After weeks of anticipation, former FBI director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, speaking publicly for the first time since President Donald Trump fired him last month.
THE WEEKLY STANDARD staff provided live updates of the hearing. Comey’s testimony revealed that he was concerned that President Trump would lie about their meetings, that there might be more to both Jeff Sessions’ recusal from the Russia investigation and Michael Flynn’s legal troubles than we knew previously, and even that he thought Obama attorney general Loretta Lynch tried to influence the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server.
Our posts are archived below, in reverse chronological order. Start at the bottom and scroll up if you missed the live hearing.
1:25 p.m.: Trump Tweet Led to Special Counsel
A Donald Trump tweet is the reason we have a special counsel investigation into Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election and possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians, according to testimony from former FBI Director James Comey.
Comey testified Thursday that he shared with a friend a memo Comey had written about a conversation he’d had with Trump so that the friend could share the memo with a reporter–all for the purpose of triggering a special counsel investigation. And Comey did this, he testified, because he had read a tweet from Trump indicating that the president that he may have taped their conversations. Read the rest of the article here.–Stephen F. Hayes
12:54 p.m.: Trump’s actions might not have been illegal, but they were wildly inappropriate
Comey recounted his bizarre private conversations with President Trump before his sudden termination. Comey’s testimony appears to confirm that President Trump acted wildly inappropriately, if not quite illegally, in seeking to influence the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election.
The big question going into the hearing was whether Trump’s request that the FBI “let go” their investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in February after he misled the administration about his communications with a Russian ambassador, could be grounds for a criminal charge of obstruction of justice. Legal experts disagree about how damning Comey’s testimony is to Trump, while Comey himself deferred that question to Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor investigating the matter. But Comey said he was “stunned” that the President would make such a request, which he took “as an order.”
Regardless, it’s a bad look for the administration, with Comey repeatedly accusing the President of lying, defaming him and the FBI, and attempting to derail the Russia investigation. The Republican party can only respond in one way: focus on the silver lining that criminal charges are unlikely and move on as quickly as possible. RNC talking points released ahead of the hearing advise Republicans to say that “President Trump feels completely and totally vindicated” by Comey’s testimony and is “eager to move forward.”–Andrew Egger
12:23: From the White House pool:
“POTUS departed the White House at high noon exactly on an unseasonably cool day, en route to the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., to give remarks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference.
A fellow reporter told the pool that President Donald Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz is expected to give a statement to the pool when we arrive at the event, but our White House escort Giovanna Coia could not confirm that.”–Jim Swift
12:14: Uh-oh. Flynn might be in big trouble.
This testimony suggests Mike Flynn, the former national security adviser, could be in deeper trouble than previously thought. Asked by Arkansas senator Tom Cotton about whether or not Flynn lied to or misled to the FBI, Comey demurred. He then added that that question was the “subject of the criminal inquiry” into Flynn.–Michael Warren
12:08 p.m.: Comey: Obama AG Attempted to Influence Clinton Email Investigation
Here’s a revealing nugget unrelated to the Trump-Russia investigation—that the Obama Justice Department improperly tried to influence the the Clinton email investigation:
There’s one other very interesting thing about this exchange: Lynch’s improper behavior here was previously reported, via anonymous sources, back in April in The New York Times:
Read the rest of the article here.–Mark Hemingway
11:52 a.m.: Trump still hasn’t tweeted
On Tuesday, the Washington Post‘s Robert Costa reported “I’m told by two WH sources that Pres. Trump does not plan to put down Twitter on Thursday. May live tweet if h feels the need to respond.”
Washington-area bars opened early, many of them offering free drinks every time Trump tweets. While Trump’s son, Donald Trump, Jr. has tweeted multiple times, the president has remained silent on the social media network. –Jim Swift
11:50 a.m.: Rubio: What’s the “only thing” that hasn’t been leaked?
Florida senator Marco Rubio pressed Comey hard to explain an apparent problem in Comey’s explanation of himself. Rubio, who had dinner at the White House with President Trump on Tuesday night, wanted to know this: Why didn’t the fact, which Comey and lawmakers knew, that President Trump himself was not under investigation get leaked to the press. After all, so much other information about the investigation had been leaked.
