Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

Reports that only Lindsey Halligan signed the Comey indictment. That suggests dissent in her office. 9 other prosecutors in the office were absent.

To convict requires all 12 jurors to agree. Comey could get 5 years if convicted. Question now is which judge will hear the case.

It seems that these charges may relate to when Senator Ted Cruz at a hearing said that ex Deputy FBI Andrew Director had said he leaked information, and that Comey had authorised it and was aware of it. Comey denied leaking. When asked if he was saying McCabe was lying, he said he (Comey) could only speak for himself.

It seems that Comey is saying that he did not authorise the leak. McCabe apparently is saying that he only told Comey of the leak afterwards.

This is so convoluted. How do they twist this into Comey lying? By saying that McCabe "lacked candour"

So the DOJ are basing their indictment on the aird of someone they say lacks candour.

And the leak in question is not even about the Trump/Russia investigation. It's about a leak about the Hillary emails investigation. The reason for the leak is speculated by CNN as relating to the fact that McCabe's wife was running for office as a Democrat, and was worried about the FBI being accused of being soft on Hillary Clinton.

Comey has just said "I am innocent...my heart is broken for the Department of Justice but I have great confidence in the Judicial system".

CNN however also showed a 2018 interview where Comey was reminded he released a memo to the NY Times. He replied that it was not classified, and that he was a private citizen at the time.

The Pentagon is terminating a decades-old advisory group that offered recommendations on how to support women serving in the military, including past suggestions that women needed properly fitting body armor and appropriate health care.

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a post on X on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had decided to eliminate the group, formally called the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, saying that the committee, “focused on advancing a divisive feminist agenda that hurts combat readiness.”

“Secretary Hegseth has focused on advancing uniform, sex-neutral standards across the Department,” Wilson said.

Wilson has a history of controversial statements, including (link on this here):

• Wilson has repeated claims that Leo Frank committed the murder of Mary Phagan; modern historians generally agree that Frank was wrongfully convicted. I saw a film on this case in the 1990s. It happened in the state of Georgia and resulted in a lynching, followed by an exodus of Jews from Georgia. The ADL was founded after this.
• She has stated that the Black Lives Matter movement has an "affinity for race-based violence" and referred to George Floyd as a "career criminal".
• Wilson believes in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.
• In posts on X, Wilson has opposed U.S. military interventions, including military support for Israel and Ukraine. In July 2024, she referred to NATO as an "international HR department".
•  In a One America News interview in 2023, Wilson called for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be arrested; conversely, she praised Vladimir Putin's "encyclopedic knowledge of his people's history" in Tucker Carlson's interview with Putin.
•  Wilson has expressed support for Serbian nationalism. In 2024, she endorsed Alternative for Germany.

The termination of the committee, originally created in 1951 as women were just beginning to take on increased roles in the military, is the latest move by Hegseth who has placed intense scrutiny on Pentagon diversity initiatives.

Reports about hundreds of US military officers are being summoned to a meeting by Hegseth. Has caused alarm. Nothing like this has happened in living memory.

Trump said that the meeting would at least partially be tied to a review of military equipment.

“We have the greatest equipment in the world,” he said. “A lot of generals want to be here. They’re also going to be touring equipment sites. They’re going to be talking about the newest weapons.”

It’s unclear if the order was for all general and flag officers — those with the rank of one star or higher — or just those in certain command or leadership roles

The meeting comes as the Trump administration has fired a slew of high-profile general and flag officers since taking office in January, in many instances due to Hegseth’s campaign against diversity-related issues, but often also for unspecified reasons. Hegseth also ordered the Defense Department in May to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals by at least 20%.

 In a podcast appearance last summer, Hegseth said a third of the military’s senior officers are “actively complicit” in what he argued is a move towards politicization of the military. In a second podcast, he said senior officers are “playing by all the wrong rules” to cater to “idealogues in Washington, DC.”

I remember Haughey's trial for lying to the McCracken tribunal, which resulted in the collapse of the trial when a former minister said he should go to jail. Can that happen in the USA?

Having all those generals in one place is very risky. What if Russia and China find out where they are? Or is this the beginning of a purge of the military?

Missouri Republicans pass a law eliminating a seat the Democrats have held for 76 years.