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James Comey testimony: former FBI director to go before Senate – live updates
James Comey testimony: former FBI director goes before Senate – live updates
(35 minutes later)
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Kamala Harris, the Democratic senator from California, sits on the committee and here shares some thoughts:
Burr asked Comey whether the special counsel, Robert Mueller, reviewed his testimony.
Second, I've taken the oath of office many times. The oath is to the Constitution. Trump's asking for loyalty is completely inappropriate.
No.
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Comey says he has “no doubt” that the Russian government was behind various intrusions in the election and attempts to tamper.
14:46
Are you confident that no votes... were altered?
a bunch of people who never watch Congressional hearings are about to find out how boring Congressional hearings can be
Comey: “I’m confident.”
That’s what we’re here for – to break up the boring bits with bits of boring context. On your marks, get set, snoozzzzzzzz
Did the president ask you to stop the Russia investigation?
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Not to my understanding, no.
14:43
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While we wait, here’s some reading from ’round the web.
15:24
I helped prosecute Watergate. Comey’s statement is sufficient evidence for an obstruction of justice case.
In a poignant moment, Comey tells his former colleagues he is “so sorry” he wasn’t able to say goodbye to them.
This kind of presidential intervention in a pending criminal investigation has not been seen, to my knowledge, since the days of Richard Nixon and Watergate.
Then he offers his testimonial:
Initial Comments on James Comey’s Written Testimony
“The FBI is honest, the FBI is strong, and the FBI is and always will be independent.”
On Comey’s opening statement:
3.23pm BST
Despite this sparseness, or maybe I should say because of it, it is the most shocking single document compiled about the official conduct of the public duties of any President since the release of the Watergate tapes.
15:23
Comey’s fizzle
Comey says White House 'chose to defame me'
James Comey has an expectations problem.
Comey says he won’t repeat his opening statement which again is here.
By any reasonable standard, his testimony about his service under President Donald Trump and his cashiering would be damaging perhaps to the point of debilitating. But his account has been billed as Watergate and the Clinton impeachment rolled into one, another step toward Trump getting permanently helicoptered out of the White House in a Nixonian tableau, and by this unreasonable standard, Comey looks to be a fizzle.
Comey says “I understood that I could be fired by a president for any reason or for no reason at all.”
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“The shifting explanations confused me and increasingly concerned me.”
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“He had repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and he hoped I would stay...
Great connections at StubHub! Lol.
“He told me repeatedly that he had talked to lots of people about me... and had learned that I was doing a great job...
Update: CNN reports that Bharara’s a guest of senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, a fellow New Yorker.
“So it confused me when I saw on television that the president fired me because of the Russia investigation... and relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation...”
I asked @PreetBharara if Comey requested he attend. He said, "I have great connections at StubHub." He's in 2nd row. pic.twitter.com/nTosSI0SEW
Comey now indicates that he was angry that Trump trashed his reputation after firing him.
“The [White House] then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI....
“Those were lies, plane and simple.”
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15:20
Comey begins testifying
Comey moves his chair back. Then Burr asks him to swear an oath. Which is why he’d moved his chair. He stands up, all 6ft8in of him, and takes the oath.
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Guardian world affairs editor Julian Borger is in the room. As is Preet Bharara.
Now this is going too far.
Special guest at Comey hearing Preet Bharara, US attorney fired by Trump. He has a reserved seat behind witness table pic.twitter.com/h3qtdMwsN6
COMEY YOGA at the Comey watch party in L.A. pic.twitter.com/1QcnPdoiMt
Here’s what Bharara tweeted yesterday:
3.18pm BST
Obstruction aside, it's NEVER ok for a POTUS privately to ask an FBI Director to drop a criminal investigation. Extraordinary, wrong & dumb. https://t.co/Axwjoaw8F7
15:18
At the Senate Hart building a buzz of expectation waiting for Comey's testimony. Can't move for Watergate analogies pic.twitter.com/TmKS6jAzQD
Comey is listening intently to Warner. Blinking, impassive.
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Imagine playing poker against James Comey.
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We don’t think a high-stakes Senate testimony universally accepted as a valid occasion for morning drinking is why people hate Washington. Not a top 10 reason at least.
