Trump Sees ‘Total and Complete Vindication’ in Comey’s Testimony, nytimes

WASHINGTON — After remaining mute on Thursday during harsh testimony from the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey accusing him of lying, President Trump tweeted early Friday that Mr. Comey had given him “vindication” in the Russia investigation.

“Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication,” he wrote at 6:10 a.m.

He added, “and WOW, Comey is a leaker,” referring to the former director’s admission that he had orchestrated the leak of the contents of a memo detailing Oval Office discussions with the president to The New York Times through a friend.

In keeping with his temporarily tempered approach to the Comey hearing, the president retweeted another defense of his actions later in the morning posted by Alan M. Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus who has advised the Trump team on Middle Eastern policy. “We should stop talking about obstruction of justice,” Mr. Dershowitz said on Twitter, linking to an interview he gave to Fox News. “No plausible case. We must distinguish crimes from pol sins.”

Mr. Trump’s team, led by his personal lawyer, Marc E. Kasowitz, on Friday was preparing a counterattack on Mr. Comey based in part on his admission that he arranged the leak of his account of the conversation with Mr. Trump in which he says the president suggested the F.B.I. halt its investigation into Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser.

The president’s lawyers plan to file a complaint with the Justice Department inspector general next week arguing that Mr. Comey should not have shared what they call privileged communications, according to two people involved in the matter.

The lawyers also plan to send a complaint to the Senate Judiciary Committee raising questions about Mr. Comey’s previous testimony to that panel. On May 3, in response to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the committee chairman, Mr. Comey said he had never been an anonymous source for news outlets about the investigation involving Mr. Trump’s team or authorized anyone at the F.B.I. to be.

The lawyers also plan to send a complaint to the Senate Judiciary Committee raising questions about Mr. Comey’s previous testimony to that panel. On May 3, in response to Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and the committee chairman, Mr. Comey said he had never been an anonymous source for news outlets about the investigation involving Mr. Trump’s team or authorized anyone at the F.B.I. to be.

In his testimony on Thursday, Mr. Comey said the memo whose contents he had a friend leak was not classified and therefore not inappropriate to make public. Mr. Trump’s lawyers argue that it was subject to executive privilege, although the president has never asserted privilege over his conversations with Mr. Comey and independent legal experts have expressed doubt that he could. Mr. Comey arranged the leak on May 15 after he was fired and after the May 3 hearing so it would not be in direct conflict with that testimony. - Read More

Trump Sees 'Total and Complete Vindication' in Comey's Testimony ...

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