Listening to the Comey testimony this morning, I was momentarily surprised by Senator James Risch’s opening, when he praised Comey’s writing: “I find it clear. I find it concise, and having been a prosecutor for a number of years and handling hundreds, maybe thousands of cases and read police reports, investigative reports, this is as good as it gets, and I really appreciate that.”
The very next sentence set the trap: “Not only the conciseness and the clearness of it, but also the fact that you have things that were written down contemporaneously when they happened, and you actually put them in quotes so we know exactly what happened and we’re not getting some rendition of it that’s in your mind.”
Ah–so we were going to talk about the quotes, about the words.
A moment later: “I want to drill right down, as my time is limited, to the most recent dust up regarding allegations that the president of the United States obstructed justice. Boy, you nailed this down on page 5, paragraph 3. You put this in quotes. Words matter.”
And then Sen. Risch said that since Trump said he “hoped” Comey would let the Flynn investigation go, it wasn’t an order.
Comey agreed that the words were “not an order,” but explained, “The reason I keep saying his words is I took it as a direction.”
I thought about a time when, as a single mother and undergraduate, my car broke down. FSU would keep half of its students’ financial aid and give it to them mid-semester (while making money off the interest, presumably). I had to go in and ask a financial aid officer to let me have my own money a couple of weeks early, so I could have a working car, allowing me to get to school and to daycare.
The financial aid officer met me in his office–he seemed like a nice guy: grey beard, pictures of his grandchildren on his desk. I explained my dilemma.
He said, “We don’t have to settle this now. We could talk about it later, over dinner.”
Now, Senator, he didn’t order me to have dinner, but we all understand what was happening, right? Someone with power over me hoped for dinner, just as Trump hoped for a favor in return for Comey’s job.
Ladies and gentlemen, please share your #notanorder moments.
