Politics Source: Comey to testify publicly about Trump confrontations

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017...-to-deliver-smoking-gun-democrats-craved.html

Dershowitz: Comey's statement fails to deliver the smoking gun Democrats craved

By Alan Dershowitz

Former FBI Director James Comey's written statement, which was released in advance of his Thursday testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, does not provide evidence that President Trump committed obstruction of justice or any other crime. Indeed it strongly suggests that even under the broadest reasonable definition of obstruction, no such crime was committed.

 

ABC News. Wow.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/analysis-trump-vindicated-potus-comey-wanted/story?id=47904018

ANALYSIS: Trump vindicated? President gets from Comey what he wanted all along

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.

 

And?

Dershowitz is a top flight constitutional expert, and civil libertarian.

 

Since when is ABC repeating RNC talking points?

 

Comey a wee bit butt hurt over being fired.