Comey says Trump tried to sink inquiry
CORNYN: GOP circles the wagons in defense of embattled president
WASHINGTON — In a politically charged hearing on possible Trump campaign collusion in Russian election meddling, Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn turned the focus on Hillary Clinton and Thursday’s star witness: fired FBI Director James Comey.
Democrats homed in on Comey’s dramatic testimony that President Donald Trump privately requested his loyalty and urged him to drop the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
But Cornyn, taking his turn in a nationally televised Senate Intelligence panel hearing, used his time to build a legal bulwark around
Trump, questioning Comey’s response.
“As a general matter, if an FBI agent has reason to believe a crime has been committed, do they have the duty to report it?” he said.
After some hesitation, Comey answered: “I would expect any FBI agent who has information about a crime being committed to report it.” “Me too,” Cornyn said. The exchange, one of the more difficult ones for Comey, highlighted the Republican rejoinder to the Democrats’ charges of White House interference — or possibly impeachable offenses — surrounding the Russia investigation.
Exhibit A in the Democrats’ case is Comey himself, who was abruptly fired by Trump with a flurry of conflicting explanations, from the Clinton emails to frustration with the ongoing accusations of Trump campaign collusion with the Russians.
Cornyn sought to undermine the Democratic narrative of a cover-up.
“If you’re trying to make an investigation go away, is firing an FBI director a good way to make that happen?” Cornyn said.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Comey answered, “but I’m obviously hopelessly biased, given that I was the one fired.”
“I understand that it’s personal,” Cornyn said.
Cornyn, a former Texas attorney general and state Supreme Court judge, also focused on the apparent conflicts of interest involving Loretta Lynch, former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, who was criticized for meeting privately with former President Bill Clinton during the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails.
Like other Republicans on the panel, Cornyn sought to stick up for Trump, getting Comey, 56, to agree that nothing in his testimony suggested the White House had impeded the investigations by the FBI or special counsel Robert Mueller.
‘A duty to correct’
Cornyn also suggested it was reasonable for a president who had been assured at various points that he wasn’t the subject of an FBI investigation to want the agency’s director to publicly announce it “so that this cloud over his administration would be removed.”
“That’s a reasonable point of view,” Comey said. “The concern would be, obviously, if that boomerang comes back, it will be a very big deal, because there will be a duty to correct.”
Cornyn’s role on the committee has been particularly sensitive, since he was also interviewed as a top prospect to replace Comey at the FBI, until he removed himself from consideration last month.
Cornyn has defended Comey’s firing, backing up Trump’s assertion that new leadership was needed at the FBI in the wake of the controversies surrounding Comey’s handling of the Clinton email probe during the election.
The episode has cast the genial, 65-year-old senator in a strikingly partisan role, particularly in questioning Comey’s account of Trump’s alleged loyalty request.
“He was the sharpest in that line of criticism,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, who teaches political science at the University of Houston. “That is probably their best line of defense.”
Despite his position as the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, Cornyn has toiled in the shadow of the Lone Star State’s more outspoken junior senator, Ted Cruz.
That changed Thursday, when Cornyn took his place in a crowded hearing room to ask questions of Comey, whose testimony about his firing by Trump has cast a long shadow on the administration.
The hearing was built up as one of the most electric television events of Capitol Hill in modern times, recalling similar moments during the IranContra and Watergate investigations.
Local bars ran drink specials with Russian vodka and spectators lined up around the Senate office buildings to get seats in the hearing room.
Cornyn’s questions came amid a broader Republican effort to discredit or undermine Comey, who testified that he was disturbed by the shifting White House accounts of his dismissal and worried that Trump might “lie” about their private conversations.
The attacks were led by members of a hard-right faction in the House, including Texas U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, who said on Fox News over the weekend, “I don’t really care what Comey says — he can’t be trusted.”
The Republican Party leadership also went on the offensive.
“There’s still no evidence of collusion, and (Trump) did not hinder the investigations in any way,” said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “Nobody thinks more of James Comey than James Comey, and his testimony today was simply a last-ditch attempt to save face with the American people.”
Respect for Comey
In his questioning, Cornyn tempered his remarks with signs of respect for Comey’s service in the FBI: “I believe you’re a good and decent man who’s been dealt a very difficult hand, starting back with the Clinton email investigation.”
Texas Democrats echoed the concerns of their party leaders who have suggested Comey’s firing was an effort to head off or quash the FBI investigation of Trump campaign contacts with the Russians.
“Since the early days of his presidency, Donald Trump has inserted himself into the FBI’s work, publicly commenting on an ongoing investigation and privately expressing his desire for the agency’s leadership to clear his name,” said San Antonio U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro.
Castro called for the public release of Comey’s personal notes of his conversations with Trump.
Fellow San Antonio Democrat Lloyd Doggett called it an “obvious abuse of power.”
But few Democrats have followed the lead of Houston U.S. Rep. Al Green, who began preparing articles of impeachment Tuesday alleging obstruction of justice.