Here is the latest insanity and nonsense in the ongoing Trump-Russia-Corruption-General Asshatery Timeline. You can also view previous updates from June 6th, June 2nd, May 30th and May 26th.
Today James Comey testified and Trump’s outside attorney responded.
Quote of the day.
Comey: Lordy, I hope there are tapes.
And lo, did sparks fly — details over the flip.
I posted Comey’s full prepared statement yesterday, so if you need to you can review that here.
Here are the last two days worth of updates, things are moving lightening fast.
- June 7th —
- June 8th —
- Comey testifies to Senate Intel and confirms his written prepared statement. He starts off by apologizing to the FBI because Trump smeared them with lies. Part of why Flynn was under investigation was lying to the FBI. He explains he began making memos because he was concerned Trump would lie about it. The first memo was typed on a classified laptop in his SUV immediately after a meeting at Trump Tower on Jan 6, [But this doesn’t make the memo content classified, it could easily be transferred to a uncl. system later.] He includes that he had directed a friend at Columbia release some of his memos to the press with the hope that it would cause a special counsel to be assigned, which it did the next day. He says that the memos are now in possession of SC Mueller and that he doesn’t have copies, although DOJ may have some, and that Mueller has now opened an obstruction of justice case against Trump. He declines to say if Trump colluded with Russians in an open session, but he does say that Russian interference was as “unfake news as it could get.”
- Comey also says he did the Clinton email press conference because Loretta Lynch told him to call the investigation a “matter”, which was language similar to the Clinton campaign which concerned him.
- Chris Wallace on Fox say Comey’s testimony is “very damaging” to Trump.
- Donald Jr. lashes out at Comey calling his testimony “BS” on twitter.
- Nicole Wallace responds to Jr. “A guy who kills baby elephants for kicks can’t bash Comey’s character”
- Republicans questioning Comey suggest that Trump merely “hoping” something is not a crime. Yeah, sure, “Nice job you got there James, I hope nothing happens to it!”
- Trump’s outside attorney Kasowitz claims he never asked for a pledge of loyalty, that Comey has finally confirmed that he wasn’t under investigation, claims Trump didn't try to stop the Russia investigation and denies he asked for Flynn to “be let go”. He notes that both Coats and Rogers denied they were “improperly influenced”, although he ignores that they wouldn’t answer most pointed questions regarding Trump and admitted they had no legal authority not to answer, which prompts the possibility they were coached not to answer so that Comey would look bad for being the one to reveal “privileged” info. He claims “forces” are working against Trump and Comey has admitted leaking “privileged, classified communications” in response to a tweet that appeared the next day and that appropriate law enforcement should investigate Comey for leaking.
- The written version of Kasowitz’s statements are riddled with typos, including misspelling “President” and “Coats.” [I feel that pain.]
- Brian Stelter on CNN claims the timing of Kasowitz claims about the NYTimes report including info from Comey memos before Trump’s tweet that Comey says prompted him to leak isn’t correct.
- There had been a story on May 11th which mentioned the “loyalty” issue at Dinner based on his describing the encounter to friends, but not the memos. Trump’s tweeted about “tapes” on May 12th. Comey had said he woke up Monday night (May 15th) and thought there might be a recording of his talks with Trump. He had his friend at Cambridge contact the press on May 16th.
- Jonathan Turley argues that Comey leaking the memos may have been illegal under the assumption the information was confidential or classified.
- On CNN John Dean says that the Comey memos did not contain classified or privileged communications under previous caselaw spawned by US v Nixon. Michael Zeldin, former special assistant to Mueller later confirms this as does law professor Steve Vladick since the memos didn’t include any information about national security.
- On CNN former Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook denies having any communications with the DOJ which might have influenced Lynch to call the email issue a “matter” rather than an investigation.
- Six former U.S. Attorneys say Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice.
- DOJ disputes two items in Comey’s testimony, they provide an email from Sessions chief of staff to Comey about his recusal, and they claim Session did issue a response on the issue of being left alone with Trump.
