BEFORE TRUMP OR ANYONE SUPPORTING HIM DANCES OVER THIS, IT's WISE TO TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT THE TESTIMONY OF COMEY....
Key question: Is Comey claiming here that :
A) He’s never experienced political pressure during an investigation of any kind, not even from the White House
or
B) Is he claiming that he’s never experienced it from the DOJ?
Let's look at what Senator Mazie Hirono’s question was about — Was she referring to the DOJ, or the White House, or the entire trump administration in general?
Let's look at the transcripts again:
HIRONO: So if the Attorney General or senior officials at the Department of Justice opposes a specific investigation, can they halt that FBI investigation?
COMEY: In theory yes.
HIRONO: Has it happened?
COMEY: Not in my experience. Because it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something that — without an appropriate purpose. I mean where oftentimes they give us opinions that we don’t see a case there and so you ought to stop investing resources in it. But I’m talking about a situation where we were told to stop something for a political reason, that would be a very big deal. It’s not happened in my experience.
So, read the question again -- SHE WAS REFERRING TO THE DOJ, NOT TRUMP.
Comey wasn’t asked about Trump so technically his answer’s not inconsistent with the phantom memo we have yet to see.
You can interpret Comey’s answer in three ways:
Either:
1) Trump asked Comey to stop the investigation and Comey mislead the Senate by specifically referring to the actions of the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General and hiding from them an attempt by Trump to stop an investigation. Or
2) Trump made no such request.
Or,
3) Comey considered that the comment fell into the category of “
they give us opinions that we don’t see a case there and so you ought to stop investing resources in it.”
In other words, he did not take it as an attempt to interfere in the investigation. Two of these three options explain the skepticism expressed by Senator Burr earlier today on the memo story.
Hence, The question here is similar to the question of why he didn’t report what Trump allegedly said to him to his superiors at the DOJ. The likely answer to that one is that he thought Trump’s request was inappropriate but not so clear-cut a threat as to constitute obstruction and he didn’t want to set off a political firestorm over an ambiguous remark.
That’s defensible — but
Hirono isn’t asking him about offenses that rise to the level of obstruction here. She’s asking whether he’s experienced any form of political pressure on an investigation from the DOJ. As such, it’s hard to square his omission of Trump’s request with the memo reported by the Times unless he goes the hyper-lawyerly route. And if he goes the hyper-lawyerly route, his credibility’s going to take another hit.
