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Trump Slams 'Cowardly' Comey as Sessions Prepares to Testify

Sunday



Trump pauses as he speaks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road To Majority conference in Washington, Thursday, June 8, 2017.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump slammed James Comey, days after the fired FBI director’s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee and as Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered to speak to the same panel to answer questions about alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

“I believe the James Comey leaks will be far more prevalent than anyone ever thought possible. Totally illegal? Very ‘cowardly!’” Trump told his 32 million Twitter followers on Sunday.

On Friday, Trump said during a news conference at the White House that Comey’s Senate testimony a day earlier showed that the president hadn’t colluded with the Russian government to rig the 2016 election and hadn’t obstructed a federal investigation into the meddling. Trump also said he would “100 percent” be willing to testify under oath that he didn’t demand a pledge of personal loyalty from Comey.

Sessions late Saturday canceled planned appearances at a pair of appropriations panels on Tuesday, and instead said he would appear before the intelligence committee.

That panel hasn’t announced the timing of a hearing with Sessions, though, or said whether he will appear in an open or closed format.

Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday that the committee is still in a “final conversation” with Sessions but assumes the hearing would be public.

‘Can’t Run Forever’

Two leading Democrats, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, called on Sessions to appear before the Judiciary Committee, which has oversight responsibility for the Department of Justice. “You can’t run forever,” Leahy said in a Twitter message to Sessions.

It would be “fitting” for the attorney general to appear before Judiciary, Feinstein, the top Democrat on that panel, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I have written two letters to Senator Grassley suggesting that,” she added, referring to Iowa’s Charles Grassley, the committee’s chairman.

“The Judiciary staff are all lawyers, most very good lawyers. And so there is an opportunity to look at the law with respect to obstruction of justice, to hold a hearing, and also to have those relevant people come before the Judiciary Committee,” said Feinstein, a member of both committees.

‘Appropriate Forum’

In letters Saturday to the two appropriations panel chairmen, Sessions said he’d concluded that regardless of which committees he appeared before, the questions would inevitably focus on the Russian probe.

Following Comey’s testimony, “it is important that I have the opportunity to address these matters in the appropriate forum,” Sessions wrote, adding that members of the intelligence committee are in the middle of an investigation and have “access to relevant, classified information.”

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will stand in for Sessions at the two appropriations subcommittee hearings on Tuesday. The House hearing had already been rescheduled from May 24.

Spending the weekend at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump followed the Comey tweet with a second aimed at Democrats: “The Democrats have no message, not on economics, not on taxes, not on jobs, not on failing #Obamacare. They are only OBSTRUCTIONISTS!”
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A House Democrat echoes Watergate in calling for Trump’s impeachmentBrad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Al Green (D-Tex.) take questions about articles of impeachment for President Trump during a news conference on Capitol Hill on June 7. A House Democrat unveiled an impeachment resolution against President Trump on Monday, circulating legislative text that accuses Trump of obstructing justice by “threatening, and then terminating” James B. Comey, the former FBI director — and openly echoes charges that ultimately drove Richard Nixon from the presidency 43 years ago. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) told reporters last week that the draft resolution he was preparing would be “remarkably similar” to the obstruction-of-justice article that the House Judiciary Committee adopted against Nixon in 1974, and there has indeed been some intergenerational copying-and-pasting. “In his conduct while President of the United States, Donald John Trump, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed and impeded the administration of justice during a federal investigation,” reads Sherman’s draft resolution released Monday. Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today’s most popular stories on The Washington Post. Article I of the 1974 resolution reads as follows: “In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice.” The particulars of the alleged high crimes and misdemeanors, of course, differ between the two presidents. But the resolutions conclude in similar fashion, accusing each of having “acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.” Sherman said Wednesday that he was “startled by the similarities to Watergate” in Trump’s alleged obstruction of justice — starting with the fact that both episodes included infiltration of the Democratic National Committee. “This is a sad day for our country,” he said. “Our Constitution and democracy require that our leaders be held accountable to the rule of law.” Sherman is not alone among Democrats in drawing direct comparisons between Trump and Nixon. Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who has carefully avoided encouraging premature talk of Trump’s impeachment pending fact-finding by federal investigators and congressional committees — has found Watergate comparisons hard to resist. “The White House said he’s not a liar,” she said in a Friday appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” referring to a statement from White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah H. Sanders. “Didn’t that sound like, ‘I am not a crook?’ ” While Sherman is the first Democrat to release an article of impeachment, he has yet to officially file it in the House. In a letter to colleagues Monday, Sherman said he would file his resolution “soon” and that “the evidence we have is sufficient to move forward now.” “I would hope that the Article, once submitted, would receive expeditious consideration by the Judiciary Committee,” he wrote. “However, if it becomes clear that such consideration is not forthcoming, I (after consultation with colleagues and leadership) will make a privileged motion that the entire House of Representatives immediately debate the Article” — thus forcing “our first impeachment-related vote.” A colleague, Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.), p

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Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Al Green (D-Tex.) take questions about articles of impeachment for President Trump during a news conference on Capitol Hill on June 7. A House Democrat unveiled an impeachment resolution against President Trump on Monday, circulating legislative text that accuses Trump of obstructing justice by “threatening, and then terminating” James B. Comey, the former FBI director — and openly echoes charges that ultimately drove Richard Nixon from the presidency 43 years ago. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) told reporters last week that the draft resolution he was preparing would be “remarkably similar” to the obstruction-of-justice article that the House Judiciary Committee adopted against Nixon in 1974, and there has indeed been some intergenerational copying-and-pasting. “In his conduct while President of the United States, Donald John Trump, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the ...
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