Story of the Week •
June 8th, 2017
Comey Testifies
In an open session in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee today, James Comey the former FBI Director, testified for close to 3 hours. After a short break, he then spoke for another hour in a closed session, most likely containing classified information. It remains to be seen what the results of his testimony will be. Although widely speculated, President Trump did not live tweet during Comey's appearance.
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Snippets from the Left
Washington Post
"Former FBI director James B. Comey on Thursday essentially laid out an obstruction of justice case against President Trump and suggested senior leaders in the bureau might have contemplated the matter before Trump removed him as director.
Comey did not explicitly draw any legal conclusions. Whether justice was obstructed, he said, was a question for recently appointed special counsel Robert Mueller. But he said Trump’s request to terminate the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn left him 'stunned,' and senior FBI officials considered it to be of 'investigative interest.'
...
Legal analysts have said previously that there was reason to believe Trump might have obstructed justice — both in asking him to shut down the probe into Flynn and then, later, in firing Comey. Comey’s testimony, they said Thursday, clarified and bolstered the case."
Snippets from the Right
Daily Caller
"Former FBI Director James Comey testified before a Senate committee Thursday that President Donald Trump never asked him to end the investigation into Russian election interference.
North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, asked Comey, 'Did the president at any time ask you to stop the FBI investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. elections?'
The former FBI director replied, 'Not to my understanding, no.'
Burr followed up by asking if any member of the administration made this request, and Comey replied, 'no.'”
Snippets from the Center
The Hill
"Fired FBI Director James Comey on Thursday accused the Trump administration of defaming him and telling 'lies' in impassioned testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The White House's shifting rationale for his dismissal 'confused' the former director, he said, adding that it was the administration's subsequent statements that the FBI was in 'disarray' that moved him to speak.
'The administration chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly run,' Comey told a rapt hearing room.
'Those were lies, plain and simple.'"
