@revelette1,
Quote:...it wasn't malicious like Trump and his deals with Comey.
Really?
Do you honestly think that Clinton wasn't aware of and didn't approve the smear campaigns his wife and surrogates waged against the women who revealed they had affairs with him?
By contrast what was particularly malicious about Trump's dealings with Comey? We know Comey leaked his memos to attack Trump. You can believe his self-serving testimony in which he implied that he did so for the sake of the country. As a rather zealous defender of HRC, I'm sure you thought his 20 minute press briefing and his reopening of the closed case right at the end of the campaign was strictly for the good of the country too. Right?
The appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate any actions of the president or his advisers is never considered a political
benefit by anyone. Very much the exact opposite. His opposition began clamoring for one the minute he was elected because they knew that, if nothing else, it would consume the White House and retard Trump's political agenda. If Comey knew there was no evidence of collusion,
(it certainly looks like he did) that Trump wasn't under investigation
(to which he admitted), and didn't truly believe the alleged conversations amounted to obstruction (
If he did believe it, why didn't he report them to the DOJ or Congress? His explanation for not doing so is not satisfactory and will certainly be used in Trump's defense if it ever gets that far), then an attempt to ensure the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate the man who fired you could easily be interpreted as being motivated by malice.
I understand that the NYT is reporting that Comey may have been the source of other leaks, while he was FBI Director. If that's true, it shreds any pretense of his integrity. I don't know if Trump somehow knew Comey was a source of leaks, but if he did, I wouldn't blame him for not treating him as a friend or even someone worthy of respect. Referring to someone as
nut-job is certainly not gentile, but at least he took on the job of "slandering" a political enemy rather than passing off the dirty business to surrogates like
Mr. Malice, James Carville, who, keep in mind, was attacking women whose only "offense" was to admit to having sexual congress with his boss and benefactor.
The Ragin' Cajun wrote: "If you drag a hundred dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find,"
[quote="revelette1]At least he publically (sic) admitted he mislead the whole American public and his wife and family and he tried to make amends and didn't fight the disbarring or the settlement with Paula Jones.
He said he wanted it over by that time to just go away. [/quote]
I bet he did.
It never occurred to you that he didn't fight the contempt charge, the suspension of his Arkansas law license and disbarment from the USC Bar, because he knew he was guilty and didn't want to risk worse consequences by fighting?
Here's what an entry in Wikipedia has to say about the matter:
Quote:On April 12, 1999, Wright found Clinton in contempt of court for "intentionally false" testimony in Jones v. Clinton, fined him $90,000, and referred the case to the Arkansas Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Conduct, as Clinton still possessed a law license in Arkansas.[1]
The Arkansas Supreme Court suspended Clinton's Arkansas law license in April 2000. On January 19, 2001, Clinton agreed to a five-year suspension and a $25,000 fine in order to avoid disbarment and to end the investigation of Independent Counsel Robert Ray (Starr's successor).
On October 1, 2001, Clinton's U.S. Supreme Court law license was suspended, with 40 days to contest his disbarment. On November 9, 2001, the last day for Clinton to contest the disbarment, he opted to resign from the Supreme Court Bar, surrendering his license, rather than facing penalties related to disbarment.
In the end, Independent Counsel Ray said:
"The Independent Counsel’s judgment that sufficient evidence existed to prosecute President Clinton was confirmed by President Clinton’s admissions and by evidence showing that he engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice."
More specifically, the Independent Counsel concluded that President Clinton testified falsely on three counts under oath in Clinton v. Jones. However, Ray chose to decline criminal prosecution in favor of what the Principles of Federal Prosecution call "alternative sanctions". This included being impeached:
"As a consequence of his conduct in the Jones v. Clinton civil suit and before the federal grand jury, President Clinton incurred significant administrative sanctions. The Independent Counsel considered seven non-criminal alternative sanctions that were imposed in making his decision to decline prosecution: (1) President Clinton’s admission of providing false testimony that was knowingly misleading, evasive, and prejudicial to the administration of justice before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas; (2) his acknowledgement that his conduct violated the Rules of Professional Conduct of the Arkansas Supreme Court; (3) the five-year suspension of his license to practice law and $25,000 fine imposed on him by the Circuit Court of Pulaski County, Arkansas; (4) the civil contempt penalty of more than $90,000 imposed on President Clinton by the federal court for violating its orders; (5) the payment of more than $850,000 in settlement to Paula Jones; (6) the express finding by the federal court that President Clinton had engaged in contemptuous conduct; and (7) the substantial public condemnation of President Clinton arising from his impeachment."
These seven sanctions, Ray reasoned, were "sufficient", and therefore he did not pursue further sanctions in a criminal proceeding.[2]
I'm not certain how the author(s) know why Clinton took the actions he did as outlined in the bold type sections, but if they are assumptions, they are certainly more reasonable than
"He did it for the good of the country!"
The independent counsel's finding as relates to Clinton's misdeeds and his belief they were subject to criminal prosecution is in red font. Hardly sounds like he thought they were
trivial.
As to why he was not tried after he left office, the entry addresses that as well. Sort of like Trump's thinking that Flynn has been punished enough.
