James Comey testimony: World reacts to statement on Donald Trump, Russia situation
THOSE close to Donald Trump fear the President won’t take an attack by former FBI Director James Comey lying down.
LAWYERS and aides close to Donald Trump are reportedly bracing for the worst and fear the President won’t take an attack by former FBI Director James Comey lying down.
It comes amid renewed calls for Mr Trump’s impeachment and a daring statement released by Mr Comey, who was sensationally sacked by the President last month.
In the seven-page statement, Mr Comey details every meeting and call he had with Donald Trump.
The statement has been released a day ahead of Mr Comey’s testimony to the US Senate committee, which is investigating whether Russia interfered in the US election and if Mr Trump’s team helped.
The President’s lawyers and aides have been urging him against acting on the statement and testimony, but advisers privately fear he will ignore their advice and tweet anyway, the Washington Post reported.
Roger Stone, a long-time Trump friend and former political adviser, told the Post: “He’s not going to take an attack by James Comey lying down.
“Trump is a fighter, he’s a brawler and he’s the best counterpuncher in American politics.”
Meanwhile Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor and criminal law expert said it’s hard to tell a very wealthy and powerful man not to tweet.
“He thinks, ‘I tweeted my way to the presidency,’ and he’s determined to tweet,” he said.
It comes as several Republicans have also urged the President to turn off the TV and phone.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, who will chair the Comey hearing said Mr Trump tweeting won’t change the testimony.
According to CNN, many Republicans fear Mr Trump’s tweeting could add to the spectacle surrounding the testimony.
Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said there had been speculation the President would live tweet.
“I would argue that’s not a good idea. I think anybody would tell him that,” he said.
But Kansas Senator Pat Roberts went one step further, urging the President to say nothing at all.
“You never get hurt by what you don’t say ... or tweet,” he said.
While Mr Trump’s tweeting is all part of his brand, Republicans fear posting today is not appropriate and critics could use it to argue he’s trying to influence things.
IMPEACHMENT CALLS GROW
The saga comes as two House Democrats announced they will be launching a longshot bid to impeach Mr Trump.
The effort by Al Green of Texas and Brad Sherman of California has little chance of success in the Republican-led House and doesn’t even have the backing of many fellow Democrats, the Associated Press reported.
Despite that, the politicians said they were drafting articles of impeachment because Mr Trump obstructed justice when he fired Mr Comey.
Federal authorities said they had definitive evidence the Kremlin meddled in the US presidential election.
“The question really is whether the President can obstruct justice with impunity,” Mr Green said.
“We live in a country where no congressmen, no senator and not even the President of the United States of America is above the law.”
Mr Green first called for Trump to be impeached in a speech last month.
Neither politician would give a definitive timeline on when they plan to file the articles of impeachment but Mr Sherman said it could happen in weeks, not months.
He also acknowledged any vote in the House to impeach Mr Trump would fail — unless further evidence of possible wrongdoing comes to light.
Many Democrats have distanced themselves from impeachment talk, pending the outcome of the investigation.
In a stinging opinion peace for the Washington Post, blogger Paul Waldman wrote the Russia scandal was not Watergate yet but it was certainly getting a lot closer to it.
While admitting the scandal was “feeling awfully familiar” to Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal, Waldman wrote he didn’t believe the President would be impeached — at least as long the Republicans control the House.
“To paraphrase the president himself, he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and he wouldn’t lose his fundamental support from Republican office holders,” he writes.
“Their fate is tied to his, and they will do what they can to shield him from political harm.”
DAMNING STATEMENT
Mr Comey’s statement reveals the President demanded his loyalty several times and also urged him to let go” of its investigation into his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
It further reveals how he was pressured to “lift the cloud” of the FBI probe into Russian meddling in the election,
Mr Flynn resigned after misleading White House staff about conversations he had with Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.
In an Oval Office meeting on February 14, the President told Mr Comey how Mr Flynn “hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice President”.
“He is a good guy and has been through a lot,” Mr Trump said, according to Mr Comey.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin said Mr Trump’s actions in this episode amounted to “obstruction of justice”.
"If [this] isn't obstruction of justice, I don't know what is": Jeffrey Toobin reacts to Comey's prepared testimony https://t.co/fCg15m1Sdn pic.twitter.com/qDicj7Ceeh
— CNN (@CNN) June 7, 2017
“There is a criminal investigation going on of one of the President’s top associates, his former national security adviser, one of a handful of the most important people in the government. He gets fired, he’s under criminal investigation and the President brings in the FBI investigator and says, ‘Please stop your investigation,’” he said.
“If that isn’t obstruction of justice, I don’t know what is.”
Mr Comey said he didn’t drop the investigation and he didn’t think the President was pressuring him to drop the investigation all together.
Mr Comey was spectacularly fired by the US President last month
‘PALES TO WATERGATE’
The former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper yesterday warned Watergate pales in comparison to the controversy surrounding the Trump administration and Russia.
Speaking at the National Press Club event in Canberra, Mr Clapper, who lived through Watergate, said it was a scary time, but so was the current political situation.
Former spy-chief James Clapper: Watergate pales compared 'to what we are confronting now' #NPC MORE: https://t.co/2ewRSM4WqL pic.twitter.com/NFUJM3Dzfm
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 7, 2017
“I was on active duty then, in the air force, as a young officer, and it was a scary time. But it was against the backdrop of all the post-Vietnam trauma as well, which seemed at least in my memory amplified — as a backdrop — amplified the crisis in our system,” Mr Clapper said.
“I have to say, though, that I think when you compare the two, that Watergate pales really in my view compared to what we’re confronting now.”
— with AP
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