-were-republicans-so-desperate-to-release-the-embarrassing-comey-memos-heres-one-explanation.html