If the politically perilous falling-out between President Donald Trump and former FBI Director James Comey boils down to which one to believe, Trump loses badly.
That’s what happens when a person has such little regard for the truth that he will say the most outrageously and provably false things and never take back a word of them.
In more than two hours of testimony before a congressional committee Thursday, Comey was totally convincing in relating the ways in which the president stepped over the line trying to influence how the nation’s chief law enforcement officer did his job.
The president, Comey said under oath, tried to pressure him to publicly dispel unfounded rumors that Trump himself was a focus of the FBI’s probe into Russian ties to the Republican’s presidential campaign; that Trump asked him to back off on Michael Flynn, the Russia-friendly former national security adviser whom the president fired in the first month of his administration; and that when Comey wouldn’t do either, Trump fired him.
There are at least three reasons why Comey’s account is so believable.
First, he took contemporaneous notes of his interactions with Trump, precisely because Comey said he felt the president would lie about them.
Second, Comey acknowledged that, following his firing, he leaked some of these notes to the press through an intermediary — an admission that has opened Comey up to criticism, including allegations that he may have broken the law if not his ethical code by divulging the information. If Comey were being dishonest, he would have tried to cover up that potentially damaging detail.
And third, it sounds like what Trump, a rash and arrogant businessman who likes to throw his weight around and has little discernible moral compass, would do.
The question is really not whether Comey’s version is accurate. Even Republican lawmakers who listened to the former FBI director’s testimony didn’t seem up to disputing it.
The question is whether Trump’s conduct rises to an impeachable offense, or whether, as House Speaker Paul Ryan said, it’s just an unfortunate but excusable misjudgment by someone who is on a steep learning curve in the White House.
When asked if Trump tried to obstruct justice, a criminal offense, Comey deferred judgment to the special counsel, another former FBI director, Robert Mueller, who has been given carte blanche to conduct the Russia probe. Mueller has a reputation, like Comey, of being a fair but fearless prosecutor.
Trump worried when Comey was running the investigation. He should be even more worried with him gone.
