Both sides of the political fence believe they won after former FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. Democrats and many legal experts believed U.S. President Donald Trump was portrayed as a liar who attempted to obstruct justice by ordering Comey to stop the investigation of Michael Flynn, the ex-National Security Adviser.
Trump and many Republicans, however, think the hearing exonerated the president. Jay Sekulow, who is part of Trump’s legal team, said that based on what Comey testified, it has no basis to bring obstruction of justice charges against the billionaire.
Rather, he thought it was the collapse of the former FBI director, The Washington Post reported.
Nation is divided
Although Trump’s approval rating continues to plummet because of the Russian investigation, his supporters said the president’s ability to speak directly to his followers – including millions of bots in his Twitter account- works in favor of the White House which is under siege. Many legal experts, however, do not agree that Comey’s confirmation that Trump is not being probed vindicates the president. They pointed out that the real estate mogul and his campaign staff have real legal and political risks with the dismissal of Comey and Russian interference in the election.
They said that Comey’s testimony raised actions by some key members of the Trump administration.
The list includes Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to Philip Allen Lacovara, an ex-deputy solicitor general in the Department of Justice. The counsel to the Watergate special prosecutors explained that Comey’s testimony is enough proof that what Trump did was an obstruction of justice.
Sessions to testify
Since he was mentioned in Comey’s explosive testimony, Sessions said on Saturday that he will testify before the same committee on Tuesday to address matters raised by the former FBI director. The AG wrote a letter to Sen. Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, to tell him that most proper venue to tackle the issues raised by Comey is the Intelligence Committee, Reuters reported.
Sessions, however, did not indicate if he will give his testimony in an open or closed session. The AG recused himself from the Russia investigation because he failed to disclose, when he applied for security clearance, that he met in 2016 the Russian ambassador when he was still a senator.