- Sen. King shuts down Jonathan Turley’s “the memos were government property” face to face on CNN. “These were Comey’s notes of his own recollection, not classified information.”
What we have is a classic “He said/He said” case. The difference being that Comey has contemporaneous memos written in real time — which he shared and discussed with his colleagues at FBI — during which he had no specific reason to lie, which he has given to the Special Prosecutor and now testified about under oath. If these memos are falsified he’s put himself at risk for multiple counts of perjury, and exactly why would he do that?
Meanwhile, Trump had his attorney talk for him. It was bad enough that Huckabee-Sanders was asked point blank if “Trump is a Liar.”
“So far all we’ve heard [is] from White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders who just said President Trump’s not a liar,” Dagen McDowell said. “It’s got to be better than that.” McDowell noted Comey’s testimony included the exact phrase “I thought [Trump] was a liar, That’s why I did what I did,” arguing it’s not enough for the White House to say “no, he’s not.”
Meghan McCain later pointed out the “politics” of the White House response is “really important.”
“The point about Sarah Huckabee’s response saying, ‘It’s not good enough.’ Do you know what else is not good enough? [House Speaker Paul] Ryan saying President Trump is young and new at this.” McCain said, referring to a press conference Ryan gave during Comey’s testimony.
“I thought that was terrible,” Judge Andrew Napolitano replied.
“Who ever is doing the messaging on, this it’s so wrong—you’re hurting things,” McCain continued. “Both Sarah Huckabee and Speaker Ryan.”
So that’s not awesome. I mean about 65% of the public already think Trump is liar, and that was before the election. In Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that number is 80%, and they still voted for him.
It is weird how the Trumpeteers keep getting bogged down with whether Trump himself was under investigation, an accusation that no one — and I mean no one — ever made. Ok, so Comey confirmed that was true, but it’s not true anymore as apparently Special Prosecutor Mueller is looking at Trump for obstruction and potentially bribery since the promise of Comey keeping his job was clearly dependent on his pushing away “The Cloud” from over Trump’s head.
From the March 30th call.
He finished by stressing “the cloud” that was interfering with his ability to make deals for the country and said he hoped I could find a way to get out that he wasn’t being investigated. I told him I would see what we could do, and that we would do our investigative work well and as quickly as we could.
Immediately after that conversation, I called Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente (AG Sessions had by then recused himself on all Russia-related matters), to report the substance of the call from the President, and said I would await his guidance. I did not hear back from him before the President called me again two weeks later.
And the April 11th call.
On the morning of April 11, the President called me and asked what I had done about his request that I “get out” that he is not personally under investigation. I replied that I had passed his request to the Acting Deputy Attorney General, but I had not heard back. He replied that “the cloud” was getting in the way of his ability to do his job. He said that perhaps he would have his people reach out to the Acting Deputy Attorney General. I said that was the way his request should be handled. I said the White House Counsel should contact the leadership of DOJ to make the request, which was the traditional channel.
He said he would do that and added, “Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.” I did not reply or ask him what he meant by “that thing.” I said only that the way to handle it was to have the White House Counsel call the Acting Deputy Attorney General. He said that was what he would do and the call ended.
This happened on a phone call that was overhead by Comey’s deputies and staff so the claim that there “was no that thing” that Kasowitz is now claiming is simply not credible. There is actually much more than simply Comey’s word vs Trump’s attorney’s word.
There’s no good reason not to believe anything Comey is saying, but every reason to suspect what Trump is claiming is being said to protect him from liability or possible criminal exposure for obstruction, bribery and conspiracy to prevent the FBI, and now, Mueller from gaining access to the truth.
This probably isn’t yet enough for a criminal conviction, and possibly not quite yet enough for a impeachment, but it’s getting there — and with further corroboration of what Comey experienced with his staff, with Sessions and Rosenstein are IMO far more likely to confirm his story, and not Trump’s.
This really isn’t a battle for the publics attention between Comey and Kasowitz, it’s a battle over who can convince Mueller of what is really what. And Comey and Mueller are friends who used to work together, so the one with a potential trust deficit — isn’t Comey.