Mr. Comey Goes To Washington | NEW YORK MAGAZINE

Just as his terrorism and corporate-corruption cases here are heating up, United States Attorney James Comey is heading south to become John Ashcroft’s deputy. What’s a nice, nonpartisan prosecutor going to do in a Justice Department like that?

Jim Comey is laughing. As the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, he holds one of the toughest jobs in law enforcement, at a time when the action has never been more intense. Around the corner from Comey’s downtown office, the first high-stakes test of his crusade against corporate corruption has begun with the trial of Frank Quattrone. Down in Virginia, a federal judge has issued yet another damaging ruling in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged “twentieth hijacker,” a case that’s being handled by one of Comey’s most trusted lieutenants. And Comey’s indictment of Martha Stewart is under assault again, with a new defense motion to dismiss the obstruction-of-justice charges against the dominatrix of domesticity.

Yet Comey is cackling. He is a deeply serious man, a law-and-order Republican appointee—and, standing six feet eight inches tall, instantly intimidating. But laughter is his natural state. Comey is talking about his upcoming “career day” chat to his daughter’s first-grade class. “My wife and I have five kids, so I’ve done this many times,” he says. “I like to bring stuff to show them: fingerprints, handcuffs, stuff like that.” Suddenly, Comey is shouting, acting out his lesson to the 6-year-olds: “Tell the truth! See what can happen to you?” he yells. “Okay, now we’re all gonna perp-walk to the playground! Tommy—you be Kozlowski!”

Comey has been savaged by William Safire and lauded by Chuck Schumer; just what kind of Republican is he, anyway? This sets Comey howling again. “I must be doing something right!” he says. “In college, I was left of center, and through a gradual process I found myself more comfortable with a lot of the ideas and approaches the Republicans were using.” He voted for Carter in 1980, but in ’84, “I voted for Reagan—I’d moved from Communist to whatever I am now. I’m not even sure how to characterize myself politically. Maybe at some point, I’ll have to figure it out.”

Comey Politicized the FBI, Brennan the CIA | NEWSMAX | OCT 13, 2016

FBI Director James Comey’s abject submission to the powers that be likely destroyed the final pillar in traditional America, where we were Americans first, and political partisans second. Sadly, the FBI’s political whitewash of Hillary Clinton’s apparent crimes illustrates the bureau’s descent into the same politicization of the CIA under John Brennan and Obama. From its first days, the Obama administration has poisoned the well of American interests in favor of its own political interests. Since Obama unveiled John Brennan as his preferred intelligence expert during the 2008 presidential campaign, non-partisan American interests have been sacrificed for the interests of Politically Correct Progressivism. Brennan, the first director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) from 2004-2005, was rewarded with the counterterrorism czar throne, Homeland Security Advisor, after being rejected as the Director of the CIA in early 2009. After his appointment, Brennan came to effectively rule the intelligence community from his office in the White House. The 2009 underwear bomber case provided clear evidence of Brennan’s absolute power over the wider intelligence community, as well as how he politicized it. A Nigerian terrorist, already in Brennan’s databases, boarded a plane bound for Chicago. His underwear was full of bomb material. In U.S. airspace the terrorist attempted to light the bomb. The plot was only foiled because the Nigerian had worn the shorts for two weeks. Even though Brennan had sold the “connect-the-dots” analytical software to the center after he left government employment in 2005, Obama appointed Brennan-the-czar to lead the investigation into the reasons that NCTC failed to connect the dots in the underwear case. In short, after Brennan conducted an investigation into Brennan’s agency’s use of Brennan’s company’s counterterrorism software, Brennan announced that he would take care of the issues. Pretty sweet work, if you can get it! As Obama and Brennan’s vision for iron-fisted rule of the intelligence community was further developed, the czar cooperated with a political witch-hunt, led by the attorney general, to punish CIA officers for their roles in harsh interrogation carried out during the Bush administration. Even though Brennan was the Deputy Director of the CIA during the Bush administration’s use of harsh interrogation, he sat next to Obama as the administration pushed for prosecutions of CIA officers. Later, when Congress conducted an investigation into the internal machinations at the CIA, the CIA dipped into the congressional investigators’ computers. Brennan, quietly, and behind the scenes, appeared to be the evil genius behind Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unprecedented meddling, including the destruction of America’s stable partner in counterterrorism in North Africa, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Comey’s brazen and public refusal to do his Constitutional duty and Brennan’s quiet politicization of the intelligence community are unprecedented in modern history. The result has been an eight-year purge of the intelligence community — with any political dissenters either banished or silenced. A reign of quiet terror now blankets the IC. Dissent means losing jobs, retirements, and perks. Go-along-to-get-along is now standard operating practice. Kent Clizbe is a former CIA ops officer, and expert in counter-terrorism and Islamic extremism, credibility assessment, and fraud detection. He is an historian of anti-American espionage operations, and author of “Willing Accomplices: How KGB Covert Influence Ops Created Political Correctness.” His website is KentClizbe.com. Read more of his reports — Go Here Now.