“You know this investigation is full of leaks, left and right,” said Rubio. “Do you ever wonder why, of all the things in this investigation, the only thing that’s never been leaked is the fact that the president was not personally under investigation? Despite the fact that both Democrats and Republicans and the leadership of Congress knew that, and had known that for weeks?”
It’s a killer line, and one that the Republican National Committee’s war room has clipped. But it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Rubio’s statement that the fact the FBI was not investigating Trump personally was the “only thing that’s never been leaked” is non-falsifiable. There’s no way to know if everything else about the investigation has been leaked.
It’s certainly curious that this fact was never leaked after Comey’s conversations with President Trump (though it was leaked in October, before the election). But Comey’s explanation of why he did not publicly proclaim Trump was not under investigation—that doing so could open the FBI up to having to make a corrective statement if that fact changed during its investigation—could explain why the FBI might make great effort to keep that fact from being leaked. –Michael Warren
11:12 a.m.: Comey: There are “facts I cannot discuss in an open setting” surrounding the Sessions recusal
The James Comey hearings are fascinating both for the former FBI director’s testimony itself and for what he reveals, perhaps unintentionally, about what we might learn in the coming special counsel investigation.
On the latter, a tantalizing moment from Comey in response to questions about Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions recused himself from involvement in the Russia investigations at the Justice Department, a fact that has led to real tension in the relationship between Donald Trump and Sessions. Trump was furious when he learned about Sessions’ recusal and according to reporting in recent days, has criticized Sessions repeatedly since then. Sessions had been under intense scrutiny for testifying that he had not had contacts during the campaign with Russian officials – testimony that was incorrect.
In his testimony today, Comey hinted that Sessions may well have had other reasons to recuse himself. When asked about Sessions’ recusal, Comey said he was aware of “facts I cannot discuss in an open setting” that led him to conclude Sessions had to recuse. That knowledge made the prospect of Sessions overseeing a DOJ Russia investigation “problematic.”
What are those facts?–Stephen F. Hayes
11:10 a.m.: We have our first Trump tweets
It’s not the president himself tweeting, but his son Donald Jr. The younger Trump unleashed a tweet storm about whether his father ordered Comey to drop the Michael Flynn investigation but saved the real vitriol for when Comey said he should have been stronger. –Rachael Larimore
So if he was a “Stronger guy” he might have actually followed procedure & the law? You were the director of the FBI, who are you kidding??
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 8, 2017
11:05 a.m.: Comey has good reason to believe that Trump lied
As Mike Warren notes, FBI Director James Comey testified Thursday that he took notes on his meetings with Donald Trump because he worried Trump would lie about what took place. “I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting,” Comey said.
Comey had good reason to believe this, of course. Trump’s time in politics has been characterized by a consistent, almost casual dishonesty about matters both large and small – mendacity that stands out even in the context of the truth-challenged world of electoral politics. Trump has lied about things even when there was hard evidence contradicting his claims. Throughout the campaign, Trump’s defenders and Republican enablers downplayed or dismissed this dishonesty, and with his election, he seemed to get away with it.
Comey’s testimony suggests he didn’t and that there are still consequences for lying.–Stephen F. Hayes
10:52 a.m. Comey “I was honestly concerned that he might lie”
Virginia senator Mark Warner, the Democratic co-chair on the Intelligence committee, asked one of my three important questions: Why did James Comey document all of his one-on-one meetings with President Trump, when he did not do so with President Obama? Comey responded that there were a few reasons, including the heightened sensitivity of the issues he was initially discussing with Trump (the investigation into a salacious intelligence briefing about Trump). But here was one reason that caused my ears to perk up: “The nature of the person.”
“I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting,” Comey said. That’s an astounding statement, though it may be well informed. Lawyers working for Trump would reportedly meet with him in pairs in order to have two verifiable accounts of what the future president would say.–Michael Warren
10:39 a.m. Comey “confident” that Russia didn’t alter any votes
Last week, The Intercept reported on a classified NSA report that said Russian military intelligence “executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election.” The NSA report didn’t indicate that Russia had actually altered any vote tallies, and during the first round of questioning Thursday, Comey said he was “confident” that Russia didn’t alter any votes. According to polls, a majority of Democrats believe that Russian hacking changed the vote count.–John McCormack
10:35 a.m. Comey: “Confused” by Trump
James Comey declined to read out loud his widely disseminated opening statement at Thursday’s hearing. The former FBI director instead submitted those for the record and presented instead some “introductory remarks.”
