Some notes of what I am thinking about as I watch James Comey testify before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Comey is a prosecutor and I am sure that he is thinking of himself as a witness, which is why he preserved the memos. He wanted present sense impression, and present memory refreshed.
10:48 - Senator Risch, points out how good the written testimony is, prepared as good as it gets from legal writing class.
10:54 - We are beginning to drill down to one of the fulcrums of the problem here. President Trump was not under investigation, but the Russian interference was. Why would this create pressure on the President were it not for some sort of complicity or collusion? If he were truly uninvolved why not turn out your pockets and instruct your councilors to do the same? That has always been the dubious problem that makes everyone act Benghazi level nuts.
10:57 - Senator Feinstein also puts before Comey the obviousness of the power of the oval office. A lot of this wouldn't fly in direct, in a court room. But still a public record.
11:03 - Comey has a couple of times mentioned that he did not have the presence of mind to admonish the president for acting strangely, or inappropriately. I think it belies the destabilizing nature of Donald Trump. He does not act like the normal politician or public servant. It is hard to predict if your whole life has been reporting to service minded people. It won't get said explicitly but I think so much of the uneasiness that Comey has had stemmed from this unpredictability.
11:14 - Under questioning from Wyden, we just got one of the biggest pieces of the obstruction puzzle. He said if the president got what he wanted, the Russia investigation would have been ended. Senator Wyden connected the dots, if you had acceded to the president's request the American people would not have gotten the truth. I know people will deny that this is the key, but really that is what those obstruction calls are about. Stay calm, its still going to feel like forever.
11:23 - Comey has been good about creating a theme of trying to protect the organization, which is a far better reason to create the memos and do all of the things he has done. He certainly doesn't look like a guy with an ax to grind.
And while I was typing, he just admitted to being the source of the leaks. Laundered the memos through a professor at Columbia Law. So pretty much everything we have read in the paper about Comey and Trump is from Comey leaking. Again, he has built his case perfectly and is just connecting the dots today.
11:36 - Senator Blut appears to be trying to bury some of this testimony as strange behavior by Comey. I think he's getting shown up, Comey seems to be able to explain over the incredulity of the Senator. And he managed to run himself out of time trying to tease out this strain of thought. Comey shows no interest in answering an unasked question. I keep saying it but that comes with practice, he had to have trained witnesses to not answer unasked questions. I hope this is shown in law schools for years.
11:45 - Closest Comey has come to discussing the actual investigations. The Russia inquiry and the Flynn investigation were "separate but touching" seemed genuinely unsure if he would have been able to let the Russia investigation go unobstructed if Flynn had been stopped. Comey noted that he might want to pressure Flynn to "flip" him. Now the question is who would he flip him to testify against?
11:57 - Great refutation of Trump's claim that Comey had better hope there are no tapes of the conversation. Comey says release them all, almost seems like he would be relieved if they were there to corroborate the memos. He seems like he is enjoying this questioning from Senator Manchin, which should not speak to effort he is putting in.
12:08 - Seeing on Twitter that Judicial Watch is putting out there that Comey leaking information to reporters through third party was betraying his oath. For a supposedly legal organization they don't seem to be able to understand the difference between classified information and unclassified information, or personal recollection recorded. Something that might be worth looking in to would be the giving of Israeli intelegence to the Russians. Or perhaps the deaths of 18 CIA Sources in China just a couple of weeks after the Presidents of China and the US met.
As far as the hearing, Senator Kamala Harris managed to get an impressive string of "unable to answer in open session" answers. And it is beginning to appear that most of the red meat has been consumed by the senior members of the committee so the junior members are going a bit far afield here.
12:19 - Senator Cornyn asks to go back to the Clinton matter with Loretta Lynch. I have not mentioned his other answers in this area because I found them lacking probative value, and minor news. It could have been extrapolated from other information already provided. Biggest piece of news was the direct request on verbiage matching the campaign line. Comey did note no news article matched the language he used. He said "matter" everyone said "investigation," this is more likely the nothing burger the GOP keeps talking about, it certainly couldn't be the other things discussed. Not seeing the Senator getting far with this.
12:29 - Comey just reminded the room what is at stake, if the Russians were meddling in our election that is a big deal. If any American helped that is an even bigger deal. This makes it plain that we need to dig for facts, non-partisan, non-biased facts. I hope all of congress just got that message, as well as Robert Mueller III, which everyone says he already knows that.
Now Senator John McCain can show if he is for America or if he will fall back on the need to protect the President.
12:36 - John McCain is blowing my mind. He goes on a long questioning about the Clinton Email scandal, but can't seem to put a cogent question together. He concludes that there appears to be a double standard. He might be the only one who can track exactly what he means. These are very separate matters, and one seemed finished. If you tracked it let me know.
12:38 - McCain gets gaveled out of a rather tortured speaking time.
12:47 - We are gaveled out of the hearing and the talking heads are flapping. I'll collect myself in a bit for a recap.
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