Politicized Intelligence Community Staging Shadow Coup | NEWSMAX | FEB 17, 2017

Highly paid, highly powered, and highly networked, America’s establishment mandarins are not happy.

They’re not happy that Donald Trump rejects their fake wisdom. They’re not happy that the American people are beginning to see behind the curtain. They’re not happy that their carefully constructed influence operation — the legacy media they use to send down wisdom from on high for the rubes to read and heed — has crumbled. They’re not happy that the president is not beholden to their clique, and that they cannot control him.

The tight connection between the establishment mandarins — politicians, lobbyists, former politicians, crony capitalists, Wall Street titans, legacy media scribblers and babblers — and the entrenched federal bureaucracy ensured that Trump’s disruption of their power created consequences for his administration.

The intelligence community bureaucrats, basking in the last eight years of the John Brennan regime politicizing their operations, and creating powerful fiefdoms, became a tool of the politically correct Progressive presidential campaign. Never in American history had the intelligence community (IC) been used to generate campaign opposition research. Brennan latched on to the “Russians did it” theme, and worked the IC to crank out fake headlines. These government employees are unlike any other group in the government. They are protected by multiple layers of secrecy and an assumption, by most observers, that IC employees are somehow noble non-partisans.

Who is new FBI director James Comey? | THE GUARDIAN | JUL 30, 2013

The former US deputy attorney general has experience in arms sales, hedge funds and banking. Does that make him qualified for the job?

Name: James Comey.

Age: 52.

Appearance: A towering figure. He’s 6ft 8in.

Who is he? He’s the new director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI? Yes, that Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Since when? Since Monday, when the US Senate voted 93-1 to confirm his appointment.

Someone voted against him? Republican senator Rand Paul.

What was his problem? He was worried about the FBI’s use of surveillance drones on US soil. Paul had been using delaying tactics to prevent the confirmation vote being held. He only decided to allow it to go ahead after the FBI had written to him to address his concerns.

So apart from that no one had a problem with this Comey guy? No other senator, no.

Incredible. He must have some serious qualifications. He does indeed. He’s a fully paid-up member of the military-industrial complex.

What does that mean? It means he has worked in corporate law, government, banking and the arms trade.

Yeesh. He must really love neo-imperial capitalism. He surely does. Although he once told New York magazine that he used to be a communist.

Sounds like a man with a story. Where did he start? In law. He was a partner at firm McGuireWoods, where, among other things, he successfully defended a company against claims its machinery had caused asbestos-related injuries.

And from there? From there he moved into public prosecution and eventually came to the attention of President George W Bush, who appointed him deputy attorney general of the United States in 2003. But he left after two years in the role.

To do what? Sell tanks, bombs and jets to drop them from. He joined Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defence contractors, as senior vice-president.

And then? Dipped his toe in the world of hedge funds at Bridgewater Associates before joining the board of HSBC Holdings.

After which the FBI was the only logical move? Pretty much.

Do say: “This is the most American CV we’ve ever read.”

Don’t say: “It’s just a shame you didn’t find time to work in oil and tobacco.”

