WMAL Interview - JOE DIGENOVA - 01.22.18

7:05 AM - INTERVIEW - JOE DIGENOVA - legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia

-- discuss #ReleaseTheMemo, Comey, new FBI text messages report latest on Hillary emails, and Menendez trial

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COMEY

James Comey to teach course on "ethical leadership" at his alma mater. (washington Examiner) -- Former FBI Director James Comey will teach a course on ethical leadership for the College of William & Mary. Comey graduated from the public university in Williamsburg, Va., in 1982 with a double major in chemistry and religion. The former FBI chief will be co-teaching the three-credit course with Drew Stelljes, executive assistant professor of education and assistant vice president for student leadership, during fall 2018, spring 2019, and summer 2019 semesters. The course will meet primarily at the William & Mary Washington Center in Washington, and then once at the William & Mary School of Education in Williamsburg, which will be live-streamed back to students in the nation’s capital.

RELEASE THE MEMO

-  Donald Trump Jr.‏ @DonaldJTrumpJr: The reality is that if the memo were damaging to the republicans the democrats would have leaked it by now. Why the double standard? #releasethememo 11:55 AM - 19 Jan 2018

• The FBI says Rep. Devin Nunes won’t show them the memo alleging agency abuses.  #ReleaseTheMemo // The FBI has yet to see a controversial memo alleging the intelligence community engaged in grave abuses. And that could make friction between the Hill and the bureau even worse.
  The FBI has not been permitted to see the memo Rep. Devin Nunes and his staff wrote about alleged abuses by the intelligence community, The Daily Beast has learned. "The FBI has requested to receive a copy of the memo in order to evaluate the information and take appropriate steps if necessary. To date, the request has been declined,” said Andrew Ames, a spokesperson for the FBI. Reached for comment, Nunes’ spokesperson Jack Langer said, "The Daily Beast has become America's foremost publication for regurgitating the Democrats' talking points." Nunes, who heads the powerful House intelligence community, put together the four-page memo based on intelligence the FBI showed him and a few of his staff, as well as Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee. More than 150 members of the House have seen Nunes’ memo. Scores are calling for its release, while Democrats say it is “a misleading set of talking points attacking the FBI.” The fact that Republicans refuse to show the memo to FBI, which characterizes the intelligence they shared with Nunes, has Democrats concerned

• GOP congressman reveals House Intel Committee will release top secret FISA memo to public
  The secret memo detailing alleged government surveillance abuses will be released to the public soon, according to a House Republican. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio) said Saturday the House Intelligence Committee “plans to begin” the release process very soon, if not immediately. The process, he said, might take up to 19 congressional working days. According to the House’s 2018 calendar, that means the earliest the document could be released is sometime in mid-March. Source confirmed to the Washington Examiner that a meeting has taken place to discuss the memo’s potential public release.

FBI TEXT MESSAGES

• FBI ‘failed to preserve’ five months of text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. From Dec. 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017, the day that Mueller was picked as special counsel.

• Chuck Ross‏ @ChuckRossDC: This seems beyond an expression of a personal negative opinion about Trump. Suggests alarm at Trump's surge. Raises questions about what other steps were taken to derail him.

• Congress seeks answers after FBI claims texts missing in Trump-Russia probe  by @byronyork // Investigators in both House and Senate were stunned late Friday when, receiving a batch of newly-released texts between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, they also received notice from the bureau that the FBI "failed to preserve" Strzok-Page messages from December 14, 2016 through May 17, 2017. Given the amount of texting that went on between Strzok and Page, who were having an extramarital affair, that probably meant thousands of missing documents.

HILLARY

• Newly released Clinton emails reveal ‘new smoking gun’ — and more classified information. Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group, released another batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server on Friday and said a “new smoking gun” was revealed in the emails.
  The group received another round of emails from the State Department on Friday, which is releasing the emails on an ongoing basis as part of the group’s Freedom of Information Act request. The 78 new pages of emails released revealed that Clinton knew of the potential security risks that came with using a personal, unsecured server. The emails also contained three more messages with classified information. According to Judicial Watch, the emails also appear to be among those that Clinton’s staff tried to purposely hide or delete.

• REPORT: Loretta Lynch Knew In Advance That Comey Would Let Hillary Off The Hook
  Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch knew well in advance of FBI Director James Comey’s 2016 press conference that he would recommend against charging Hillary Clinton, according to information turned over to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Friday.
  The revelation was included in 384 pages of text messages exchanged between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and it significantly diminishes the credibility of Lynch’s earlier commitment to accept Comey’s recommendation — a commitment she made under the pretense that the two were not coordinating with each other.

• Newly Released Text Messages Suggest Mueller Team Members Knew Hillary Wouldn’t Be Charged In Email Scandal  -- Newly released texts between ex-Mueller team members suggest they knew outcome of Clinton email probe in advance. The Justice Department has given various congressional committees nearly 400 pages of additional text messages between two FBI officials who were removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

MENENDEZ

• Justice Dept. will retry Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). The bribery case against him ended in a mistrial in November. A judge in November had declared a mistrial in the bribery case against Menendez after a jury said it was deadlocked. The senator had faced 18 counts for allegedly using his office improperly to benefit a political donor, which the defense described as an attempt to criminalize a friendship. Some legal experts have warned that a defeat for the government in the Menendez case could make prosecutors more reluctant to pursue public corruption cases.
  

The Justice Department plans to put Sen. Robert Menendez back on trial on corruption charges, following a mistrial last year in which most jurors wanted to acquit the New Jersey Democrat.

The trial in Newark federal court of Menendez and his co-defendant, Salomon Melgen, ended in a hung jury in November. When he came back to the Senate in December, the lawmaker said he doubted prosecutors would continue to pursue the case — but if they did, he added: “Bring it on.”

On Friday, public corruption prosecutors from the Justice Department filed notice saying they want a retrial “at the earliest possible date.”

Menendez, a senior lawmaker, has spent years fighting the charges. Prosecutors said he took gifts from Melgen, including a luxury hotel stay, private jet flights and campaign donations, in exchange for which he tried to help Melgen get U.S. visas for his girlfriends, intervened in the eye doctor’s $8.9 million billing dispute with Medicare and assisted with a port security contract of Melgen’s in the Dominican Republic.