“In a credibility battle between Trump and Comey, everybody knows Comey is going to win
that war,” said Adam W. Goldberg, who was an associate special White House counsel under Mr. Clinton during Kenneth W. Starr’s investigation
“This was a devastating day for the Trump White House,
and when the history of the Trump presidency is written, this will be seen as a key moment,” said Peter H. Wehner, who was White House adviser to President George W. Bush.
For Trump, the ‘Cloud’ Just Grew That Much Darker -
By PETER BAKERJUNE 8, 2017
WASHINGTON — Upset about the investigation into Russian interference in last year’s
election, President Trump sought relief from James B. Comey, then the F. B.I.
director accusing the White House of “lies, plain and simple” and asserting
that when the president suggested dropping an investigation into his former national security adviser, “I took it as a direction.”
Mr. Comey gave ammunition to the president’s side, too, particularly by admitting
that he had orchestrated the leak of his account of his most critical meeting with Mr. Trump with the express purpose of spurring the appointment of a special counsel, which he accomplished.
Indeed, Mr. Comey highlighted the difference by noting
that he had never taken notes of his conversations with either of those presidents because he trusted their basic integrity, but he did write memos about each of his one-on-one encounters with Mr. Trump because “I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting.”
In any other presidency, the events laid out by Mr. Comey — Mr. Trump asking for “loyalty” from the F. B.I.