Deputy Attorney General Comey To Take Post at Lockheed Martin | WALL STREET JOURNAL | AUG 4, 2005

The nation’s No. 2 law-enforcement official, Deputy Attorney General James Comey, is expected to join Lockheed Martin Corp. as senior vice president and general counsel when he leaves the government this month, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Comey, perhaps best known in recent years for spearheading a crackdown on corporate fraud, previously had prosecuted numerous organized-crime and terrorism cases, including those involving crime boss John Gambino and the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack on a U.S. military facility in Saudi Arabia. President Bush appointed him to the senior Justice Department post in December 2003.

Separately, David N. Kelley, who succeeded Mr. Comey as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in early 2004, is leaving that post to join law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. He will start at the firm in the fall as a litigation group partner.

Mr. Comey’s hiring by Lockheed, which will take effect Oct. 1, will add legal firepower to the executive team at the nation’s largest defense contractor, which often faces a variety of legal claims, ranging from environmental cleanups to false claims and securities suits.

Directors at Lockheed, Bethesda, Md., are expected to vote on Mr. Comey’s compensation this morning. Mr. Comey declined to comment.

Mr. Comey, 44 years old, is expected to be succeeded at the Justice Department by Timothy Flanigan, general counsel at Tyco International Ltd. and former White House deputy counsel.

At the Justice Department, Mr. Comey has overseen day-to-day operations, serving as the point person at department headquarters for U.S. attorneys nationwide and leading the Corporate Fraud Task Force, an interagency group created by the president amid numerous corporate-accounting scandals. To that end, federal prosecutors have charged more than 1,300 individuals with various related crimes since the group’s formation in July 2002.

As U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Mr.Comey directed corporate-fraud cases involving WorldCom Inc., Adelphia Communications Corp. and ImClone Systems Inc., as well as aiding the government’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. From 1996 to 2001, he was the managing Assistant U.S. Attorney in Richmond, Va.

The Weird Hedge Fund That Prepared James Comey for His Capitol Hill Hot Seat | POLITICO | JUL 6, 2016

House Republicans might want to think twice before taking on the FBI director over Hillary’s emails.

FBI Director James Comey is about to discover whether Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the 49-year-old Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, can be scarier than a 25-year-old employee of the world’s largest hedge fund. Comey, who hasn’t spoken publicly since his political bombshell on Tuesday that the FBI wouldn’t recommend an indictment of Hillary Clinton, would probably argue no.

Comey is set to appear Thursday before the House committee to answer questions about the FBI’s yearlong investigation into Clinton’s private email system as secretary of state—a hearing that already appears to have the FBI director firmly in its cross hairs. Chaffetz has said that he found Comey’s decision “surprising and confusing,” and added in a statement, “Congress and the American people have a right to understand the depth and breadth of the FBI’s investigation.”

Even after weeks of statements from Republican leaders and conservative media figures that they trusted Comey to conduct an impartial and independent investigation into Clinton’s emails and would respect whatever his decision ended up being, it took just hours after his 11 a.m. news conference before critical questions began flying. Former—and likely future—GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz called Comey’s conclusion a “dubious decision.” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said it “defies explanation” and instantly promised further hearings. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) declared it an “outrage,” saying, “The FBI should be better than this.”

Yet Chaffetz and his colleagues might get more than they bargain for in attempting to set up the FBI director for an oversight hearing bloodbath—just as last summer’s marathon hearing on Clinton’s role in Benghazi ended up backfiring on the select committee empaneled to investigate the 2012 Libya attacks, as the former secretary of state parried questions with confidence and ended up making Republican lawmakers look small by comparison.

Comey, as it turns out, is in his element when he’s under fire: He’s an experienced courtroom prosecutor and savvy Washington political in-fighter, and he burst onto the national stage in 2007 with some of the most riveting—and unexpected—congressional testimony in memory. But more than that, Comey comes armed Thursday with a secret weapon that he didn’t have even during that 2007 hearing, when he shocked the committee room by blowing the lid off a secret high-level showdown over the NSA’s domestic spying program that nearly caused mass resignations within George W. Bush’s Justice Department.

