Comey's Public hearing - opening statement

drive.google.com...

The link provides the opening statement from Comey tomorrow.

Reading through it, it appears that everything has already been leaked and there will be nothing new tomorrow.

He talks about the Flynn conversation - which appears very short
He references the dinner where the loyalty pledge was requested, which ended with an agreement about 'honest loyalty'
He confirms he DID tell the President that he was not the subject of investigation

a reply to: UKTruth

Where did you find that?

originally posted by: shooterbrody
a reply to: UKTruth

Where did you find that?

It was provided to Fox news reporters - amongst others I would imagine.
The sequence of events and conversations suggest that Trump did not trust him and was trying to assess him, potentially as to whether he was involved in any way with leaks.

a reply to: UKTruth

It is up on drudge now a link to cnbc

There is nothing there

nothing to show obstruction from trump
funny that trump was right about comey telling him he was not under investigation

a reply to: UKTruth

So is Trump impeached now?

Is it President Pence?



If you're very quiet, you can hear sobbing from CNN.

originally posted by: shooterbrody
a reply to: UKTruth

It is up on drudge now a link to cnbc

There is nothing there

nothing to show obstruction from trump
funny that trump was right about comey telling him he was not under investigation

Comey also confirms he did not believe that Trump was asking him to drop the Russian investigation, or even the wider Flynn investigation - only the information relating to the call Flynn had with Kislyak.

a reply to: shooterbrody

The prepared comments were released by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Here they are linked from the intelligence.senate.gov website.

We will see lots of bitterness after the Thursday hearings.

a reply to: UKTruth

The sequence of events and conversations suggest that Trump did not trust him and was trying to assess him, potentially as to whether he was involved in any way with leaks.

I agree with that.

It appears all this russia crap is really nothing with respect to trump and his campaign.
This is going to bludgeon the dems come midterms. They spent all this time trying to drag the administration down instead of trying to help the america people.

It's going to be clear tomorrow that Trump was not under investigation - and that he was being completely truthful when he said Comey told him that.

So there is no obstruction of justice and no investigation of the President. Not good for democrats trying to change the election result. This was the big democrat hope of which we have been told "Wait till Comey speaks, Trump is toast" or words that effect. Not looking like that.

God i wish i was Comey i would f#ck everyone so hard that they sh!t bricks for weeks. Just another coward in a long line of cowards who bend over backwards for the Clintons. What a shame i expected a real spectacle. My first impression was spot on. You can even read it here on ATS. F#ck this spineless pos.

I was reading the statement on Zero Hedge. It seems clear to me that Comey felt that Trump needed to keep more distance from the investigation. He states that when Trump requested he "let it go," that he (Comey) understood this to be in regards to Flynn's false statements to the Vice President, not about any larger inquiries into Russian influence.

He did not relate anything Trump said to his underlings at the FBI, which to me negates any possibility of obstruction having occurred.

He did in fact tell Trump that he wasn't under investigation, at least once.

Honestly, those smear articles that paint Comey as a whiney crybaby are starting to ring true to me. Comey strikes me as perhaps a bit thin-skinned for a high-level government position.

a reply to: UKTruth

Reading through it, it appears that everything has already been leaked and there will be nothing new tomorrow.

I'm about half-way through it and it appears that he is going to confirm much of what the media has been reporting.

And it appears Trump did ask Comey to "let it go" in regards to Flynn.

Will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

originally posted by: introvert
a reply to: UKTruth

Reading through it, it appears that everything has already been leaked and there will be nothing new tomorrow.

I'm about half-way through it and it appears that he is going to confirm much of what the media has been reporting.

And it appears Trump did ask Comey to "let it go" in regards to Flynn.

Will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

On the morning of March 30, the President called me at the FBI. He described the Russia investigation as “a cloud” that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country. He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia. He asked what we could do to “lift the cloud.” I responded that we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could, and that there would be great benefit, if we didn’t find anything, to our having done the work well. He agreed, but then re-emphasized the problems this was causing him. He finished by stressing “the cloud” that was interfering with his ability to make deals for the country and said he hoped I could find a way to get out that he wasn’t being investigated.

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan
I was reading the statement on Zero Hedge. It seems clear to me that Comey felt that Trump needed to keep more distance from the investigation. He states that when Trump requested he "let it go," that he (Comey) understood this to be in regards to Flynn's false statements to the Vice President, not about any larger inquiries into Russian influence.

He did not relate anything Trump said to his underlings at the FBI, which to me negates any possibility of obstruction having occurred.

He did in fact tell Trump that he wasn't under investigation, at least once.

Honestly, those smear articles that paint Comey as a whiney crybaby are starting to ring true to me. Comey strikes me as perhaps a bit thin-skinned for a high-level government position.

If the content of the released statement is the sum total of tomorrow's hearing then the collusion and the obstruction narratives are dead... with only the question remaining as to whether anyone in his campaign was involved with Russia (which is not going to turn out well for democrats either).

Here's some choice excerpts. It appears that the leaks are completely confirmed. Here he's talking about the loyalty pledge bit:

A few moments later, the President said , “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty. ” 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.

Near the end of our dinner, the President returned to the subject of my job, saying he was very glad I wanted to stay, adding that he had heard great things about me from Jim Mattis, Jeff Sessions, and many others. He then said, “I need loyalty.” I replied, “You will always get honesty from me.” He paused and then said, “That’s what I want, honest loyalty.” I paused, and then said, “You will get that from me.” As I wrote in the memo I created immediately after the dinner, it is possible we understood the phrase “honest loyalty” differently, but I decided it wouldn’t be productive to push it further. The term – honest loyalty – had helped end a very awkward conversation and my explanations had made clear what he should expect.

Here's he's talking about when Trump sent everyone out of the room while he discussed Flynn:

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.” I replied only that “he is a good guy.” (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would “let this go.”

Interesting, from a March 30 phone call:

The President went on to say that if there were some “satellite” associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out, but that he hadn’t done anything wrong and hoped I would find a way to get it out that we weren’t investigating him.

Finaly the April 11 phone call:

On the morning of April 11, the President called me and asked what I had done about his request that I “get out” that he is not personally under investigation. I replied that I had passed his request to the Acting Deputy Attorney General, but I had not heard back. He replied that “the cloud” was getting in the way of his ability to do his job. He said that perhaps he would have his people reach out to the Acting Deputy Attorney General. I said that was the way his request should be handled. I said the White House Counsel should contact the leadership of DOJ to make the request, which was the traditional channel. He said he would do that and added, “Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.” I did not reply or ask him what he meant by “that thing.” I said only that the way to handle it was to have the White House Counsel call the Acting Deputy Attorney General. He said that was what he would do and the call ended.

That was the last time I spoke with President Trump.

It sounds like, based on Comey's testimony, that what irked Trump most was that Comey wouldn't come out and announce that Trump wasn't personally under investigation. That seems to comport well with the heavily contrived bulls# termination letter that was leaked to the press by the WH.

Trump said to 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.”

"Hope", not an order or even a request.

originally posted by: xuenchen
We will see lots of bitterness after the Thursday hearings.

I fully expect Maxine Waters to pull out a gun and shoot Comey on the spot

a reply to: muse7

If we take Comey at his word and these accounts are true, it becomes obvious that Trump is a very insecure little man.

Comey has proven to be honorable in his approach to this and it's a shame he was fired for being so.

a reply to: theantediluvian

If these are your choice excerpts, then we can quickly put this to bed. No obstruction and Trump is not under investigation - something he was being truthful about in his "BS" termination letter.