Thread by @meganmineiro

Former FBI Director James Comey is set to testify at 10am before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into links between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia. I'll have live updates.

Chair Lindsey Graham starts out saying the FISA system (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) is "very much in jeopardy" and that without substantial reform he doesn't think the Senate can reauthorize.

Graham laying out the timeline of the Carter Page warrant including ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith altering an email. Background: courthousenews.com/former-fbi-law…

Graham says he will go into "pretty deep detail" on how the Steele dossier "lost all credibility" and the FISA court was not informed.

"The FBI ignored all the warning signs about that document," Graham says of the Steele dossier and warns Dems that if it happened to Trump it can happen to them.

Today's hearing is the third round of the GOP's "Oversight of the Crossfire Hurricane Investigation."

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates testified in August: courthousenews.com/gop-senators-p…

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified in June: courthousenews.com/rosenstein-def…

Graham says that both Rosenstein and Yates said that if they knew then what they know now they would not have signed off on the Page warrant.

Ranking member Dianne Feinstein up now says that DOJ's IG Michael Horowitz confirmed the Crossfire Hurricane probe was justified. Background: courthousenews.com/doj-watchdog-r…

Feinstein says Mueller's team uncovered numerous contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian individuals including Manafort handing off info to a Russian intelligence officer.

Feinstein said Horowitz found no evidence that political bias impacted the Russia probe and that Trump's allies have tried to "rewrite the Russia investigation since the day it included."

Comey up now testifying by videoconference. He passed on an opening statement and said he's ready for questions.

Graham starts out asking Comey on scale of 1 to 10 to rate the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Comey says he's not sure he can provide a number scale but that by the main "it was done by the book" and was "appropriate."

Graham going step by step now through the use of Steele dossier to get FISA warrants and what all Comey was briefed on.

Comey is leaning heavily on the Horowitz report and providing short, generalized answers to Graham's questions.

Graham getting excited now asks Comey how he didn't know about info discrediting the Steele dossier in one of the most important investigations by the FBI in history.

Comey replies “I can only speculate because it didn’t," adds the Page warrant was a "slice" of the probe.

Graham says the FBI's conduct in the process of obtaining the Page warrant was “criminally inadequate,” and that Steele was “on a jihad against Trump."

Graham says he's not there to argue whether the Russian hacked the DNC emails, “It was the Russians," but says Russia also manufactured lies on Trump.

Asked by Graham if he knew that there is no Russian consulate in Miami and the dossier says there is one, Comey says no. Same question for Michael Cohen's "adventures in Prague," Comey says no.

Feinstein now asks if there's a problem w/Manafort working w/a Russian intelligence officer.

Comey says someone like that “occupying a role in the heart of American democracy, running a campaign” is the definition of a counterintelligence threat, points to Senate intel report.

Feinstein asks Comey if Obama or Biden ever asked him to investigate a political rival or go easy on a political rival.

Comey says "Never," that such a request would compromise DOJ's independence and "introduce politics into what should be a fact-driven process."

Sen Chuck Grassley spent a good number of questions on Flynn case, asked Comey if in Jan 5, 2017 meeting with Obama, Biden, Yates and Rice he mentioned Flynn's calls with the then-Russian ambassador "appear legit."

Comey said he doesn't remember using "appear legit" but if he did he would have meant “authenticated and not fabricated."

"I wouldn’t have meant appropriate. But I don’t remember using that word.”

Comey says the govt's conduct in Flynn's case is “deeply concerning” and that “this guy’s getting treated in a way that nobody’s ever been treated before."

Background on DOJ's motion to dismiss Flynn's prosecution: courthousenews.com/flynn-attorney…

Comey is sidestepping a lot of the GOP senators' long characterization of their perceived wrongdoings by the FBI during the Russia probe by not responding to their "preambles" and jumping straight to the factual or yes/no questions that he can answer based on his time in FBI.

Sen John Cornyn asks Comey if he's worried about the errors in the Russia probe making it difficult or maybe impossible to reauthorize FISA.

Comey says yes and that he's even more concerned that IG Horowitz “found mistakes in every FISA application that he reviewed."

Sen Dick Durbin criticizing the focus on the Steele dossier today when Russia is actively targeting the 2020 election and says the committee in a partisan move rejected his effort to subpoena Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik.

Graham responding to Durbin says he is concerned about current election interference but turns to the need to reauthorize FISA and understand how the warrant application process failed.

"It is up to us to find out how it got off the rails," Graham says.

"Is there no checks and balances in the FISA process?" he add raising his voice.

Asked if he would still sign off on the Page warrant application knowing what he knows now, Comey says:

"No, not without a much fuller discussion of how they were thinking about their disclosure obligations to the court."

You can watch the testimony live here: c-span.org/video/?475947-…

Sen Mike Lee to Comey: "You don't seem to know anything about an investigation that you ran."

Lee says there's “circumstantial evidence” showing there “likely was a political motive" in the Russia probe.

(DOJ IG Horowitz concluded there was no political bias/improper motivation influencing decisions to open 4 investigation that became Mueller's probe)

Sen Sheldon Whitehouse points to amicus brief by retired judge John Gleeson in the Flynn case raising issue with AG Barr as "running political errands for the president" as a "fairly serious matter of interest" that warrants investigation but there's no committee action on that.

Background on Gleeson brief: courthousenews.com/retired-judge-…

Lots of back and forth just now between Graham and Whitehouse on letter Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe sent Graham as Senate Intel chair yesterday claiming the Clinton campaign sought to tie Trump to Russia.