After he left government, Comey spent three years being grilled, or “probed,” as an executive at Bridgewater Associates, the $150 billion hedge fund founded by Ray Dalio that the New Yorker has labeled “the world’s richest and strangest hedge fund.” Dalio, who regularly ranks among the 50 or 60 wealthiest people on the Forbes 400 list, has built the highly successful fund since the 1970s on a platform of “radical transparency,” a principle that encourages—actually forces—deep questioning from the ranks of all leadership decisions.

Exposed: FBI Director James Comey’s Clinton Foundation Connection | BREITBART | SEP 10, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A review of FBI Director James Comey’s professional history and relationships shows that the Obama cabinet leader — now under fire for his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton — is deeply entrenched in the big-money cronyism culture of Washington, D.C. His personal and professional relationships — all undisclosed as he announced the Bureau would not prosecute Clinton — reinforce bipartisan concerns that he may have politicized the criminal probe.

These concerns focus on millions of dollars that Comey accepted from a Clinton Foundation defense contractor, Comey’s former membership on a Clinton Foundation corporate partner’s board, and his surprising financial relationship with his brother Peter Comey, who works at the law firm that does the Clinton Foundation’s taxes.

Lockheed Martin

When President Obama nominated Comey to become FBI director in 2013, Comey promised the United States Senate that he would recuse himself on all cases involving former employers.

But Comey earned $6 million in one year alone from Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin became a Clinton Foundation donor that very year.

Comey served as deputy attorney general under John Ashcroft for two years of the Bush administration. When he left the Bush administration, he went directly to Lockheed Martin and became vice president, acting as a general counsel.

How much money did James Comey make from Lockheed Martin in his last year with the company, which he left in 2010? More than $6 million in compensation.

Lockheed Martin is a Clinton Foundation donor. The company admitted to becoming a Clinton Global Initiative member in 2010.

According to records, Lockheed Martin is also a member of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, which paid Bill Clinton $250,000 to deliver a speech in 2010.

In 2010, Lockheed Martin won 17 approvals for private contracts from the Hillary Clinton State Department.

HSBC Holdings

In 2013, Comey became a board member, a director, and a Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee member of the London bank HSBC Holdings.

“Mr. Comey’s appointment will be for an initial three-year term which, subject to re-election by shareholders, will expire at the conclusion of the 2016 Annual General Meeting,” according to HSBC company records.

HSBC Holdings and its various philanthropic branches routinely partner with the Clinton Foundation. For instance, HSBC Holdings has partnered with Deutsche Bank through the Clinton Foundation to “retrofit 1,500 to 2,500 housing units, primarily in the low- to moderate-income sector” in “New York City.”

“Retrofitting” refers to a Green initiative to conserve energy in commercial housing units. Clinton Foundation records show that the Foundation projected “$1 billion in financing” for this Green initiative to conserve people’s energy in low-income housing units.

Who Is Peter Comey?

When our source called the Chinatown offices of D.C. law firm DLA Piper and asked for “Peter Comey,” a receptionist immediately put him through to Comey’s direct line. But Peter Comey is not featured on the DLA Piper website.

Peter Comey serves as “Senior Director of Real Estate Operations for the Americas” for DLA Piper. James Comey was not questioned about his relationship with Peter Comey in his confirmation hearing.

DLA Piper is the firm that performed the independent audit of the Clinton Foundation in November during Clinton-World’s first big push to put the email scandal behind them. DLA Piper’s employees taken as a whole represent a major Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign donation bloc and Clinton Foundation donation base.

DLA Piper ranks #5 on Hillary Clinton’s all-time career Top Contributors list, just ahead of Goldman Sachs.

And here is another thing: Peter Comey has a mortgage on his house that is owned by his brother James Comey, the FBI director.

Peter Comey’s financial records, obtained by Breitbart News, show that he bought a $950,000 house in Vienna, Virginia, in June 2008. He needed a $712,500 mortgage from First Savings Mortgage Corporation.

But on January 31, 2011, James Comey and his wife stepped in to become Private Party lenders. They granted a mortgage on the house for $711,000. Financial records suggest that Peter Comey took out two such mortgages from his brother that day.