15:16
lined up to go to the bar to watch Comey testimony at 930. most #ThisTown thing. and people here wonder why Americans hate D.C. pic.twitter.com/mT7naUA9VA
Warner mentions three Trump associates who had contacts with Russia: attorney general Jeff Sessions, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
He says Trump “expressed an odd and unexplained affection for the Russian dictator while calling for the hacking of his opponent.”
Warner says that Comey’s status as leader of the Russian investigation “might explain why you’re sitting now as a private citizen.” The implication being that Comey’s firing was intended to pull the plug on the investigation.
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15:13
Warner is describing the Russian attempt to tamper in the 2016 presidential election. “And that’s not just this senator’s opinion. It is the unanimous conclusion of the entire US intelligence community.”
He says we must determine what the Russians did and determine the necessary steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“Simply put, we cannot let anything or anyone prevent us from getting to the bottom of this,” Warner says.
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15:11
Here’s Mark Warner now, the ranking Democrat. Warner’s opening remarks were previously excerpted in the blog here.
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15:10
Burr says there are some unanswered questions out there.
One, did Comey “alter his approach” as a result of the president’s actions.
Two, did Russia and people in the Trump orbit cooperating “rise to the level of collusion.”
Three, why did Comey publicly announce in July 2016 that he would not back bringing criminal charges in the Clinton email investigation?
There it is, the Clinton emails. The issue has been a dependable Republican red herring for years. Why stop now?
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15:08
Burr says “allegations have been swirling in the press... and today’s your opportunity to set the record straight.”
The indication is that the record is straight. Comey’s testimony appears to corroborate the news reports, Trump’s blathering about “fake news” notwithstanding.
“The American people need to hear your side of the story just as they need to hear the president’s description of events,” Burr says.
“We will establish the facts separate from rampant speculation,” Burr says. What rampant speculation? All those reports appear to have been accurate.
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Comey hearing begins
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Richard Burr, the chairman, Republican senator from North Carolina, gavels the hearing to order.
Grounds for impeachment? The experts' view
He thanks Comey for coming and says “I’m looking forward to a very open and candid discussion today.”
Julian Borger
They’ll reconvene for a closed session at 1pm today. So this thing will be relatively rushed. And some of the crucial bits may be hidden from public view.
Legal experts agreed that James Comey’s account of his nine conversations with Donald Trump earlier this year presented strong evidence of obstruction of justice and an attempt to bury an investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Moscow.
Updated
However, there were mixed opinions on whether it would be enough for a conviction, or impeachment. Articles of impeachment would have to be passed by the House of Representatives, and most Republicans on Wednesday evening appeared to close ranks in support of Trump, despite the details of Comey’s statement.
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[...]
Some observers said the statement would add momentum to multiple investigations into the conduct of the Trump campaign, which could in turn produce yet more damaging testimony that would be hard for Republicans to ignore. Comey’s evidence also contradicted Trump’s account of the conversations, in which he denied demanding loyalty of Comey. If the president repeated his version under oath, he could face accusations of perjury.
“Comey’s entirely credible prepared statement strengthens my belief that the president sought to influence and even end an ongoing investigation into serious wrongdoing by [Michael] Flynn and others close to the president. That constitutes obstruction of justice,” Laurence Tribe, Harvard University professor of constitutional law, said in an email.
Read further:
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14:22
The Republican National committee has released talking points to respond to today’s testimony. Click through to read, if you have the stomach for it.
First bullet point in the “Top Takeaways” section: “President Trump feels completely and totally vindicated by former FBI director James Comey’s opening testimony and is eager to move forward.”
Here are the RNC talking points to Trump allies on Comey's testimony tomorrow pic.twitter.com/8X9NKTQHMe
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14:20
“Monitor” “as time permits.”
Trump will monitor Comey's testimony, as time permits, in a WH dining room with his legal team & advisers, sr. WH aide tells @PeterAlexander
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14:18
Warner: 'This is not how a President of the United States behaves'
We have advance excerpts of an opening statement from Virginia senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the committee.
Warner is to call Comey’s testimony (whose opening statement again is here if you haven’t read it) “disturbing” and to underscore the extraordinarily aberrant nature of Trump’s conduct.
Here are the excerpts:
Mr. Comey, let me say at the outset that we haven’t always agreed on every issue – in fact I’ve occasionally questioned actions you’ve taken – but I’ve never had any reason to question your integrity, expertise or intelligence. You have been a straight shooter with this Committee and have been willing to speak truth to power, even at the risk of your career. Which makes the way in which you were fired by the President utterly shocking.
