The most extraordinary thing to come out of the hearing the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held Thursday may not be former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony, but the baffling, typo-riddled response to that testimony issued by Donald Trump’s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz.… continue »
Former Director of the FBI James Comey came to Thursday’s briefing with the Senate Intelligence Committee ready to say the Trump administration had lied to the American people and that immediately after meeting Donald Trump, he was worried the president-elect would lie too.… continue »
Here is a roundup of Just Security’s live tweeting from Thursday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with former FBI Director James Comey. We’ve also included a few retweets that captured critical moments.
… continue »Warner to Comey: I've disagreed w/ you, but I've never had any reason to question your integrity, your expertise or your intelligence.
Two intertwined themes run through former FBI-Director James Comey’s hot-off-the-presses written testimony: loyalty and quid pro quo. Neither is appropriate for the relationship between the president and his FBI director.
Comey’s recounting of his interactions with President Donald Trump shows time and again that Trump believed that he had bought Comey’s personal loyalty by allowing him to stay on in his job.… continue »
When former FBI Director James Comey testifies on June 8, he can expect to get this question (especially from some Republican senators): If you thought President Donald Trump was inappropriately pressuring you to end the Russia investigation, did you report that behavior to anyone?… continue »
James Comey really is the master of the contemporaneous record. He’s been laying down a breadcrumb trail of clues about what’s going on behind the scenes not just in his memos, but also in his public statements.
On May 3rd, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on FBI oversight, Sen.… continue »
Last week, I questioned whether President Donald Trump might have potentially engaged in the obstruction of justice when he fired then-FBI Director James Comey. Yesterday, another bombshell. The alleged Comey memo. The memo itself has not been seen by the public (or the reporter who broke the story), but if what’s been reported is, in fact, in there — that the president first cleared the room of both Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions before expressing his not-so-subtle “hope” that the Flynn investigation be dropped — followed by the firing of Comey when that “hope” was not met, then I don’t think we are in the land of speculation anymore.… continue »
There has been considerable discussion over the last week about whether President Donald Trump committed the crime of obstruction of justice when he fired James Comey as director of the FBI. Caution has been important in this debate because obstruction of justice is a difficult crime to prove, the beyond a reasonable doubt standard for criminal prosecution is an onerous one, and not all the facts are known.… continue »
President Trump’s decision to summarily dismiss now-former FBI Director James Comey has sparked grave concerns in many quarters. The move has been described as a profoundly dangerous example of the President’s authoritarian instincts. It has led to warnings of a potential constitutional crisis, speculation whether the president is guilty of obstruction of justice, and skepticism that the President’s proffered reasons for the termination actually underlie his decision.… continue »
Yesterday, James’ Comey’s former deputy, now Acting Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe, demonstrated that he, too, is willing to speak his mind (read: will not be bullied into quiet submission).
In sharp contrast to the claims of White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who claimed on Wednesday that rank-and-file FBI employees had lost confidence in their former Director, he told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Comey “enjoyed broad support within the FBI and still does to this day.”
McCabe further rejected the assertion, also made by Sanders, that the Russian investigation was one of the “smallest things on [the FBI’s] plate,” calling it instead a “highly significant investigation.”
Given the risks that Trump fired Comey in an effort to tamp down the investigation of his campaign’s ties to Russia – and embroiled even his new Deputy Attorney General in these efforts – such independence is a reassuring breach of fresh air. … continue »
