Trump lawyer denies major portions of Comey’s testimony
(National Sentinel) Political chicanery: Now that former FBI Director James Comey has had his Trump-hating moment under the klieg lights (again) giving damning (to himself and former AG Loretta Lynch) testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Donald J. Trump’s outside attorney has responded.
Much of what Comey said was bunk.
We know, this could just be a game of he said, he said, but it’s worth noting because there are multiple ongoing investigations (still) into aspects of Comey’s testimony relating to Russian election interference and members of Team Trump. Plus, we’ve heard from one side; in the interest of fairness, Americans should hear from both sides.
As reported by The Daily Caller:
Marc Kasowitz maintained that Donald Trump never asked James Comey to shut down the federal investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn.
The president’s outside counsel delivered the following statement from the National Press Club in Washington nearly one hour after the former FBI director finished testifying in an open session before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Kasowitz said Comey’s testimony “vindicated” Trump by saying he “never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election.”
“Contrary to numerous false press accounts leading up to today’s hearing, Mr. Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told the president privately: The president was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference. He also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference,” Kasowitz said.
In fact, he noted, Trump – per Comey’s own testimony – was all for the former director finding out who, if anyone, was actually colluding with Russia.
“Mr. Comey’s testimony also makes clear that the President never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election, and in fact, according to Mr. Comey, the president told Mr. Comey ‘it would be good to find out’ in that investigation if there were ‘some ‘satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong.’ And he did not exclude anyone from that statement.”
“Consistent with that statement, the president never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including suggesting that that Mr. Comey ‘let Flynn go,’” Kasowitz coninued. “As he publicly stated the next day, he did say to Mr. Comey, ‘General Flynn is a good guy, he has been through a lot’ and also ‘asked how is General Flynn is doing.’ Admiral Rogers testified that the President never ‘directed [him] to do anything . . . illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate’ and never ‘pressured [him] to do so.’”
“Director [of National Intelligence Dan] Coates said the same thing. The president likewise never pressured Mr. Comey.”
Coates and the other top members of the intelligence community told the same Senate panel on Wednesday that no one in the Trump administration has pressured anyone in their offices to do anything improper regarding “Russia” and ongoing investigations. Democrats on the panel didn’t care much for those statements, but alas, it is Democrats and their propaganda allies in the discredited mainstream media who are perpetuating this BS in an attempt to discredit, undermine and even dispose of our current duly-elected president.
Kasowitz also denied that Trump asked for “loyalty,” though Comey, in sworn testimony, said he did.
“The President also never told Mr. Comey, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty’ in form or substance. Of course, the Office of the President is entitled to expect loyalty from those who are serving in an administration, and, from before this president took office to this day, it is overwhelmingly clear that there have been and continue to be those in government who are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications. Mr. Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers,” he said.
Moreover, the Trump attorney highlighted what the Democrat-aligned press is trying mightily to gloss over – that Comey implicated himself in a potential criminal act.
“Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President. The leaks of this privileged information began no later than March 2017 when friends of Mr. Comey have stated he disclosed to them the conversations he had with the President during their January 27, 2017 dinner and February 14, 2017 White House meeting. Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he leaked to friends his purported memos of these privileged conversations, one of which he testified was classified. He also testified that immediately after he was terminated he authorized his friends to leak the contents of these memos to the press in order to ‘prompt the appointment of a special counsel.’ Although Mr. Comey testified he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet, the public record reveals that the New York Times was quoting from these memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies Mr. Comey’s excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory. We will leave it the appropriate authorities to determine whether this leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated.”
Get ready for Trump administration pushback.
“In sum, it is now established that there the president was not being investigated for colluding with the or attempting to obstruct that investigation. As the Committee pointed out today, these important facts for the country to know are virtually the only facts that have not leaked during the long course of these events.”
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