John R. Schindler: 3 Big Takeaways From Comey Day in Washington

Source: Observer | June 9, 2017 | John R. Schindler

Yesterday’s much-anticipated testimony from the former FBI director included genuine bombshells—which some may have missed

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On the positive side, Trump’s supporters are taking comfort from Comey’s admission that he had, in fact, informed the president that he was not personally under FBI counterintelligence investigation last winter. This, while true, is something of a technicality, since Comey admitted that Russian interference in our 2016 election was very real—“with purpose and sophistication”—no matter what the president tweets.

When asked about this critical issue by Republican Senator Richard Burr, the SSCI chair, Comey’s responses were clear-cut:

Burr: Do you have any doubt that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 elections?

Comey: None.

Burr: Do you have any doubt that the Russian government was behind the intrusions in the D triple C systems and the subsequent leaks of that information?

Comey: No, no doubt.

Burr: Do you have any doubt the Russian government was behind the cyber intrusion in the state voter files?

Comey: No.

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In addition, three major issues came up in yesterday’s testimony which will have important impacts on where the FBI and Mueller-led investigations of KremlinGate are headed. Let’s walk through them.

For Comey, this is personal.

The former director made clear today that he believes the president maligned him and the FBI with his public comments and his reported ugly statements to Russian diplomats about Comey’s firing. This was obviously a deeply personal affront to Comey, and his statement today exuded his anger:

The administration then chose to defame me, and—more importantly—the FBI, by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple. And I am so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them, and I’m so sorry that the American people were told them.

It’s unprecedented for a top American intelligence or law enforcement official—until recently, Comey was both—to publicly call out the president as a bald-faced liar, but that’s what happened. Comey is a tenacious fighter, and the White House is naïve if it thinks this matter is resolved.

To Comey, Trump is simply a liar.

From there, things got even worse for the president. Comey admitted that he had kept notes of his meetings with Trump—something he had never done in his interactions with Presidents Bush and Obama. The FBI director did not trust the new commander-in-chief to render their conversations accurately or truthfully, therefore Comey did so meticulously.

“I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting so I thought it important to document,” he informed senators. It’s a rare event when the country’s former secret police chief admits that he has no faith in the president’s fundamental honesty.

Comey made a memorable statement: “I want the American people to know this truth. The FBI is honest. The FBI is strong. And the FBI is and always will be independent.” Omitted, yet easily inferred, was the follow-up line: “Unlike President Trump.”

The Big Reveals are yet to come.

However irritated Trump and his retinue may have been by Comey’s negative comments about the president’s honesty and personality, none of that matters much to the larger issues of the KremlinGate investigation. Yet it was here that Comey’s statements were most alarming—but they were easy to miss if you weren’t listening carefully.

First, Comey dodged questions about the infamous Steele dossier, the raw intelligence report compiled by a former senior British intelligence operative which alleged direct Kremlin ties to the president and his inner circle. When Senator Burr brought up the dossier, Comey swatted his query away: “I don’t think that’s a question I can answer in an open setting because it goes into the details of the investigation.” Which is the unclassified way of stating that parts of the Steele dossier are true, but they must only be discussed in a closed session (which was scheduled for yesterday afternoon).

Further hints of damaging classified information about Team Trump came up in a discussion of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose contacts with top Russians in 2016 have been a source of controversy. Comey indicated that there is something worth investigating there. When asked about the attorney general’s recusal from the Russia inquiry, Comey stated: “We also were aware of facts that I can’t discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic.” That’s the unclassified way of explaining that there’s classified evidence that Sessions’ ties to Russians are worrisome from a counterintelligence perspective—and perhaps even illegal.

Last, Comey dropped an easy-to-miss bombshell when he was asked by Republican Senator Tom Cotton if he believed that President Trump has colluded with Russia. The former FBI director’s reply was terse: “That’s a question I don’t think I should answer in an open setting.”

To anybody versed in how classified information is handled in Washington, that’s a jaw-dropping response, since Comey de facto admitted that there is evidence that the president colluded with the Kremlin in 2016—but that information, being classified, cannot be discussed in an open session.

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