James Comey, the ex-FBI director who was fired by Trump, testified on Capitol Hill on 8th June, shedding light on the circumstances that led to his controversial firing by US President Donald Trump. The nature of ex-FBI Director James Comey’s testimony on the Trump Russia collusion was extraordinary. It was a political theater of the best kind.
The former FBI director revealed new information during Senate Intelligence Committee testimony over firing by the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
Senators are looking into alleged Russian meddling into the US presidential election of 2016, and Comey is a key witness. Comey once headed the FBI investigation into Russian hacking but was dismissed by Donald Trump because, according to Comey, he went public with the probe. These were his first public comments since he was sacked and Comey did not hold back. James Comey’s prepared testimony, released Wednesday afternoon, gave the public a narrative: that President Donald Trump consistently either failed to understand or intentionally violated the norms of independence that set the FBI out of political reach. It is impossible to tell what Comey was able to share on Thursday exactly what is up was and is up to Trump and Russia.
But one thing that’s excruciatingly clear is that at no point did Trump express or exhibit any kind of concern about Russian government involvement in cyber crimes aimed at manipulating American political events. James Comey called President Trump a liar at least three times during his testimony. After their first meeting at Trump Tower in New York City in January, Comey sat in his car immediately after and typed everything out on a laptop. He documented all nine conversations as a result. Comey produced another delightful piece of information. In May, three days after he was fired, Comey worried there may actually be a White House tape of one of their conversations. After all, the president had tweeted cryptically that “Comey better hope” there aren’t any tapes of their conversations. Comey, during his testimony, challenged Trump to produce tapes. One of the things which arose out of Comey’s testimony is that the Obama administration had tried to get Comey off the Clinton investigation!
The testimony was extremely damaging to the image of the President, Donald Trump, showing the former FBI director mistrusted Trump from the beginning. Comey had accused Trump and his administration of defaming him and lying by telling the public he was fired because he had led the organization poorly and was disliked.
