Comey just blew apart a leading GOP talking point about Trump and Russia

By Greg Sargent June 8 at 12:07 PM

Former FBI director James B. Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee has already delivered a devastating blow to one of the GOP’s leading party-wide talking points about the Russia affair.

The blow came in two key exchanges. The first came when Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) pressed Comey on his claim, in his written testimony, that President Trump had asked Comey to drop the FBI probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Comey’s written statement quoted Trump saying: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.” Risch then pressed Comey on that:

RISCH: He did not direct you to let it go?

COMEY: Not in his words, no.

RISCH: He did not order you to let it go?

COMEY: Again, those words are not an order. … The reason I keep saying “his words” is, I took it as a direction. He’s the President of the United States, with me alone, saying, “I hope this.” I took it as, “this is what he wants me to do.” I didn’t obey that. But that’s the way I took it.

Note that Comey refused to acknowledge the premise of Risch’s narrowly drawn (deliberately so) question. Risch wanted Comey to say Trump had not directly commanded him to drop the Flynn probe. Comey would only concede that Trump’s “words” did not superficially do this. He would not allow that Trump did not intend his words as a command. In fact, he said he took it as just that — “a direction.” Then, later, this exchange with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) further clarified Comey’s perception of the intention behind Trump’s “request”:

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