This financial relationship between the Comey brothers began prior to James Comey’s nomination to become director of the FBI.

DLA Piper did not answer Breitbart News’ question as to whether James Comey and Peter Comey spoke at any point about this mortgage or anything else during the Clinton email investigation.

Peter Comey Re-Designed the FBI Building

FBI Director James Comey grew up in the New Jersey suburbs with his brother Peter. Both Comeys were briefly taken captive in 1977 by the “Ramsey rapist,” but the boys managed to escape through a window in their home, and neither boy was harmed.

James Comey became a prosecutor who worked on the Gambino crime family case. He went on to the Bush administration, a handful of private sector jobs, and then the Obama administration in 2013.

Peter Comey, meanwhile, went into construction.

After getting an MBA in real estate and urban development from George Washington University in 1998, Peter Comey became an executive at a company that re-designed George Washington University between 2004 and 2007 while his brother was in town working for the Bush administration.

In January 2009, at the beginning of the Obama administration, Peter Comey became “a real estate and construction consultant” for Procon Consulting.

Procon Consulting’s client list includes “FBI Headquarters Washington, DC.”

FBI Director James Comey was summoned before Congress to talk about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails. The man cut an imposing figure: Clean-cut, dressed in charcoal gray, a professional in every sense of the word.

The mismatch between Comey’s damning testimony and his refusal to press for indictment against Mrs. Clinton baffles some political observers to this day.

Did a private meeting between Attorney General Loretta Lynch, his superior at the Department of Justice, and former President Bill Clinton sway the decision? Are there any conflicts of interest the American people did not know about?

FBI nominee Comey was held captive as a Bergen teen | NORTH JERSEY | MAY 30, 2013

He could be the country’s next top crime fighter, overseeing investigations into the most serious threats facing the nation.

But James Comey — President Obama’s pick to be the director of the FBI — got an unwelcomed introduction to law and order as a teenager in Allendale more than 35 years ago, during a brief and dangerous brush with a notorious criminal who had all of Bergen County on edge.

A man dubbed “the Ramsey rapist” held 15-year-old Comey and his younger brother at gunpoint after breaking into their Allendale home on an October day in 1977, one of a string of break-ins that included the rape of two area baby sitters. The Comey brothers, locked in a bathroom while the intruder searched the home, escaped through a window, only to encounter the man again on their lawn. The brothers ran back inside the house, locked the doors and called police, setting off a massive manhunt.

In the decades since that episode, which Comey has said taught him important lessons about crime’s psychological toll on victims, the Northern Highlands Regional High School graduate has earned a reputation as a tough, but ethical, federal prosecutor and a Department of Justice attorney brave enough to stand up to political pressure from the White House.

On Thursday, a day after news of his expected nomination to succeed Robert Mueller, he earned praise from Republican Governor Christie, as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle, and former colleagues from his days as a U.S. attorney in Manhattan. And the plaudits were echoed locally, where the Comey family was known as “one of the best families in Allendale,” the mayor of that borough said.

Comey, 52, who now lives in Connecticut, would need Senate confirmation. He is certain to face tough questions about his work as a counsel for a major hedge fund and his ties to Wall Street as well as how he would handle current, high-profile FBI investigations.

But Republicans and Democrats said his strong credentials and sterling reputation suggest his path to confirmation should be relatively smooth. Comey, a Republican who served as a deputy under former Attorney General John Ashcroft, has also been lauded for his refusal to reauthorize the Bush administration’s controversial wiretapping program while he was filling in for Ashcroft, who was in the hospital at the time.

On September 4, 2013, James B. Comey was sworn in as the seventh Director of the FBI.

A Yonkers, New York native, James Comey graduated from the College of William & Mary and the University of Chicago Law School. Following law school, Comey served as an assistant United States attorney for both the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of Virginia. Comey returned to New York to become the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. In 2003, he became the deputy attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Comey left DOJ in 2005 to serve as general counsel and senior vice president at defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Five years later, he joined Bridgewater Associates, a Connecticut-based investment fund, as its general counsel.

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