President Trump’s Personal Attorney Responds To James Comey’s Testimony
[guest post by Dana]
From Marc Kasowitz:
Contrary to the numerous false press accounts leading up to today’s hearing, Mr. Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told President Trump privately: That is, that the President was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference. Mr. Comey also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference.
Mr Comey’s testimony also makes clear that the President never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election, and in fact, according to Mr. Comey, the President told Mr. Comey “it would be good to find out” in that investigation if there was “some satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong.” And he, President Trump, did not exclude anyone from that statement.
Consistent with that statement, the President never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that Mr. Comey “let Flynn go.” As the president publicly stated the next day, he did say to Mr. Comey, “General Flynn is a good guy, he has been through a lot” and also “asked how is General Flynn is doing.” Admiral Rogers testified today that the President never “directed [him] to do anything . . . illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate,” and never, never “pressured [him] to do so.” Director Coates said the same thing. The President likewise never pressured Mr. Comey.
The President also never told Mr. Comey, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty”. He never said it in form and he never said it in substance. Of course, the Office of the President is entitled to expect loyalty from those serving in an administration, and, from before this President took office to this day, it is overwhelmingly clear that there have been and continue to be those in government who are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications. Mr. Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers.
Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President. The leaks of this privileged information began no later than March 2017 when friends of Mr. Comey have stated that he disclosed to them the conversations he had with the President during their January 27, 2017 dinner and February 14, 2017 White House meeting. Today, Mr. Comey admitted hat he leaked to friends of his purported memos of these privileged conversations, one of which he testified was classified. Mr. Comey also testified that immediately after he was terminated he authorized his friends to leak the contents of those memos to the press in order to, in Mr. Comey’s words, “prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
Although Mr. Comey testified he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet, the public record reveals that the New York Times was quoting from these memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies Mr. Comey’s excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory. We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated along
with all the others being investigated.In sum, it is now established that the President was not being investigated for colluding with the or attempting to obstruct any investigation. As the Committee pointed out today, these important facts for the country to know are virtually the only facts that have not been leaked during the course of these events.
As he said yesterday, the President feels completely vindicated, and is eager to continue to moving forward with his agenda, with the business of this country, and with this public cloud removed.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana