12:44 PM: Everyone watching saw the same thing I did. So I’ll leave it with only this comment. But that exchange between James Comey and Sen. McCain was very worrisome and disturbing.
12:36 PM: I am deeply confused about Sen. McCain’s line of questioning. It certainly sounds like he has some major confusion about what’s being discussed.
12:28 PM: Good for Sen. Reed to point out that, contrary to Sen. Cornyn’s ridiculous line of questioning, Trump thought he’d removed the pressure by firing Comey.
12:21 PM: This is quite an amazing line of questioning from Sen. Cornyn, who has been one of most slavish of President Trump’s lickspittles.
12:15 PM: We may all be projecting. But I think that was a highly probable and reasonable reaction from AG Sessions.
12:04 PM: Interesting exchange: “SEN COTTON: Let’s turn our attention to the underlying activity at issue here, Russia’s hacking in those e-mails and releasing them, and allegations of collusion. Do you believe Donald Trump colluded with Russia? COMEY: That’s a question I don’t think I should answer in an open setting. When I left, we did not have an investigation focused on president trump. But that’s a question that will be answered by the investigation, I think.”
11:57 AM: “All I can do is hope. The president surely knows whether he taped me.”
11:34 AM: One thing I’m curious about: Comey says that he interpreted the Flynn ask to be just about Flynn, not the broader Russia investigation. But if I’m not mistaken, Flynn was already being investigated for his lobbying. So was Trump also trying to get that probe killed? It certainly sounds like he was saying, give Flynn a pass. Period. But in this questioning, Comey seems to be saying it was just about accounts of the Russia conversations.
Here’s an email from a former federal prosecutor with long experience in public corruption investigations, who thinks Comey ended up saving Trump from himself … Read More
11:27 AM: Interesting to me how seriously Comey took Trump’s tweet about taping.
11:21 AM: A remarkably delicate balance GOPs are trying to thread here. On the one hand, Comey’s statements exonerate the President. On the other, why were you such a pushover with the President’s inappropriate behavior?
11:13 PM: This seems like a pretty key statement: It’s why Comey thought Sessions would soon have to recuse himself: “He was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons. We also were aware of facts that I can’t discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic. So we were, we were convinced that, in fact, I think we had already we heard the career people were recommending he recuse himself, that he was not going to be if contact with russia-related matters …” [Again, rough transcript.]
11:06 AM: Interesting dynamic here that the GOP Senators are clearly carrying Trump’s water as much as possible, as much as they can. Yet they feel that Comey’s has enough helpful things to say that they cannot easily go after him.
11:03 AM: It’s fascinating that Comey’s answers to why he didn’t say more, why he wasn’t more emphatic, amount to being stunned by the scope of Trump’s corruption, audacity.
10:57 PM: Fascinating response from Comey about why he wasn’t more declarative in saying Trump’s Flynn request was wrong, inappropriate: “That’s a fair question. Maybe if I were stronger, I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in and the only thing I could think to say, because I was playing in my mind to remember every word he said, I was playing in my mind, what should my response be. That’s why I very carefully chose the words. I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. I hope there are tapes. I remember saying I agree he is a good guy as a way of saying I’m not agreeing with what he asked me to do. Again, maybe other people would be strong in that circumstance. That’s how I conducted myself. I hope I never have another opportunity, maybe if I did it again I would do it better.” [This is rough transcript from our transcript services, may be minor omissions.]
10:51 PM: “I hope” … Sen. Risch is out on a pretty thin reed here. Sen. Risch seems to think this was just President Trump opening up to Comey about his hopes for the future.
10:42 AM: Notable here that Comey is saying what I think should be obvious, which is that Comey’s assurance that Trump was not under investigation was perhaps literally true that in practice a very thin reassurance. As he put it, “inevitably [Trump’s] behavior, his conduct” would be part of the investigation since it was an investigation into his campaign and he was the candidate. This is key. Obvious, I think. But key.
The administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple. And I am so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them and I’m so sorry that the American people were told them.
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We’re all waiting for today’s testimony from James Comey. And we have a special site set up which you’ll see momentarily to provide you with a constant stream of updates and news stories on the testimony as it unfolds. But before we get to that, I want to flag something else of extreme importance. Trumpcare, again seemingly moribund until a few days ago, looks like it’s on the verge of becoming law. Which is to say that likely tens of millions of people are about to be consigned to losing their health care coverage. Read More
Given the significance of the early release of James Comey’s testimony, I took a moment to annotate the document as just released this afternoon. Most of my underlines and comments will be things that others will also have keyed in on. Some are just obvious. Still, given how packed with significance and factual assertions these seven pages are, I thought this would be a helpful exercise and that readers might be interested.
Before the annotated document, let me briefly share with you the points that jumped out at me as new or significant. Read More