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Dead Drop: April 20

<p>dead drop</p>

CUTTING ROOM FLOOR COMEY: You may have heard that former FBI Director James Comey has a book out. Titled “A Higher Loyalty,” Comey makes no effort to hide the minimal regard in which he holds the current president. He could have called his book, “Fired and Furious.” But lost in the noise about Comey v. Trump were some comments about events in past administrations. One example caught the eye of the folks at Vox, which noted that in a portion of Comey’s ABC News interview, which did not make it into the one-hour special, the former FBI director disagreed with the Obama Justice Department’s handling of ex-CIA Director David Petraeus’s case involving mishandling of classified information. Comey told George Stephanopoulos: “It was not a close call. In fact, I thought David Petraeus should’ve been prosecuted not just for the mishandling of the classified information, but also for lying to the FBI because lying is — strikes at the heart of our rule of law in this country. And in the end, the attorney general at the time, Eric Holder, decided he would be charged only with the misdemeanor mishandling of classified information.”

BITTER NOT SWEETS: If you think watching TV news in the U.S. can be scary these days, cast an eye overseas. President Donald Trump recently tweeted that Russia should “Get ready” because the U.S. would be sending “nice and new and ‘smart!’” missiles at targets in Syria. According to Vice News, Russian state TV “Vesti 24” then started advising citizens what to stockpile in case of nuclear war. Just in case the audience didn’t get the message, the newscaster stood in front of a photo of a mushroom cloud and ticked off the necessities, advising folks to stow away “fewer sweets and more water.” As far as we can tell, there was no mention of vodka – which would seem to be a top priority.

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