Here's another telling revelation in the Comey memos

By Paul Waldman April 20 at 2:25 PM

Once again, House Republicans have carefully laid a rake on the ground, dramatically brought their foot down on it and smashed themselves in the face. I speak, of course, about the release of the memos that then-FBI director James B. Comey wrote in early 2017 describing his meetings with President Trump and other administration officials.

Those memos have raised a whole new set of very uncomfortable questions for the president. I want to focus on one of those questions, a new twist involving former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

First, let’s look at Comey’s account of a meeting he had on Feb. 8, 2017 with Priebus:

He then asked me if this was a “private conversation.” I replied that it was. He then said he wanted to ask me a question and I could decide whether it was appropriate to answer. He then asked, “Do you have a FISA order on Mike Flynn?” I paused for a few seconds and then said that I would answer here, but that this illustrated the kind of question that had to be asked and answered through established channels. I said the answer [redacted]”

-snip-

If we accept Comey’s account of the Feb. 14 meeting, then Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation of Flynn after members of his staff knew he had lied to the vice president about it, and might even have had reason to believe he had lied to the FBI as well. Trump claims that all he knew when he fired Flynn was that Flynn had lied to Pence. But on Dec. 2, Trump tweeted, “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.”

-snip-

What’s new here is Priebus’s involvement. The fact that he asked Comey on Feb. 8 about whether Flynn was under surveillance suggests he may have had reason to believe that Flynn’s transgressions were more serious than just lying to Pence.

If that’s true, then the chances that Trump didn’t know that Flynn had done something extremely serious are shrinking. The White House counsel reportedly knew that Flynn lied to the FBI. The White House chief of staff saw fit to ask the FBI director whether Flynn was under surveillance, from which he very well might have concluded something similar. And after all that, Trump asked Comey to let Flynn go.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/04/20/heres-another-telling-revelation-in-the-comey-memos/