Joe Conason - Comey's Testimony Stumps Fuming And Fumbling Trump Defenders
Joe Conason
Comey’s Testimony Stumps Fuming And Fumbling Trump Defenders
June 9, 2017 12:33 am
In his historic appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Comey explained calmly and cogently how he had approached his fraught relationship with the new president: From day one, the former FBI director said he treated Donald Trump as someone with a propensity to lie.
Whatever anyone thinks of Comey and his conduct during last year’s election — for which he was criticized harshly in these pages — his offenses did not include lying. The same obviously cannot be said of Trump, the president whose utterances have made his name synonymous with “Pinocchio.”
Facing the calm, patient, and respected veteran of law enforcement, Senate Republicans could scarcely fabricate a plausible defense of the president. Comey’s testimony about Trump’s repeated attempts to intimidate him into killing the investigation of Mike Flynn, the former national security adviser, was detailed and damning.
Senator James Risch (R-ID) made the most amusing attempt to exculpate Trump. According to Risch, Trump couldn’t be charged with a crime for telling Comey that he “hoped” the FBI director would “let Flynn go,” rather than prosecute the ex-national security adviser.
“Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice, or for that matter any other criminal offense, where they said or thought they hoped for an outcome?” demanded Risch. Unable to name a case offhand, Comey patiently explained, “I took it as a direction. This is the President of the United States with me alone saying, ‘I hope this’. I took it as this is what he wants me to do. I didn’t obey that but that’s the way I took it.”
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/comeys-testimony-stumps-trump-defenders/
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Talk about twisting and turning the law to suit your narrative, these guys are something else. 
