The Comey Hearing

We hope you were able to watch the public testimony of former FBI Director James Comey in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee (we had the live stream up here while it was on). If not, here are some of our main takeaways, which we're excerpting from Jane Timm's liveblogging at NBC News, Ryan Reilly at HuffPo, and Kerry Eleveld and Joan McCarter at Daily Kos:

-- Comey was concerned about Donald "Rump" Trump lying about their interactions:

Comey emphasized that he documented conversations with President Donald Trump out of concern that Trump would later try to defame him personally or impugn the FBI’s independence. 

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. asks Comey why he initially decided to document his conversations with President Trump. 

“I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of the meeting and it led me to document it,” Comey said.

-- Following his firing, Comey had a friend (Columbia University law professor Dan Richman) leak contents of his memo on meetings with Rump in hopes of getting a special counsel appointed:

Days after the president suggested he has secret recordings of Oval Office conversations with former FBI Director James Comey, the former FBI director said under oath that he woke up in the middle of the night and decided to orchestrate a leak about his memos on meetings with the president. 

"I asked a friend of mine to share the content of a memo with the reporter, I didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel," Comey said.

-- Comey refused to say in open session whether Rump himself colluded with Russia, a question Metternich of the Ozarks Sen. Tom "Ear to Ear" Cotton (R- Trump's Pocket) was foolish enough to ask (oops!):

Asked by Sen. Tom Cotton if he believed the president was colluding with Russia during his campaign, Comey declined to answer in an unclassified setting.  

-- Sen. John "Walnuts" McCain is showing signs of mental impairment (eg., calling Comey "President Comey") and Clinton Derangement Syndrome:

Sen. John McCain spent a long and confusing seven minutes trying to suggest the FBI has a double standard because they weren't investigating Hillary Clinton while examining Russia's interference in the 2016 election.  

Trump campaign aides had repeated contact with Russian officials, and are at the center of the investigation; there is no evidence or even reports Clinton's aides or allies did the same.

-- Earlier in his testimony, Comey reacted to Rump and White House efforts to defame him:

Former FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that the White House had lied and defamed him and the FBI by saying he had lost the faith of bureau. 

Speaking before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Comey said the Donald Trump administration chose to “defame me” and the FBI by saying the bureau was in chaos and that he had lost FBI employees’ trust. 

“Those were lies, plain and simple,” Comey said.  

-- Comey indicated that evil elf and Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III was in a "problematic" position regarding sharing of information:

Our judgment, as I recall, was that he was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons. We also were aware of facts that I can't discuss in an opening setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic. And so we were convinced — and in fact, I think we'd already heard that the career people were recommending that he recuse himself -- that he was not going to be in contact with Russia-related matters much longer. And that turned out to be the case.

-- Comey says Vice President Mike "Dense" Pence was aware of Michael Flynn's Russian connections very early on:

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) just pulled Vice President Mike Pence into the heart of the Russia investigation, asking former FBI Director James Comey whether Pence was aware of the concerns about Mike Flynn's Russia connections both prior to and during his brief tenure in the administration—that is during the transition. Which Mike Pence directed. 

Comey: "My understanding is that he was." 

That undermines Pence's claim that he was totally ignorant of Pence's Russia ties and that Flynn had lied to him about it. That supposed lie, remember, was the justification Trump gave for firing Flynn. 

-- Ultra- right Idaho Sen. James Risch (R- Trump's Pocket) thought he was pretty clever focusing on Rump's use of the word "hope," as in "I hope you can let this go," implying it didn't amount to an order and therefore wasn't obstruction of justice. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) had a perfect rejoinder:

Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris: When a robber holds a gun to your head and says "I hope you will give me your wallet"...

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 8, 2017

The questioning continues this afternoon in a classified hearing in which the more sensitive questions will be asked and presumably answered.

BONUS:  Steve Benen has his own summary.

Trump's Interference In Russiagate Investigation, Cont. (UPDATED)

Amid the anticipation surrounding former FBI Director James Comey's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, the Washington Post has a blockbuster report that fits a pattern of, if not outright obstruction, consciousness of guilt by Putin puppet Donald "Rump" Trump. It makes today's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing potentially as damaging to Rump as what could be in store for him on Thursday:

The nation’s top intelligence official told associates in March that President Trump asked him if he could intervene with then-FBI Director James B. Comey to get the bureau to back off its focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn in its Russia probe, according to officials. 

On March 22, less than a week after being confirmed by the Senate, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats attended a briefing at the White House together with officials from several government agencies. As the briefing was wrapping up, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. 

The president then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates. Two days earlier, Comey had confirmed in a congressional hearing that the bureau was probing whether Trump’s campaign coordinated with Russia during the 2016 race. 

After the encounter, Coats discussed the conversation with other officials and decided that intervening with Comey as Trump had suggested would be inappropriate, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters. [snip] 

Coats will testify on Wednesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Lawmakers on the panel said they would press him for information about his interactions with the president regarding the FBI investigation.

 Coats, as well as Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and National Security Agency Director Adm. Mike Rogers, are slated to testify today starting at 10 a.m. EDT on various aspects of the investigation into Russian meddling into the 2016 election which, according to a leaked NSA document, was far more widespread and specific than previously revealed. Keep an eye on how Republicans on the committee deal with the testimony today and tomorrow (spoiler alert: running interference for Rump will be their top priority). The other issue at play that would determine how much is or is not revealed during the testimony today and tomorrow is to what extent Special Counsel Robert Mueller has provided legal parameters to the witnesses in order to safeguard the integrity of his expanding investigation.

Regardless, it's hard to escape the feeling that the walls are closing in on Rump and his regime.

UPDATE: While executive privilege wasn't invoked by Coats or Rogers, they declined to answer the simple question of whether they even had a conversation with Rump concerning the FBI investigation, saying that they couldn't discuss it in open session. Dem Senators pressed them on their rationale for not responding but didn't receive a satisfactory response from either. Independent Maine Sen. Angus King had a testy exchange with Rogers over the refusal to answer the key question:

Rogers: "I don't mean that in a contentious way" @SenAngusKing: "Well, I do mean it in a contentious way" pic.twitter.com/7fhN1Bho01

— POLITICO (@politico) June 7, 2017

McCabe and Rosenstein fell back on the "ongoing Special Counsel" investigation tact to skirt those type of questions. The Dems finally got an agreement from Coats, Rogers, et al to answer the questions in a closed session at 2 p.m. today. So much for transparency.

Tweeting Twit To Tweet Tantrum Thursday -- Toot Toot!

From the "What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Department," and a propos of the post below, this should certainly please his legal team:

President Donald Trump will reportedly respond live on Twitter as former FBI Director James Comey testifies to a Senate committee this week. 

On Thursday, Comey is expected to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee about his firing and whether Trump attempted to influence the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Who needs common sense, dignity, and restraint when you're dimwit Donald "Rump" Trump?! That's for losers!

(Image: The Official Trump Train, "General Collapse.")