James Comey Cartoons

First Amendment controversy brews over Texas high school's prayer room

A Texas high school's on-site prayer room -- which serves as a spot where Muslim students can pray -- is stirring controversy.
Liberty High School in Frisco established the room in 2009, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is concerned that the room may be off-limits to students of other religious denominations.
He said in a letter Friday to the school district that any exclusion would be inconsistent with the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty.
A school district spokesman responded that the classroom is available to “students of all walks of life” in the afternoon when it is vacant.
The leader of a large Baptist church in Dallas told "Fox & Friends" Sunday that he is okay with the practice.
“I believe as long as students had equal access to the room it’s not a First Amendment issue,” Pastor Robert Jeffress said. “I believe we really as conservatives need to be careful that we don’t pervert the First Amendment like liberals do to use it for their own agenda.”
Muslim-American Mustafa Tameez, a Democratic political consultant, told "Fox & Friends" that Paxton is trying to create a controversy where one doesn’t exist.
“In airports we have a chapel where people can go pray,” he said. “So it’s not necessarily just for Muslim students. It’s for anybody, anybody of faith that wants to use a room to communicate with their creator."

Who is James Comey?

FBI Director James Comey will enter the House hearing Monday on Russian activities during the presidential election as an imposing figure in many ways -- standing 6-foot-8 and having been at the center of numerous, high-profile criminal probes.
His law-enforcement career began in the late 1980s. His relatively short time as head of the FBI includes his decision in July 2016 to investigate Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers as secretary of state. The agency concluded the probe roughly three months later without recommending criminal charges, but it was considered a severe blow to Clinton’s ultimately failed White House bid.
Comey, a former registered Republican, was appointed in 2013 by then-President Obama to run the FBI.
As a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in the early 2000s, he prosecuted businesswoman Martha Stewart, who was convicted in 2004 in connection with stock deals and sentenced to five months in prison.
He also helped prosecute the Gambino crime family when he previously worked in that office, from roughly 1987 to 1993.
Comey also supported federal agents who sought felony charges in 2015 against then-CIA Director David Petraeus, related to his mishandling of classified information.
Comey was appointed by the George W. Bush administration to the position of deputy attorney general, responsible for overseeing Justice Department operations. (He has insisted the FBI is apolitical in its investigations.)
He left the Justice Department in 2005 to become a vice president and general counsel for defense contractor Lockheed Martin through 2010. He then joined the Connecticut-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates before leaving in 2013 to teach at Columbia Law School in New York City.
Comey was born in Yonkers, N.Y., attended the College of William and Mary and earned a law degree from the University of Chicago. He is married with five children.

What you need to know: Comey to testify before House intel panel

FBI Director James Comey will testify before the House Intelligence Committee on Monday at a closely watched hearing.
So far, Comey has not made any detailed public comments on what are expected to be two key subjects of the hearing: reported investigations into contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians, and President Trump’s wiretapping claims.
Here’s what you need to know:
Trump’s wiretapping claims

• President Trump claimed, in several early-morning tweets on March 4, that his phones had been tapped throughout the election by then-President Obama.

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

Is it legal for a sitting President to be "wire tapping" a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017

• A spokesman for Obama called the accusation “false” and said “neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen."

• Attorney General Jeff Sessions has suggested he never provided information to Trump that may have supported the wiretapping allegation. 

•  On March 5, the White House called for Congress to investigate—now, lawmakers in both chambers of Congress are demanding the FBI clear up the president’s claims.

• Both the House Intelligence Committee and Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism asked the Justice Department to turn over any evidence supporting Trump’s allegations – including warrants and court orders. The DOJ said Friday it had "complied" with requests for information. 

• The leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence committees said earlier last week they didn't have evidence to back up the president’s wiretapping allegations. 

Claims on Trump campaign contact with Russia

• The New York Times and CNN reported in February that U.S. intelligence officials had evidence of repeated contacts between some Trump campaign associates and Russian officials. The Trump campaign denied any such contact.

• Attorney General Sessions held two meetings with the Russian ambassador last year, despite testimony before a Senate committee during his confirmation hearing that he had no communications with the Russians. 

• Sessions said that the meetings were not about the campaign, but rather in his capacity as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

• Reports surfaced in February that Michael Flynn, then Trump’s national security adviser, had inappropriately discussed sanctions on Russia with the country’s ambassador before the inauguration and misled Vice President Pence. Flynn later had to resign amid the controversy.

• There are also claims that former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, had been in contact with Russian officials. A New York Times report said the FBI found evidence of this relationship—an allegation Manafort, who does business in Ukraine, has also denied.

• These allegations all come in the midst of a “dossier” allegedly compiled by a British intelligence official on behalf of Trump opponents during the campaign, which was created with the purpose to outline evidence that Trump, himself, had deep ties to Russia. The credibility of the dossier has been widely challenged.

Gorsuch enters high-stakes confirmation hearing after intensive preparation

In an isolated area of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex, Judge Neil Gorsuch has spent the past few days being put through the rhetorical ringer. For hours on end, he sat alone at a table, peppered with questions about his personal and professional record, all in an effort to see if he would crack under the pressure.
The informal, but intrusive prep sessions are known as "murder boards" for their intensity, designed to simulate what the 49-year-old nominee to the Supreme Court will face in his Senate confirmation hearing starting Monday.
"He's a home run, he's smooth, he's going to go through great," said Thomas Dupree, a former Bush deputy assistant attorney general. "The [opposing] senators will take their shots, but I think he's close to a lock."
The stakes are enormous, not only for the nominee but also for the man who selected him from a list of 21 potential candidates announced during the presidential campaign. Aides say President Trump hopes a successful confirmation will build momentum for his separate political agenda, and bring a measure of stability and public confidence to what has been a challenging two months in office.
In the broader realm, filling the seat left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia will ensure the high court keeps a shaky right-leaning majority. And having that fifth conservative vote will help guide the administration as it makes strategic decisions about which high-profile issues to pursue in court-- like immigration, the environment, transgender rights and expanded executive authority.
"It's important Democrats and Republicans not roll over on this pick," said Elizabeth Wydra, president of the left-leaning Constitutional Accountability Center. "The American people want their justices to be an independent check even to the president nominating you, to follow the Constitution, not their own political values."
Gorsuch will face a mixed reception, as Republicans largely welcome the nominee and some Democrats look for a line of attack – though they’ve been distracted lately by other battles over the GOP bid to replace ObamaCare and the president’s disputed claims about “wiretapping.” With their attention elsewhere, Gorsuch has been preparing.
Along with his courtesy visits to more than 70 members of the Senate who will decide his fate, Gorsuch has prepared for the spotlight by reviewing his own record, and enduring those closely guarded mock hearings.
The private rehearsals were coordinated by the White House Counsel's Office, and included more than a dozen participants -- government lawyers, conservative academics, and some of his former law clerks. The goal is to anticipate every possible line of questioning and danger zone -- to give measured answers but not reveal too much.
Sources say Gorsuch has settled in being himself, avoiding unscripted responses that might provide the televised "soundbite" to derail what has so far been a flawless confirmation journey.
Administration officials are privately confident he will shine in the hearings.
Republicans point to Gorsuch's unanimous 2006 confirmation to his appeals court seat as a template to blunt any efforts to filibuster this time.
Sources expect him to repeat in the upcoming hearings what he said 11 years ago, about the kind of judge he considered unacceptable: "Someone who is not willing to listen with an open mind to the arguments of counsel, to his colleagues, to precedent."