In those remarks, Comey described himself as being “confused” by President Trump’s public justifications for firing him on May 9. “The shifting explanations confused me and increasingly concerned me,” Comey said, noting that the president had repeatedly told him since January that he was doing a “good job” at the FBI.
But the administration’s varying explanations for firing Comey—from his conduct during the 2016 election cycle regarding Hillary Clinton’s campaign to the supposed dysfunction within the FBI—”didn’t make any sense” to Comey.
“The administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI by saying the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led,” Comey said. “Those were lies, plain and simple.”–Michael Warren
10:00 a.m. Early thoughts
A couple of passing thoughts as we await the beginning of James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee:
*The seven pages of Comey’s prepared testimony released yesterday have Trump critics breathing heavily about obstruction of justice and impeachment and Trump defenders claiming complete vindication. They’re both exaggerating. It’s true that Comey confirmed Trump’s claim that the FBI director had three times assured the president that he was not under criminal investigation – and that’s a win for Trump. But the broader case that Comey makes is a tough indictment of a president who behavior was highly inappropriate – if not quite criminal. Jack Goldsmith lays this out convincingly in a post at Lawfare.
*Even if Trump defenders are mistaken when they claim Comey’s testimony as exculpatory, they’re correct that the former FBI Director helps us understand Trump’s reaction to these investigations. It’s clear from Comey’s accounts of his interactions with Trump why Trump was frustrated that Comey wouldn’t say publicly what he’d told Trump privately on three separate occasions – that Trump wasn’t under investigation. White House aides have told TWS repeatedly over the past several months that this was Trump’s main frustration. And it’s not hard at all to understand why Trump would have been aggravated. And Comey’s reason for not saying in public what he’d privately told Trump and Capitol Hill seems pretty flimsy. He didn’t want to clarify Trump’s status in the event that this status might change at some point? Why not simply say: “At this time, President Trump is not under investigation, but this is an ongoing investigation, and everything is subject to change. We won’t be updating the public if that changes for obvious reasons.”
Congressional Republicans have expressed similar frustrations with Comey over the past six months on his testimony about leaks. In private briefings, Comey expresses deep frustration – even anger – about the cascade of leaks coming from law enforcement and intelligence sources. And he has told lawmakers that he regards uncovering and prosecuting the leakers a top priority. But in his public appearances, Comey’s affect is different, treating leaks as an afterthought or seeming to downplay their relative importance. *Comey’s uneven public performance over the past year makes him an imperfect fact-witness, but it’s nonetheless hard not to be unnerved by what he tells us about his dealings with Trump. The president of the United States demanded loyalty from the nation’s top law enforcement official? Trump repeatedly sought to bring an end to the investigation of Michael Flynn – despite his categorical denials of having done so? Comey’s testimony underscores one of the most worrisome aspects of Trump’s character. His behavior isn’t guided by a sense of right and wrong but by a sense of his power over others. We’ve seen this before – most memorably in his words from the Access Hollywood tape. “When you are a star they let you do anything,” Trump said. So Trump goes to his FBI Director and suggests, repeatedly, that he end the investigation into Flynn. What has Flynn done wrong? What does the FBI know? Is the investigation justified? Trump doesn’t know. But it’s immaterial to him. He’s Comey’s boss and can ask him to end the probe.
*Comey’s opening statement helps us understand Trump’s frustration but makes clear Trump’s highly inappropriate behavior. I suspect his testimony will have the same effect.–Stephen F. Hayes
9:40 a.m.: Paul Ryan: Obviously inappropriate if Trump asked Comey for “Loyalty”
In an interview on MSNBC Wednesday night, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan responded to former FBI director James Comey’s written testimony.
“Is it appropriate for the President to ask a question of loyalty for the FBI director?” MSNBC host Greta Van Susteren asked. “Yeah, no. I mean, obviously, I don’t think that is,” replied Ryan. “FBI directors are supposed to be independent. That’s something that’s very critical.”
The speaker of the House said he hadn’t read the Comey testimony but was told by aides that it’s largely information that had already been leaked to the press. Ryan emphasized that he wouldn’t “pre-judge” any aspect of the investigation and would “let the facts go wherever they are, wherever they may be.” –John McCormack
