He said, he said.
I can’t wait to see James Comey’s subtweet.
President Trump was up early doing his Twitter thing. This morning’s target was Comey, and the alleged conversation regarding former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn. Just more Fake News covering another Comey lie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017
Ok, guy.
So there’s the wrinkle I was getting at Saturday, when I wrote about those who were sure Trump had just admitted to obstructing, by acknowledging that he knew Flynn had lied about his contact with Russians before he asked Comey to let Flynn off the hook.
If Trump says he didn’t ask Comey to let Flynn go, but Comey says he did, how do we determine who is telling the truth? I mean, they’re both weasels, so who is the least weasel-y?
I said on Saturday that Trump would eventually tweet himself into hot water. He’s not off the hook for telling Lester Holt in an NBC interview that he fired Comey over the “Russia thing,” yet. You’d think somebody would make him cool it.
The tweets that brought up this question of his guilt involved his saying he fired Flynn because he’d lied to Vice President Pence.
Several ethics and legal experts jumped all over it.
Some legal experts have speculated that if Trump knew that Flynn had lied to the FBI and then asked Comey to drop the investigation, it could amount to obstruction of justice.
“This is a pretty substantial confession to essential knowledge elements of an obstruction of justice charge,” Susan Hennessey, a national security fellow at the Brookings Institution, tweeted.
It’s never that simple, however, and all those who were pointing out how this is proof of wrongdoing were doing so under the assumption that Comey’s version of events, where he suggested that on February 14, while meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, the president asked him to let Flynn go.
What witnesses do we have? According to Comey, Trump sent everyone else out of the room.
After Trump’s Saturday tweet, Comey seemed to be sending his own message:
“Beautiful Long Island Sound from Westport, CT,” Comey wrote in the caption of an Instagram post. “To paraphrase the Buddha — Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun; the moon; and the truth.”
I suppose we shall see.
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