In letter to Graham, Ratcliffe notes U.S. intel “does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

Graham characterized the alleged effort by Clinton's campaign as a political strategy not because they found anything tying Russia to Trump and Whitehouse said it was one campaign's effort to "blow the whistle" on the other.

Should note Whitehouse said if one believes at all that there was a plan within the Clinton campaign.

Cruz says Comey was either deliberately corrupt or willfully incompetent and that he doesn't believe the former FBI director was incompetent.

Klobuchar points out that Trump has not made FISA reform a priority over the last four years.

Klobuchar asks Comey how he found out he was fired in 2017.

Comey says he was in LA for a diversity recruiting event. "I found out on television."

Klobuchar says they should be having a hearing on the current Russian efforts to undermine the 2020 election, notes current FBI Director Christopher Wray's take that the foreign adversary's efforts are “very active." Background: courthousenews.com/fbi-head-tells…

Klobuchar says Trump in all his "heckling glory" demonstrated he is trying to undermine the election in last night's debate, criticizes him for not condemning white supremacy.

Sen Ben Sasse says the Horowitz report was embarrassing. Comey agrees saying “It’s embarrassing. It’s sloppy."

Comey says he thinks he and other FBI officials "took comfort in the layers and layers of review” in FISA application process but in reality the problems found at every level show "responsibility was defused instead of concentrated in individual human beings."

Comey also just took responsibility for the FISA mistakes and said the Horowitz report "reflects on me entirely."

Graham takes time to go off on a rant asking when people are going to recognize that the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was run by people with "deep-seeded bias" against Trump and that they didn't want to take no for an answer.

Sen Chris Coons taking his time to ask Comey to respond to Trump's claims during the campaign that mail-in voting is subject to widespread fraud.

Says he's concerned that current FBI Director Wray is under assault by Trump.

Comey says Obama never directed the course of the criminal investigation into Michael Flynn.

Comey says Obama suggesting prosecution or investigation of anyone would be "highly inappropriate."

"It did not happen."

Comey says yes Trump asked him to drop the Flynn investigation on Feb 14, 2017.

Short recess. Committee back at 12:45 with Sen Josh Hawley up next.

Hawley drilling Comey who argues the FBI as a whole is honest and competent but flawed at times because it's made up of human beings.

Hawley said he's not as concerned with the FBI as a whole as much as with Comey saying the former FBI director betrayed his duty.

Sen Richard Blumenthal up now arguing the committee shouldn't be focused on Crossfire Hurricane when there's a pandemic to respond to and an election upcoming.

Blumenthal says current FBI Director Wray told Congress that white supremacists are a national security threat and Trump last night told them to "stand down," calling the president's statement "horrifying."

Comey says white supremacy was a priority during his time at the FBI and was assigned to the counterterrorism division to focus on national security threats.

Sen Mazie Hirono says today's hearing should be focused on the progress current FBI Director Wray is making implementing changes flagged in the Horowitz report to correct the FISA system.

Sen Cory Booker using his time to ask Comey about Trump's "stand back and stand by" command to Proud Boys in last night's debate.

Comey says the president with words like that is spraying gasoline on the fires of racist violence in America.

Graham follows up Booker's concerns about law and democracy in America, saying that law and democracy depend on truth telling, going on to say the FISA process got off the rails and the committee will find out how so it never happens again.

Sen John Kennedy tells Comey he screwed both Trump and Clinton, first delve in this hearing into Comey reopening the investigation into Clinton's emails.

Kennedy asks Comey if he doesn't think the FBI wouldn't be better off if he never pursued a career in the agency.

Comey said he never pursued an FBI career, was happily teaching at Columbia when he was asked to be director.

"That's enough," Graham says cutting off Comey.

Graham turned the questions on Flynn prosecution now accusing Comey of setting up the incoming national security adviser, relying on statements from recent interview with William Barnett, the veteran FBI agent who investigated Flynn. Background: courthousenews.com/flynn-attorney…

Sen Marsha Blackburn: “Who came up with this plot to carry all of this out?” referring to investigation into Trump campaign's ties to Russia, names Page, Papadopoulos and Flynn.

Blackburn asks about the discussion of the use of the Logan Act against Flynn at a Jan 5, 2017 Oval Office meeting.

Comey says there was no discussion of the Logan Act at the White House, just at the FBI.

Graham wraps up saying it's fair to say that Crossfire Hurricane was not done by the book.

Comey disagrees, saying "in the main" it was by the book.

"If this is by the book we need to rewrite the book and I promise you we will," Graham says, adds the committee will be heading down the ladder with the next hearing with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (Oct 6).

Graham's final comments turned to Flynn's case saying it wasn't normal for the field agents to suggest dropping it and the case proceed, arguing agent Barnnett said there was nothing there.

Graham said it was normal for Flynn to be talking to then-Russian ambassador Kislyak.

Note: Flynn was prosecuted for lying about calls with Kislyak not for contacting him in the transition period. Amcius in the case John Gleeson said Tue FBI agent Barnnett believed Flynn lied.

Graham's final comment seems to back up Dems' accusations that today's hearing and the full GOP-led investigation into Crossfire Hurricane is a show for Trump's supporters ahead of the election.

"Stay tuned," the chairman said in closing.

Responding to a question on the admission by Flynn’s lawyer in federal court Tuesday that she directly briefed the president in recent weeks on the case, Comey warned: “This guy’s getting treated in a way that nobody’s ever been treated before.”
courthousenews.com/comey-tells-se…