Official James Comey testimony thread

[eeyore1954]

I'd definitely like to understand that better as well. It suggests a level of shrewdness that you would possibly expect from an intelligence operative, but not from the disarming Comey exactly.

It is not an action I would expect from someone in his position.

I know Trump also does things you would not expect from a President but that has nothing to do with it.

 

[fuelair]

We don't know that Putin didn't give Trump a billion dollars to be his bitch.

and bathe in his golden showers!!!!!

 

[jimbob]

Semantics, it was given to the press through an unnamed source.

Released would have been Comey saying a have these memos about our meetings and this is what is in them.

It's not semantics.

Leaking involves releasing information that is supposed to be secret. Sometimes it is justified, sometimes it is not. Comey owned the information and disseminated it in the way he felt most appropriate.

 

[elgarak]

Welp, not too much gained from this overall. Few things I guess caught my interest.

Why did Comey feel the need to leak his memos in order to push for a special prosecutor? Feel that should have been expanded on. In regards to the Russian investigation, he was not directed by the president to take any action beyond looking into the Steele dossier. He was not under investigation himself. Comey said multiple times that the investigative agents were not influenced. Sessions had already recluse himself. Was it just fear of future Trump actions?

As for Comey, he seems honest overall but I don't like this soft portrayal he put forward for himself. He was the director of the FBI. Everyone buying that he lacked the backbone to refute the presidents bad behavior in person, on the spot? I felt the Senator that brought up his past regarding putting forward his resignation in 2004 made a great point. Either he was playing a different angle on this or he lost his balls since then.

Will also love to hear the explanation in regards to clearing the room to speak about the Flynn investigation. Intentions aside, perception is terrible no matter how you view this. His only somewhat saving grace is that the subject was never brought up again.

The highlighted question is rather important. I'll advise to think about that. Which person or entity would be useful to give the memos to? And why did Comey considered them NOT to be useful or trustworthy? And why did he consider Bob Mueller trustworthy enough to give HIM the memos, given the way Rosenstein was involved in firing Comey and installing Mueller. (Here's another tidbit to think about: Comey did NOT retain copies. Mueller has everything, his friend used for publishing may have another. Why is that?)

In connection to that, look at the questions Comey answered with "I cannot answer that in public hearing".

Because at this point, Trump has done enough by himself to be impeachable. He is finished. I mean, heck, giving the Russians intelligence endangering sources?

One has to think beyond Trump, and consider why the impeachment has not yet started.

 

[fuelair]

Republickers fear what would happen with their idiot voters if they were forced to impeach the Peepelz hero.

 

[elgarak]

Republickers fear what would happen with their idiot voters if they were forced to impeach the Peepelz hero.

I don't quite think that this is enough to explain behavior of people like Chaffetz and Nunes. Or have you forgotten what they did?

 

[elgarak]

There's also Comey's citation of Trump regarding Trump's "satellites" and their investigation. If I were one of Trump's satellites, and would hear a witness statement of Trump that Trump is okay with an investigation of his satellites wherever it may lead, I would get a lawyer ASAP. Doubly so if I knew I've done something illegal.

 

[Babbylonian]

There's also Comey's citation of Trump regarding Trump's "satellites" and their investigation. If I were one of Trump's satellites, and would hear a witness statement of Trump that Trump is okay with an investigation of his satellites wherever it may lead, I would get a lawyer ASAP. Doubly so if I knew I've done something illegal.

Triply so if I knew that I'd done something potentially illegal on behalf of the hellbeast currently occupying the Oval Office.

 

[Craig4]

The question wasn't is he more dishonest than Trump but did he appear dishonest.
I don't think he appeared dishonest but I am bothered that the former Director of the FBI would have information leaked rather than just presenting the information.

What was he supposed to do? The AG had been corrupted.

 

[Stacko]

What was he supposed to do? The AG had been corrupted.

We learned about another undisclosed meeting between Sessions and Kislyak from Comey's testimony today. Sessions is up to his eyeballs in this.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Lewandowski is going off on all kinds of CTs about Comey leaking all sorts of information, not just the memos Comey admitted leaking. Lewandowski claimed the link between Sessions and Kislyak was leaked by Comey.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

We learned about another undisclosed meeting between Sessions and Kislyak from Comey's testimony today. Sessions is up to his eyeballs in this.

