What To Make Of The Comey Memos
Thursday evening, after a long-fought political tug-of-war, the Justice Department gave Congressional investigators the seven memos that James Comey created to document his conversations with President Trump as they happened over the first three months of the Trump presidency.
The documents, which were primarily sought after by Republicans and were promptly leaked to the press and revealed to the public, reiterate many stories that Comey had already told, but also revealing some new details. From the new stories to the implications of it all, here's what really matters:
The New Stuff
The juiciest and most talked about portions of the memos are bound to be the new material, which there's actually a lot of. New York Magazine goes into great detail on the new revelations here, but if you want cliff notes here's a condensed list:
- Trump claims that Putin bragged about Russia's prostitutes.
- Trump repeatedly brought up now-fired Andrew McCabe.
- Trump openly questioned then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's judgment.
- Then-Chief of Staff Reince Priebus asked if Michael Flynn was being surveilled.
- Trump and Priebus grilled Comey on why Hillary Clinton wasn't charged.
- Michael Flynn suggested jailing reporters.
- Parts of the Christopher Steele dossier were corroborated.
- Trump contradicted himself about whether or not Priebus was aware of his dinner with Comey when it happened.
- Trump asked Comey to compare Barack Obama's attorneys general to each other. Comey praised Eric Holder as "smarter and more sophisticated" than Loretta Lynch.
- Trump contradicted accounts that placed him in the Moscow Ritz Carlton in 2013, arguing that he didn't stay overnight for the Miss Universe pageant, so the Steele dossier's "pee tape" account had to be made up.
- Trump asked Comey to leak that he wasn't under investigation.
Republicans Are Trying To Argue That Comey Leaked Classified Information
In the larger political game, Republicans are attempting to use the Comey memo's to argue that Comey spoke publically about classified information.
Since the start of the year — but particularly since the start of the book tour — Republicans have suggested that the memos Comey had leaked were actually classified documents and that he had perjured himself about this in Senate testimony. This was the only actual substantive "lie" that White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was able to point to last week when she was asked to justify the Republican campaign calling him a liar.
[Slate]
As the AP points out, portions of the documents that were released were classified, but the parts that Comey has discussed appear to be unclassified:
The memos obtained by the AP were unclassified, though some portions were blacked out as classified. Details from Comey's memos reported in news stories last year appear to come from the unclassified portions.
[The AP]
In a new report Friday, however, The Wall Street Journal says that Comey is currently under investigation because, after his departure, portions of the memos he allegedly gave to a friend became classified:
At least two of the memos that former FBI Director James Comey gave to a friend outside of the government contained information that officials now consider classified, according to people familiar with the matter, prompting a review by the Justice Department's internal watchdog.
Of those two memos, Mr. Comey himself redacted elements of one that he knew to be classified to protect secrets before he handed the documents over to his friend. He determined at the time that another memo contained no classified information, but after he left the Federal Bureau of Investigation, bureau officials upgraded it to "confidential," the lowest level of classification.
What About Obstruction?
Republicans, including Trump, are also arguing that the memos make no claims that Trump obstructed the FBI's or Justice Department's investigations — a key claim of his critics. The Atlantic points out that Comey's memos actually don't cover the period of his firing and don't include much analysis on the subject:
Thursday evening, Trump allies emphasized that Comey never asserted in the memos that he felt his investigation was being obstructed, arguing that proved Trump had not obstructed justice. This defense has limitations: One, the memos don't cover Comey's firing, which is arguably the best evidence of obstruction, and second, the memos are almost entirely narrative, without such analytic detail.
The Memos Make Trump Look Like A Liar
While Republicans were excited about the prospect of using the memos as ammo, ABC News Chief Legal Analyst Dan Abrams argued on Good Morning America the new revelations along with the stories we already know probably do more harm to Donald Trump than good. If the memos were written when Comey says he wrote them, they add significant weight to his claims, Abrams says:
If you take the Comey memos at their word, they're devastating to President Trump with regard to whether he's telling the truth. He wrote these at the time — let's remember when these memos were written — they were written at a time when James Comey presumably wasn't worried about his job. And they detail conversations the president says never happened. If these conversations did happen, and it sure looks like they did based on these contemporary memos, it means that the president is lying.
[ABC via Mediaite]
Comey Has Helped His Case With Attention To Detail
While Republicans have accused Comey of lying, Jennifer Rubin argues in The Washington Post that the memos boost Comey's credibility by closely matching what's he's already said and repeated:
Comey's attention to detail and perspicacity bolster his own credibility. It is all there — the president's rambling monologues, obsession with the alleged "pee tape," attempts to lean on Comey to let Michael Flynn off the hook, demands for loyalty and so on.
The Details Are Deeply Unflattering
Perhaps most obviously, the details and stories in the memo paint a deeply unflattering picture of President Trump. Stephen Collinson of CNN suggests that this simple fact may do significant damage to the perception of the president.
The Comey memos suggest Trump has a scattershot and self-obsessed mindset, brooding about his subordinates, leaks, his campaign and his inaugural crowd size and not appreciating or caring about protocol boundaries that separate the White House and the Justice Department.
Furthermore, the conversations with Comey soon after Trump moved into the White House paint a picture of a new President more concerned with own fortunes than the burden of his new responsibilities.
[CNN]
