What Will Happen: Trump Supporters Will Entirely Focus on Comey Telling Trump He Wasn’t Personally Under Investigation.
What Should Happen: Recordings (Assuming They Exist) of Trump’s Conversations With Comey Would Prove Obstruction of Justice
First, you should take a few minutes to read Comey’s statement.
Unfortunately some in the media, especially Fox News and the likes of Rush Limbaugh, will focus on Comey stating he told Trump three times he was not personally under FBI investigation. This is what Trump claimed in his May 9, 2017 letter when he fired Comey.
Trump’s May 9, 2017 Letter – Firing Comey
While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, [emphasis added] I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.
Here are the three times Comey states Trump was not personally under investigation:
1) January 6, 2017 – Briefing
In that context, prior to the January 6 meeting, I discussed with the FBI’s leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure President-Elect Trump thatwe were not investigating him personally. That was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him. [emphasis added] We agreed I should do so if circumstances warranted. During our one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, based on President-Elect Trump’s reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking thequestion, I offered that assurance. [emphasis added]
And then:
2) January 27, 2017 – Dinner
During the dinner, the President returned to the salacious material I had briefed him about on January 6, and, as he had done previously, expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them. He said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn’t happen. I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative. [emphasis added] He said he would think about it and asked me to think about it.
And finally:
3) March 30, 2017 – Phone Call
I explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those Congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump. [emphasis added] I reminded him I had previously told him that. He repeatedly told me, “We need to get that fact out.”
My guess is this is what Trump and his supporters, including spineless Republicans, will entirely focus on instead of how the Russians have been interfering in our democracy and what Trump and his confidants relationship to Russia is.
Even if Trump was not personally under investigation when Comey was still FBI Director, which is not to say he isn’t now, we have Comey’s written testimony that Trump asked Comey for his loyalty (during the January 27th Dinner):
January 27, 2017 – Dinner
A few moments later, the President said, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” [emphasis added] I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence. The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner.
and, much more seriously, to lay off Michael Flynn (during the February 14th Oval Office Meeting).
February 14, 2017 – Oval Office Meeting
The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, “He is a good guy and has been through a lot.” He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, “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.” [emphasis added] I replied only that “he is a good guy.”
I immediately prepared an unclassified memo of the conversation about Flynn and discussed the matter with FBI senior leadership. I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. [emphasis added]
The loyalty pledge request is typical Trump and of course is very troubling. But far more troubling is Trump’s clear request to Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, as this is de facto obstruction of justice and a “high crime and misdemeanor” to use the language of the Constitution.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to see why any recording of Trump’s interaction with Comey is so important.
On June 23, 1972 President was speaking with his Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman in the Oval Office when Haldeman suggested that Vernon Walters, then deputy director of the CIA should call Pat Gray, then acting director of the FBI, to tell him to “Stay the hell out of this.” Nixon agreed with him. Nixon recorded the conversation, which became known as the “Smoking Gun.” It was played in open court in the trial of Attorney General John Mitchell.
Nixon was set to be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate, a trial he would have badly lost.
Trump has claimed there are recordings of his interactions with Comey. If true (Trump is known for recording conversations in his Trump Tower office and he did want to be alone with Comey on February 14, 2017), we are thoroughly in Watergate territory.
Assuming the recording(s) exist and Special Counsel Mueller gets hold of them, and assuming they support Comey’s written statement, then Trump is guilty of exactly the same thing that brought down Richard Nixon, regardless of whether it rises to the level of a crime or not. Any such recording would greatly increase the calls for impeachment .