At the outset of Senate hearings and an investigation by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III into the Trump campaign's connection to Russian operatives and Russian interference in the 2016 president campaign, the question is: "What did the president mean when he said what he said to FBI Director James Comey?"
Comey said he believed the president directed him to drop the FBI investigation of former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
Trump's tweet read: "Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication. and WOW, Comey is a leaker".
Wittes, the Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and the editor of the influential Lawfare blog, has said he and Comey are meet-now-and-then-for-lunch friends, but not close friends.
"I don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct". He also made clear that he interpreted Trump's request to end an investigation into Flynn as an order coming from the president.
Comey had left a careful paper trail, taking notes immediately following his meetings with Trump - and conveying to his friends his concerns.
"I had to call my wife and break a date with her", Comey said. "Call it a matter.'" Comey said. "That to me as an investigator, is a very significant fact". "That is a very big deal".
Good Lord, release the tapes!
Comey said he was aware the president tweeted Comey "had better hope" there were no tapes of his conversations with Comey.
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But if Corbyn manages to garner support, he will be the next British PM, despite critics calling him a far-left radical. What happens now? One should expect a frenzied round of talks amongst party leaders with their negotiating members.
With trademark flair, Comey told the committee, "Lordy, I hope there are tapes" of his conversations with Trump.
At one point he practically dared Trump to release any recordings of their conversations, a prospect the president once alluded to in a tweet. And Comey felt compelled to write up a memo after most meetings with Trump as a precaution. Comey added, "I thought it might prompt the appointment of a special counsel". And indeed it did.
What we do know is that Comey, an Irish Catholic born in NY and raised in New Jersey, was close to Jewish organizations throughout his Federal Bureau of Investigation career, and has been enormously affected by the lessons of the Holocaust.
Wittes has not said how he and Comey became friends, nor has Richman, although both men were federal prosecutors in NY around the same time.
In fact, Comey's timeline appears to be correct. The Times ran a story about the memo contents later that day.
But in the four months since Trump became president, they chatted nine times, Comey testified.
Clinton didn't mention Comey as she gave a commencement speech in New York Thursday. "I was sacked in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russian Federation investigation was being conducted". "You watch", he said. John McCain's line of questioning, and judging by social media, he wasn't alone.
Comey's accusations could further mire Trump's administration in legal difficulties, as special counsel Robert Mueller, appointed by the Justice Department after Comey was sacked, and several congressional committees investigate alleged Russian efforts to influence the election.
But one of the former aides said that, while Comey had a "chilling effect on the ground" for Clinton, Thursday brought more understanding.
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