Recall: we began this entire process with the President and his staff first denying that the Russians were ever involved, and then falsely claiming that no one from his team was ever in touch with any Russians. We now know that this is not true.
...
The testimony that Mr. Comey has submitted for today’s hearing is disturbing. For example, on January 27th, after summoning Director Comey to dinner, the President appears to have threatened Director Comey’s job, while telling him “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”
At a later meeting on February 14, the President asked the Attorney General to leave the Oval Office so that he could privately ask Director Comey to “see [his] way clear to… letting Flynn go,” a statement that Director Comey interpreted as a request that we drop the investigation connected to General Flynn’s false statements. I do want to emphasize what is happening here - the President of the United States is asking the FBI Director to drop an ongoing investigation into the President’s former National Security Advisor.
In further violation of clear guidelines put in place after Watergate to prevent any whiff of political interference by the White House into FBI investigations, the President then called the FBI Director on two separate occasions – March 30 and April 11 - and asked him to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation.
...
At the same time the President was engaged in these efforts with Director Comey, he was also allegedly pressuring senior leaders of the intelligence community to downplay the Russia investigation or intervene with Director Comey. DNI Coats and NSA Director Admiral Rogers had plenty of opportunities to deny those reports yesterday. They did not. This is not how a President of the United States behaves. Regardless of the outcome of our investigation into those Russia links, Director Comey’s firing and his testimony raise separate and troubling questions that we must get to the bottom of.
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Comey is scheduled to begin testifying at 10am ET. We will have a live video stream for you here in the blog when the time comes. Or you may retreat to YouTube which will stream the hearing here.
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14:08
“Punctuality is the virtue of the bored,” Waugh said. Tell that to James Comey.
Comey is ON THE MOVE. ETA to the Hill right now is 37 minutes, per Waze pic.twitter.com/NcvZEtGgDC
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We hope that Guardian world affairs editor Julian Borger found a way to skip this queue.
A better representation of the line for public seats. First person got here at 4:15am pic.twitter.com/BXITum4Z5Y
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13:59
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of former FBI director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate select committee on intelligence.
To say Comey’s outing this morning has been eagerly anticipated would be quite to understate the matter. While the fate of Donald Trump’s presidency might not be hanging in the balance … then again it might be.
By now you will have read Comey’s opening statement, which was released on Wednesday afternoon.
To some expert eyes, the statement amounts to a clear description of an obstruction of justice on the president’s part. Others claim Comey’s testimony is a nothingburger.
The opening statement describes Trump trying to establish what Comey takes to be “some sort of patronage relationship”. It describes Trump urging Comey to drop an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. It says Trump asked Comey to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation. And Comey describes the president making an explicit demand for personal loyalty – “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty” – the whole rule of law thing apparently notwithstanding.
“Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know,” Comey quotes Trump as saying, as part of a request that Comey state publicly that Trump himself was not under investigation.
As for what Comey’s opening statement leaves out – who knows?
Not described by Comey in his written statement:Four of the phone calls with Trump; any interactions with WH staff; interactions with AG.
Comey may also testify on what may have been one of Trump’s most egregious acts, the firing of Comey itself. That happened just one month ago tomorrow.
The perceived hazard for the president, when Comey testifies, lies in three words: obstruction of justice. From our coverage:
Comey’s testimony, legal experts say, could go a long way toward establishing whether Trump’s conversations with him amounted to the kind of confidential chatter two high officials thrown together in an unusual situation might be expected to share – or, alternatively, to something bordering on, or crossing into, illegality.
But what can we expect from today’s hearing? “I think the most important thing that’s going to happen,” said Samuel Buell, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at Duke University, “is we’re going to get a sense of the feel and flavor of the conversations that took place, at least some of them, between the president and Comey.”
The flavor of these conversations is significant, Buell explained, because “obstruction of justice is an offense that largely comes down to mental state or purpose” (read further).
Comey may also decline many questions, out of a desire not to influence an ongoing investigation.
The president is preparing a rapid-response team to handle today’s testimony, which will be carried live on the big US television networks and for which bars in Washington will be opening early.
Trump’s private counsel for the Russia investigations, Marc Kasowitz, was spied at the White House on Wednesday morning. The president has even threatened to live-tweet the proceedings, White House staffers have told reporters.
We’ll be bringing you continuous updates and commentary. Thanks for reading and please join us in the comments.
