From ABC News:
For all the unsavory details in the James Comey account of the president’s behavior, tonight the White House and some top Republicans see big vindication for Trump.
When all is said and done, Comey has now publicly gone on record with what Trump always wanted him to say but which he wouldn’t or couldn’t for the past four months -– resolving the core irritant for Trump since he’s taken office — declaring that he told Trump he’s not personally under investigation by the FBI.
“The President feels completely and totally vindicated,” his attorney Marc Kasowitz declared tonight.
For Trump, it must feel like vindication not just from the criminal conspiracies but also for his abrupt and controversial decision to fire his FBI director. Only out of a job at the FBI has Comey finally done what Trump so desperately wanted.
In essence, Comey says the Trump encounters — nine one-on-ones over four months — were uncomfortable, but not impactful. The investigations continued unimpeded. The conversations may have been highly unusual, if not grossly inappropriate, but not necessarily illegal.
It is entirely possible that what Comey meant and what Trump understood were two different things, and that may get clarified with Comey’s testimony Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee. But it’s hard not to read Comey’s plain statement any other way: “We were not personally investigating President Trump. I reminded him [on March 30th] I had previously told him that,” he wrote.
In fact, Comey even reveals for the first time that Trump encouraged him in private to continue the FBI investigation into his associates: “The president went on to say that if there were some ‘satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out,” Comey says.
It’s a sentiment that does not bolster a case for intent to obstruct justice. Comey even acknowledges that he interpreted Trump’s “I hope you can let this go” comment regarding the FBI probe into Mike Flynn as entirely unrelated to “the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign.”
As we have noted previously, rabid Democrats and their fake news purveyors in the MSM were never concerned about the law. They were supremely embarrassed that despite their best efforts to derail the Trump campaign, he became president. Their humiliation over losing to somebody as “despicable” as Trump drove them to seek solace in finding something—anything—to make “sense” of their monumental defeat. Lying as usual, they trumped up charges of Russian conspiracies and obstruction of justice. Wild-eyed with crazed obsession to bring Trump down, they wiped the foam from their mouths long enough to mutter the word impeach.
Thankfully, there are a few Democrats like Alan Dershowitz who still have a grasp of the law. He believes civil liberties are at stake, but neo-liberals couldn’t care less about civil liberties. It’s time to let the antiseptic of sunlight shine on these vampires before it’s too late.
https://youtu.be/MJ15ymETv-s