Undisclosed?

I'll have to look into that. There was an additional Sessions meeting but that was disclosed a while ago.

Jeff Sessions: Donald Trump’s Attorney General likely met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak a third time

Did Comey mention a 4th meeting?

June 1st: Did Trump, Kushner, Sessions Have an Undisclosed Meeting With Russian?


Comey's testimony drew new attention to Sessions and his contacts with Kislyak.

That's new attention, not a newly disclosed meeting.

Or are you talking about this breadcrumb?

"We were also aware of facts that I can't discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic," Comey said, without giving more details.

 

[Stacko]

Undisclosed?

I'll have to look into that. There was an additional Sessions meeting but that was disclosed a while ago.

I thought we went from two to three but my memory might be faulty.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I thought we went from two to three but my memory might be faulty.

That's alright, who knows what the breadcrumb was.

 

[Stacko]

That's alright, who knows what the breadcrumb was.

The DoJ denies the third meeting happened but Comey said it did,

"The Department of Justice appointed special counsel to assume responsibility for this matter," Department of Justice spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said in a statement. "We will allow him to do his job. It is unfortunate that anonymous sources whose credibility will never face public scrutiny are continuously trying to hinder that process by peddling false stories to the mainstream media. The facts haven't changed; the then-Senator did not have any private or side conversations with any Russian officials at the Mayflower Hotel."

Oy vey, it's hard to keep everyone's storyline straight.

 

[Emily's Cat]

There's enough smoke to convince me there's fire. By reputation and confirmed report, Trump is not an honorable man and I think he doesn't give a damn who or what he damages in pursuit of what Donald wants. Worse than that, even, he's much, much less clever than he thinks he is and appears to be very gullible and easily manipulated.

I don't think it can be proven, so I'm not going to try to convince anyone. My opinion in these matters is of no note whatsoever to Trump, the US government and the US in general.

As I say, there is in no way enough to prove it, it's just my belief.

Okay, but we've got Comey repeatedly indicating that there is no investigation of Trump, and suggesting that there is no reason to investigate Trump. If there were reasonable evidence to suggest that Trump were being manipulated by Putin... wouldn't there be an investigation into it?

 

[Emily's Cat]

My interpretation was that Trump considered the "honest loyalty" bit to be thier little deal. Of course that's just in context of the detail Comey provided, so chances are that I'm entirely wrong.

Let me ask this then... why won't Trump tell us what 'that thing' is/was? Now there's an explanation I'd like to hear. The only escape from that is to deny he ever said it.


General question... given his body language, lack of notes, detailed, unhesitant and consistent responses, do you think Comey came off appearing dishonest?

I believe "that thing" was covered in the testimony...

RUBIO: On March 30th during the phone call about general Flynn, you said he abruptly shifted and brought up something that you call, quote, unquote, the Mccabe thing. Specifically, the Mccabe thing as you understood it was that Mccabe's wife had received campaign money from what I assume means Terry McAuliffe?

COMEY: Yes.

RUBIO: Close to the Clintons. Did he say, I don't like this guy because he got money from someone close to Clinton?

COMEY: He asked me about McCabe and said, how is he going to be with me as president? I was rough on him on the campaign trail.

RUBIO: Rough on Mccabe?

COMEY: By his own account, he said he was rough on Mccabe and Mrs. Mccabe on the campaign trail. How is he going to be? I shared with the president, Andy is a pro. No issue at all. You have to know people of the FBI. They're not --

RUBIO: So the president turns to you and says, remember, I never brought up the Mccabe thing because you said he was a good guy, did you perceive that to be a statement that, I took care of you. I didn't do something because you told me he was a good guy. So I'm asking you potentially for something in return. Is that how you perceived it?

 

[Emily's Cat]

Was it leaked, or released? Comey specifically stated that he didn't classify his notes because of the public interest.

Released through a third party. It was hard to parse. It seems as if Comey referenced both classified and unclassified information in the creation of the unclassified memo that he released to a third party, to be printed in the news. Hard to say, though - I found that bit somewhat confusing.

BLUNT: What kind of information was that? What kind of information did you give to a friend?

COMEY: That the -- the Flynn conversation. The president had asked me to let the Flynn -- forgetting my exact own words. But the conversation in the oval office.

