fantastic-nonsense:

fantastic-nonsense:

fantastic-nonsense:

• Preet Bharara had a reserved seat
• Comey: “When I was appointed FBI director in 2013, I understood that I served at the pleasure of the president. Even though I was appointed to a ten-year term, which Congress created in order to underscore the importance of the FBI being outside of politics and independent, I understood that I could be fired by a president for any reason or for no reason at all. And on May the 9th when I learned I had been fired, for that reason, I came home as a private citizen, But then the explanations, the shifting explanations, confused me and increasingly concerned me. They confused me because the president and I had had multiple conversations about my job, both before and after he took office. And he had repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and he hoped I would stay.”
  
• Comey has proven to be devoted to the institution of the FBI, demonstrating behavior to defend its integrity in multiple instances under multiple administrations
  
• “The administration… 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.”
  
• “FBI is honest. The FBI is strong. The FBI will remain independent.“ 
  
• Mike Flynn is under criminal investigation. I think this is the first time anyone in a position of power has officially acknowledged and confirmed this statement
• Literally all of his Russia statements:
• “Do you have any doubt at all that Russia interfered in the 2016 election?” “None. There is no doubt.”
• “Do you have any doubt that the Russian government was behind the intrusions in the DNC and DCCC systems and the subsequent leaks of that information?” “No.”
• “Do you have any doubt that the Russian government was behind the cyber intrusion in the state voter files?” “No.”
• “Do you have any doubt that officials of the Russian government were fully aware of these activities?” “No.”
• Like yikes y’all
• “He’s looking to get something in exchange for me keeping my job”
  
• Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch’s tarmac meeting triggered a serious discussion on the perceived independence of the email investigation and was one of the main reasons Comey chose to make the infmaous June accouncement clearing her alone without informing the Justice Department
  
• Lynch wanted the Clinton investigation to be called a “matter” and not an “investigation”, and that bothered Comey
• Comey straight up called Trump a liar and said that “due to the nature of his character,” he felt the need to document the exact nature of each meeting with Trump because he thought that Trump “Might lie and misrepresent the nature of the meeting”, something he “did not feel the need to do with either President Bush or President Obama”, 
• “the problem with classified information is that the people reporting on it often don’t know what’s going on, and the people who know what’s going on can’t talk about it. And we can’t call the press to say ‘Hey you’ve got it wrong’, so we just have to let it sit”
  
• “Why do you believe you were fired?” “I take the president at the word that I was fired for the Russia investigation”
• “I saw the tweet about tapes. Lordy I hope there are tapes” LMAO 
  

Testimony Highlights-Second Hour:

• “When it comes to the President, I took it as direction.”  [while explaining what he thought about Trump trying to tell him to let the Flynn investigation go]
  
• Comey described himself as “cowardly” and “wished he were a little stronger” in trying to tell Trump to fuck off and leave him alone
• Q: Did you tell POTUS that’s not appropriate?
• A: I didn’t, no.
• Q: Why?
• A: I don’t know. The circumstances were such that I was a bit stunned, didn’t have the presence of mind, and I don’t want to sound like Captain Courageous I don’t know if I would have said it with the confidence.  
• “That’s a great question. Maybe if I were stronger, I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in and the only thing I could think to say, because I was playing in my mind - because I’ve got to to remember every word he said - I was playing in my mind, “What should my response be?” And that’s why I very carefully chose the words. And look, I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes. I remember saying “I agree he’s a good guy,” as a way of saying “I’m not agreeing with what you just asked me to do.”
• PENCE KNEW ABOUT FLYNN! AND HE LIED ABOUT NOT KNOWING!
• Basically, Flynn didn’t lie to Pence. Pence lied to everyone else
• “Was the President under investigation when he dismissed you on May 9th?” “No.”
  
• GOP senators in general like, “Why did you not just tell your boss you were married and his advances were unwarranted and wrong?”
  
• Also “You should have explained politics to the president”
• “There should be no fuzz on this. The Russians interfered with our election. It was a hostile act by the Russian government. That happened. It’s as un-fake as you can possibly get.”
• Our election was 100% compromised by the Russian government, guys (Holy shit)
  
• Paraphrasing: “Did the President seem concerned about Russia interfering in the election?” “Nope” :))))))
  
• “Why would you kick the Attorney General and the Chief of Staff out to talk to me if it was about something else?”
  
• Comey is tearing Trump apart bit by bit tbh
• Senator: “Nobody’s been prosecuted under the Logan act in over 200 years.”  Me: There’s always a first time
  
• Comey confirmed that he gave his friend information about the Flynn conversation to leak to the media because he thought it was important for Americans to know
• “The Russian investigation is not a Democrat or a Republican thing. It’s an American thing. The Russians don’t care who’s in the Oval Office. They will be back.”
  
• “When the president says ‘I hope’…do you take that as a directive?”“Yes. It rings in my ears as kind of ‘will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest’.”
  
• LIKE HE BROUGHT UP THOMAS BECKETT AND HENRY II IN A SENATE HEARING ABOUT TRUMP’S ATTEMPT AT COERCION WHAT A HERO
• First confirmation I’ve heard of that the Clinton email investigation was a criminal investigation
• Also first confirmation I’ve heard about Loretta Lynch essentially colluding with the Clinton campaign to make the email investigation seem less serious than it was
• Comey: “The President knows if he taped me or not. My feelings aren’t hurt, release all the tapes.”
• Sessions may have committed obstruction of justice
• “Do you believe Donald Trump colluded with Russia?” “I can’t answer that in a closed session, but I think the investigation will answer that.”

Third Hour Highlights:

• From the 538 liveblog of the hearing: “When someone asks, “Do you think the president colluded with Russia?” and the answer is anything other than “no,” that’s not the most normal moment in American politics.”
• Kamala Harris is the bomb, honestly:  "If a thief comes up to me and asks ‘I’d ‘hope’ you’ll give me your wallet” I’m giving him my wallet.“
  
• On the Clinton investigation: “I considered whether I should call for the appointment of a special counsel and decided that that would be an unfair thing to do because I knew there was no case there. We had investigated very, very thoroughly. I know this is a subject of passionate disagreement. But I knew there was no case there. Calling for the appointment of special counsel would be brutally unfair as it would send the message ‘ aha, there’s something here.’ Lots of people have different views but that’s how I thought.”
• Emails are clearly more important that a compromised government to the GOP
• “And at the end of all of this, you were fired without explanation.” “Well there was an explanation, I just don’t buy it.”
• Comey: “I believe I was fired to change the nature of the Russian investigation/to change the way the Russian investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal.”
  
• “I’m not going to sit here and try to interpret the president’s tweets.”
• John McCain apparently can’t understand that the Clinton Email Investigation and the Russian Interference Investigation are two completely different and separate investigations
• AND THAT’S THE END OF THE PUBLIC HEARING GUYS