The Meddlesome Priest

Note to Trump:  Firing your FBI director without cause is a bigly problem especially when said FBI director is an earnest, smart, overgrown boy scout.  The twitter king may be a whiz at checkers but former FBI director Comey plays three dimensional chess and has set the stage for Trump’s eventual fall.  Comey talked about his love of country, his high regard for the FBI and his FBI colleagues.  He accused Trump for slandering him and the FBI by initially claiming that Comey had been fired for his treatment of Hillary and because he wasn’t liked or respected by his FBI colleagues.  Comey then went on to relay how uncomfortable he was with Trump from the start of their very first meeting.  Using those FBI profiling skills, Comey figured out immediately what most of the rest of have learned the hard way, Trump is an unrepentant, self-interested liar. Comey didn’t mince words, he called Trump a liar several times and then when asked why his accounts of their interactions should be believed over Trump’s, he said that as a prosecutor he learned that you “have to look at the whole body of testimony,” you don’t “cherry pick. Why did he kick everyone out of the Oval office as an investigator that’s a very significant fact.”  Because he felt so sure that Trump would lie about their discussions, Comey wrote all of his meeting memos.  As to Trump’s tweet suggesting he’d taped his conversations with Comey, he responded  “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”  

Best Quote of the Day:  Comey didn’t say that he was commanded to drop the investigation into Mike Flynn’s activities, but said that Trump suggested he drop the investigation.  When asked by Senator Angus King why he interpreted the suggestion as a command,  Comey said Trump’s request rang in his ears as kind of “will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest,”  the phrase used by King Henry II when he asked to have Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury killed in the year 1170.  And weirdly, Senator King completed the quote with him.  Talk about a great classics education, where did these guys go to school?

Trump Wasn’t Under Investigation, But Probably is Now:  Up until the time that Comey was fired Trump wasn’t under investigation, but when he was asked if he believed that Trump’s efforts to get him to leave Flynn alone constituted obstruction of justice, Comey said he was confident that Mueller, the special counsel was now looking into it.  Then when asked by Senator Cotton if he believes that Trump colluded with Russia.  Comey said “that’s a question I don’t think I could 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.” Comey left a strong impression that Trump is now under investigation.

Sessions is in the Dog House:  When asked why he didn’t immediately go to Attorney General Sessions to express his reservations about Trump, Comey said that he knew that Sessions had been involved in the meetings with Ambassador Kislyak that ultimately led to his recusal from the Russia investigation so he didn’t think that would be appropriate.  He also added that there was more to Sessions involvement than had been previously disclosed but that he couldn’t elaborate in an open meeting. After the open Senate hearing, during a follow-up in the  Senate cone of silence Comey disclosed that Sessions was being investigated for participating in still another meeting with Ambassador Kislyak, the one that took place in the Mayflower Hotel. We know this because Senator Manchin mentioned it immediately upon leaving the cone.  So much for secrets.  For Sessions this is one of those bigly problems because he didn’t include it in his sworn testimony to the Senate or in his follow-up memo.  So not only is Session’s on the outs with Trump, it’s looking more and more like he committed perjury.      

Comey Arranged to Have His Memos Released:  After Trump claimed to have taped their conversations, Comey decided to release his “contemporaneous” meeting memos.  Characterizing his memos as personal rather than government documents he forwarded copies to a friend at Columbia Law School who then shared them with the press.  Comey said that he released the notes in the hope that his revelation that Trump tried to get him to drop the Flynn investigation would result in the appointment of a special counsel and as we know this “chess move” worked.  Comey’s carefully written notes are chock full of details but do not include any confidential information so despite any claims to the contrary, their release doesn’t constitute an illegal “leak.”        

Loretta Lynch is Also in the Dog House:  Republicans on the Senate Committee also asked questions about Hillary Clinton’s email server because when given an opportunity to beat a dead horse they will, especially if the horse is a Clinton.  In response to a question about why he circumvented then Attorney General Lynch to go public with his decision not to recommend prosecution of Clinton, Comey said that in addition to her ill-timed chat with Bill Clinton, Lynch had earlier told him to refer to the Hillary investigation as a “matter” which bothered him.  He added that he went along with her request but that in the end it didn’t “matter” because the press didn’t bite and continued to call the examination of Hillary’s email server an “investigation.”           

Weirdest Moment:  Senator John McCain may have had a serious senior moment yesterday. He asked a bizarre disjointed question that conflated Hillary Clinton’s email server with Trump’s alleged Russian collusion.  No one, including Comey, could figure out what he was asking but everyone remained respectfully silent as he went down some strange rabbit hole.  After the hearing, twitter went nuts with suggestions that McCain was losing it.  Later in the day, McCain acknowledged that he had been nonsensical but blamed it on being up late the night before.  Oy.

Trump’s Defense:  Marc Kasowitz is now serving as both Trump’s lawyer and communications director.  After the Senate hearing he denied that Trump had asked Comey for a loyalty oath and that he had done anything to interfere with the Russia investigation, suggesting instead that Comey should be investigated for leaking his own memos.  He went on to assert that the NY Times had quoted from Comey’s notes even before Trump tweeted about the possibility of White House tapes.  Unfortunately for Kasowitz, he had his facts wrong.  The Trump tweet was on May 12, the NY Times article on the Comey notes was on May 16.  Like Trump, his chosen lawyer is into alternative facts.  Kasowitz offered no explanation why Trump never expresses concerns about the well documented Russian election meddling, something which is not an alternative fact.  

British Election:  Theresa May had called yesterday’s UK elections to strengthen her coalition in the hope of getting more support for the difficult decisions that are required to ease Brexit negotiations.  Her plans went up in smoke yesterday when her party lost their majority position.  She is still holding on to her leadership role, barely.

Trump stayed off twitter all day yesterday but this morning he’s broken his silence tweeting “total and complete vindication.”  He is still playing checkers.