BLUNT: So you didn't consider your memo or your sense of that conversation to be a government document. You considered it to be, somehow, your own personal document that you could share to the media as you wanted through a friend?

COMEY: Correct. I understood this to be my recollection recorded of my conversation with the president. As a private citizen, I thought it important to get it out.

BLUNT: Were all your memos that you recorded on classified or other ds memos that might be yours as a private citizen?

COMEY: I'm not following the question.

BLUNT: You said you used classified --

COMEY: Not the classified documents. Unclassified. I don't have any of them anymore. I gave them to the special counsel. My view was that the content of those unclassified, memorialization of those conversations was my recollection recorded.

The thing I find odd, is that Comey was initially recording his interactions as classified documents, and at some point made a conscious decision to create his recordings as unclassified documents, because he felt he might need it some day. So as far back as Jan 6th, he was preparing records of his interactions with some expectation that he might need to release them, although the Jan 6th one was classified...

COMEY: A combination of things. I think the circumstances, the subject matter, and the person I was interacting with. Circumstances, first, I was alone with the president of the United States, or the president-elect, soon to be president. The subject matter I was talking about matters that touch on the FBI's core responsibility, and that relate to the president, president-elect personally, and then the nature of the person. I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting so I thought it important to document. That combination of things I had never experienced before, but had led me to believe I got to write it down and write it down in a very detailed way.

By Feb 14, he began writing them as unclassified

WARNER: I found it very interesting that, that in the memo that you wrote after this February 14th pull-aside, you made clear that you wrote that memo in a way that was unclassified. If you affirmatively made the decision to write a memo that was unclassified, was that because you felt at some point, the facts of that meeting would have to come clean and come clear, and actually be able to be cleared in a way that could be shared with the American people?

Later in his testimony:

COMEY: No. On a few of the occasions, I wrote -- I sent e-mails to my chief of staff on some of the brief phone conversations I had. The first one was a classified briefing. Though it was in a conference room at Trump Tower, it was a classified briefing. I wrote that on a classified device. The one I started typing in the car, that was a classified laptop I started working on.

 

[Emily's Cat]

The public testimony is all I've read. So far, there's no substance to indicate Trump in anything other being an a-hole. But we all know that, it doesn't really need corroboration.

I was rather disappointed by how much of the hearing involved congresscritters asking leading questions, opining on what they think something means, asking Comey to speculate on what he think might have happened if he had done something differently, and rubbing their own belief all over what is supposed to be an investigation into fact.

 

[TraneWreck]

The public testimony is all I've read. So far, there's no substance to indicate Trump in anything other being an a-hole. But we all know that, it doesn't really need corroboration.

I disagree. I think there is plenty, at this point, to justify a probable cause inquiry focused on obstruction of justice.

Once again, no other president at any point in US history could avoid, at a minimum, censure over this.

Jeffrey Toobin, a legal expert, agrees:

The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, “He is a good guy and has been through a lot.” He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice-President. He then said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” I replied only that “he is a good guy.”

This part of Comey’s testimony, if it’s accurate, is a smoking gun. The President is instructing his subordinate to stop an F.B.I. investigation of Trump’s close associate.

Comey told the F.B.I. leadership team about Trump’s outrageously improper request, but he did something more, too. When Comey went to see his direct boss, Sessions, he made an urgent request:

I took the opportunity to implore the Attorney General to prevent any future direct communication between the President and me. I told the AG that what had just happened—him being asked to leave while the FBI Director, who reports to the AG, remained behind—was inappropriate and should never happen. He did not reply.

The language is uncharacteristic for the lawyerly F.B.I. director: he implored his boss to put a stop to the President’s meddling. But Sessions, a more loyal soldier, said nothing.

The most important piece of evidence in the obstruction case against Trump is actually never mentioned in Comey’s opening statement. That evidence is what occurred on May 9th. Comey had not acceded to the President’s request that he cease the investigation of Flynn and the connection to Russia, and he paid the price with his job. Later, Trump all but confessed that he had rid himself of this meddlesome director because of Russia. He told NBC’s Lester Holt, “When I decided to just do it”—to fire Comey—“I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.’ “ The day after the firing, the President boasted to the visiting Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, saying, “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

I'm not sure what you're waiting for. People aren't convicted before the trial. This is plenty of evidence of a dumb, arrogant man attempting to quash in investigation.