Here are nine reasons FROM THE FORMER FBI DIRECTOR HIMSELF NEVER to talk to the authorities if you are a suspect. First posted and commented upon here on October 1, 2017, this bears re-posting under the above lede. Make this a New Year's resolution.
1. "F.B.I. agents are experts at interviewing people."
2. "Agents have much better nonsense detectors than partisans, because they aren’t starting with a conclusion."
It is absolute bullshit that FBI agents, cops generally, "aren't starting with a conclusion," they absolutely are.
3. "They will confront people with testimony and other accounts, testing them and pushing them in a professional way."
Compare to below.
4. "F.B.I. agents know time has very little to do with memory."
FBI AGENTS KNOW NO SUCH THING! TIME CAN PLAY TRICKS ON MEMORY!
5. They know every married person remembers the weather on their wedding day, no matter how long ago.
That is Comey's smug, cardinal example for "time has very little to do with memory." THAT IS BULLSHIT! I, Benjamin Harris, have some experience in the matter of wedding days and I can state, unequivocally and in all sincerity, that I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE WEATHER WAS ON EITHER OF MY WEDDING DAYS!
This is the kind of nonsense that you're up against. These are the kind of "lie detector" tests these "experts" will use on you.
6. They also know that little lies point to bigger lies. They know that obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a yearbook are a flashing signal to dig deeper.
BULLshit. BullSHIT. Did Bill Clinton lying about getting a little chupi from Monica Lewinsky "point to bigger lies"? Absolutely not! Why did he lie, then? SO HIS FUCKING WIFE WOULDN'T FIND OUT!
7. Once they start interviewing, every witness knows the consequences.
"Consequences," refers to PERJURY. See, if you are asked, "Did you murder that guy?" and say "No" Pause:Why do you think they are asking you that question? Do you think they go up to everybody on the streets and ask "Did you murder that guy?" They believe they have some basis to suspect you of murder. Unpause. If you say "No, I didn't murder that guy?" they will then follow up by asking you "What was the weather on your wedding day?" And if you tell them that you don't know and are then "confronted" with "relentless questions" ("in a professional way") that EVERYBODY remembers the weather on their wedding day, and you give in and guess, "Fine! It was...cloudy!" these mother-fuckers will check the weather on your wedding day and if it was sunny they will charge you with PERJURY. Even if you convince them that you didn't murder that guy they will charge you with perjury.
8. It is one thing to have your lawyer submit a statement on your behalf. It is a very different thing to sit across from two F.B.I. special agents and answer their relentless questions...[M]ost people will speak to them. Refusal to do so is its own kind of statement.
That's right. It is a very different thing to have your lawyer submit a statement on your behalf BECAUSE THEN THEY CAN'T CHARGE YOU WITH PERJURY (some exceptions). So if, like an idiot, you do agree to talk to the police say this and only this: "I WANT A LAWYER!" Better: Before you go in for questioning take a sharpie and write on your forehead "I WANT A LAWYER!"
"Refusal...own kind of statement": WRONG! A refusal to make a statement is NOT A STATEMENT! Comey means they'll take a refusal or lawyering up as an implicit acknowledgment of your guilt in the crime you're being questioned about or in perjury or both. Let 'em. Let them think what they're going to think and know this: A refusal to speak is not evidence against you; a refusal cannot EVER be used in court against you. Cannot be used by the police/FBI to arrest you. IT IS NOT EVIDENCE!
