Comey delivers blow to Trump's credibility
begin quote from:
FBI director sentences White House to months of uncertainty by confirming probe into Russia collusion
Comey's hearing passes but the political storm rages on
Story highlights
- The FBI Director said Monday no evidence was found that Barack Obama wiretapped Donald Trump
- James Comey addressed the House Intelligence Committee for a hearing
(CNN)James Comey is at it again.
The
FBI director, in his deadpan way, characteristically unleashed a new
chain of political consequences Monday, in hours of steely testimony
before a House hearing examining Russian meddling in the presidential
election.
Just five months ago, Democrats were left fulminating at Comey's handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton's email server.
Now,
as Comey wades back into the political swamp, it's Republicans who are
left to fret after the FBI chief sensationally dispensed with protocol
to confirm his agents were probing alleged collusion between
then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign aides and Moscow.
By
publicly confirming the probe, Comey sentenced the White House to
months of uncertainty, potential leaks and distractions that already
threaten to sap the President's political capital at a crucial moment.
It
is quite possible that no charges will ever be leveled against Trump
aides and that the FBI counter-intelligence operation will find that
there was no wrongdoing or collusion by Trump aides.
But
the suspicion will hover for months over former Trump associates like
former campaign chairman Paul Manafort — who denied any wrongdoing in a
statement on Monday — and foreign policy expert Carter Page — and by
extension over the President himself.
"The
longer this hangs out here, the bigger the cloud is," Republican House
Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes told Comey as the hearing
broke up, urging him to expedite the investigation.
"There is a big, gray cloud that you have now put over people who have very important work leading the country," Nunes said.
In
a second blow to the President's credibility, Comey told the House
Intelligence Committee that he had "no information" to support claims by
the President that Trump Tower was targeted in a surveillance operation
ordered by his predecessor Barack Obama.
Comey's
deskmate at the House Intelligence hearing, National Security Agency
Chief Mike Rogers, torpedoed another Trump claim — that Obama had
ordered British spies to eavesdrop on his presidential election
campaign.
Such has been the
disruption and the uproar during Trump's first two months in office,
that the significance of individual events in the torrent of political
news often gets overlooked.
But
the spectacle of two of the most senior intelligence chiefs publicly
contradicting the President for whom they work marked another milestone
in an administration that is shattering all kinds of conventions.
The trio of bombshells put an increasingly beleaguered White House on the defensive. Trump's recent poll numbers are among the lowest of Trump's presidency.
"Following
this testimony it's clear nothing has changed," White House press
secretary Sean Spicer said during Monday's briefing. "Senior Obama
intelligence officials have gone on record to confirm there's no
evidence of a Trump/Russia collusion."
But
the new headache for the White House was not the only takeaway of the
day of testimony in the House hearing room at the Longworth Office
Building, where theater style seating exacerbated the sense of political
drama.
White House stands its ground
It
also became clear that Trump and the White House will not be chastened
by the fact that the President's claims about wiretapping have now been
publicly rebuked by top US intelligence chiefs and bipartisan
congressional leaders.
His White
House and Republicans in the committee introduced a new wrinkle in the
Russia saga, raising legitimate questions about whether leaks that
exposed former national security adviser Michael Flynn's name following his conversations with the Russian ambassador breached the law.
They
also implied that fast practice by the former Obama administration may
be to blame, supplying new grist for the conspiracy mill that operates
around Trump and his supporters in the conservative media.
"Director
Comey told the House Intelligence Committee that certain political
appointees in the Obama administration had access to the names of
unmasked US citizens, such as senior White House officials, senior
Department of Justice Officials, and senior intelligence officials,"
Spicer said.
"Before President
Obama left office, Michael Flynn was unmasked and then illegally, his
identity was leaked out to media outlets, despite the fact that as NSA
Director Rogers said, that unmasking and revealing individuals endangers
quote, national security."
Comey
did confirm that some Obama officials might have had access to the
intelligence, but declined to draw any conclusions about them.
Spicer
also said that Trump would not apologize to Obama for his now debunked
claim that the 44th President ordered wiretapping against him — saying
there was a lot about surveillance that remained unknown.
It
was a characteristic response from a White House that is allergic to
apologizing even when facts contravene its presentation of events. The
tactic worked well for Trump during his campaign. Whether he can adopt a
similar stance as President, and retain credibility is more open to
question.
The White House
counter-attack also implicitly called into question the legitimacy of
the probe against Trump campaign aides itself.
Before
Comey testified, Trump branded claims his campaign colluded with Russia
as "fake news" and the invention of Democrats still chafing at
Clinton's shock general election defeat.
Democrats on the attack
Republicans
had hoped going into the hearing that Comey would say that there was no
evidence of coordination between Russia and Trump aides.
But
he pointedly did not do so — citing the need to protect an ongoing
investigation — though cautioned no one should read anything into his
silence.
That fact alone is sure to
give Democrats months of ammunition as they try to use the unsolved
cloud of rumor and innuendo about Moscow to weaken the presidency of
Trump.
"I take congressman Nunes'
point that this has created a cloud over the Trump White House right
now," said Brian Fallon, former spokesman for Clinton's campaign on CNN
on Monday.
"That will probably
impair their ability to advance their legislative agenda," he said,
arguing that Comey's confirmation of a probe but refusal to handicap it
was the worst possible outcome for the administration.
Reflecting Democratic frustration with Comey, Fallon also questioned why he had spoken publicly about the FBI investigation into Clinton's email server in
the final days of the election — but had not told Americans as he did
Monday that the investigation into Trump aides and possible collusion
with Russia — was opened in July.
Questions
like those helped to spice the partisan flavor of Monday's hearing when
it often seemed like Democrats and Republicans were attending a
different event.
GOP lawmakers
showed a unity in raising questions about the unmasking of Flynn,
suggesting Trump need not worry yet about ebbing support on Capitol
Hill. Many Democrats, meanwhile, seemed determined to raise every
allegation about Trump and Russia — most of which have little hard
evidence in support.
"I was a
little concerned by both parties," said Mike Rogers, former chairman of
the House Intelligence Committee who is now a CNN analyst and is of no
relation to the NSA chief.
"Here we
had this opportunity for both sides to come together and lay out what
the Russians have been doing. ... That was completely lost today, it was
Republicans decided 'hey its all about the leaks' — which are bad —
sure enough, and Democrats decided they were going to make the case
because Comey couldn't make the case publicly," Rogers added. "I think
we both swung and a miss here."
That
fractured, partisan approach suggests that even when the House
Intelligence Committee produces its own report on the Russian
interventions in the election, it is unlikely to cool a furious
political storm over the affair.
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