Comey Apologizes to FBI for Trump’s "Lies," Defamation of FBI

Caption: Maria Houser Conzemius 2/4/2017 at the Sag Wagon Bar in Cedar Rapids. I was getting ready to ride the Ididaride with my RAGBRAI team and others.

Former FBI director James Comey swore under oath today (Thursday, 6/8/17) to tell the truth to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in front of reporters and photographers from the news media. He made a heartfelt apology to the FBI for his inability to say goodbye to them before he left (he found out that he'd been fired from noticing a news spot about him on a television in California). He publicly told his FBI family before taking questions that the president told “lies” about and “defamed” the FBI by saying that the FBI “was in disarray” when that wasn’t true. He said that it was the greatest honor of his life to have served with the FBI.

During the hearing, in response to a question, Comey explained that he was “honestly concerned that the president might tell lies” about what occurred in their interactions with each other, “so [he] created a record of all of our interactions or the substantive ones.”

According to Comey, Pres. Trump called him and asked him to dine at the White House without his family (another time, Trump said that Comey’s family would be invited; that didn’t happen) on Jan. 27, 2017. Comey said he had to break a dinner date with his wife to meet with Trump.

Trump asserted at one time that sometimes he called Comey and sometimes Comey called him. Comey denied that he ever called Trump except on one occasion when Trump left him a message asking him to call him back through the White House switchboard. Trump initiated all of their interactions, Comey asserted. He said that Trump’s frequent interactions were very unusual, considering the infrequency of his interactions with former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. He said that his interactions with those presidents were appropriate. His interactions with Trump were not.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in particular found fault with Comey for not calling out the president on his inappropriate behavior. Comey said he was “stunned” and “shocked” by Trump’s aggressive requests for oral loyalty oaths and frequent references to Comey’s job as a topic of consideration after previous assurances of “you’re doing a great job” and “I hope you stay on.” He was so confused that he had to think about what he was going to say and wasn’t “strong enough” to say what he should have.

I think that Comey instinctively realized he was dealing with something and someone very odd and also realized that his job was at stake. He wasn’t willing to throw away his job by confronting the president directly. He hoped that there was a way out of his dilemma. There wasn’t, as it turned out.

More than once Comey made it clear to several senators in open session that when Trump said that "[he] hope[d] that [Comey] could see [his] way clear to let the Flynn investigation go [because] Flynn is a good guy," Comey considered that statement to be a "direction," not a suggestion, since it came from the president of the United States. He does not think the president was naive, because he ordered everyone else out of the room before he asked Comey to "let the Flynn investigation go."

When Comey told Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, "Don't ever leave me alone with Pres. Trump again," Sessions' body language almost imperceptibly suggested, "What did you expect me to do about it?" He didn't say anything in response. There wasn't a shrug so much as the suggestion of a shrug.

When it was his turn, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) took a dive off the deep end when he irritably questioned Comey about why he held candidate Trump to a different standard than candidate Clinton.

McCain: “I think there’s a double standard there, to tell you the truth.”

Comey: Clinton was not involved with Russia. I was totally involved in the Clinton investigation. The Clinton investigation was done under my watch as of July 5th, 2016. The Trump campaign investigation is still going on.

McCain: “How could you be done with Clinton but not Trump? You reached a conclusion with candidate Clinton but not candidate Trump.” [During the exchange between Comey and McCain, Sen. McCain erroneously referred to “President Comey.”]

You have to wonder what’s wrong with Sen. McCain. I hope the voters of Arizona realize that it may be time to give Sen. McCain a chance to rest and regroup.

Comey's finest moment, other than his heartfelt support and affection for his FBI family, was when he said, "If any Americans were a part of helping the Russians to interfere with our election, that's a very big deal."

Significantly, in my opinion, whenever a senator, usually a Republican (maybe always a Republican), asked Comey if he was confident that the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence could be trusted to conduct a thorough investigation of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, Comey always replied that he has the utmost confidence in Special Prosecutor Bob Mueller, a former FBI director. He never directly answered the question as to the U.S. Senate's credibility.