Trump presidency faces defining moment as Comey gives evidence

All eyes will turn to Washington on Thursday when former FBI director James Comey will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee in what promises to be a defining moment for the Trump presidency.

Already his appearance has stoked comparisons with the Watergate hearings, during which the American public became transfixed with the deepening Nixon scandal.

The testimony could have profound implications for Mr Trump’s presidency.

On the eve of the hearing, the committee released a written statement submitted by Mr Comey. Any expectations that the former FBI director, who was fired by the president on May 9th, would pull back from a damning indictment of the man who ended his career at the FBI dissipated.

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Instead, a seven page document sets out, in methodical detail, the various questions and allegations that have been swirling around the US president and his fractious relationship with the FBI chief.

Most significantly, he confirmed that the president asked him to drop an investigation into former national security advisor Mike Flynn, on February 14th. He recalls how the president, following a meeting in the Oval Office, asked those present, including vice president Mike Pence, attorney general Jeff Sessions and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to leave the room, so he could speak to Mr Comey alone. After closing the door the president said to the former FBI chief: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy,” Mr Comey claims.

In addition he states that Mr Trump demanded his loyalty during a dinner in January. “I didn’t move, speak or change my facial expression in the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence,” he recounts, before Trump returned to the issue towards the end of the dinner.

There was some positive news for the president from the testimony - Comey effectively confirmed Trump’s claims over the past few months that he was not under investigation by the FBI as part of the Russian inquiry.

But the implications of Mr Comey’s testimony could be explosive. In particular, prosecutors, members of congress and the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation will be searching for any signals that Mr Trump’s actions amounted to an obstruction of justice. Obstruction of justice is a federal offence, and was used to justify the launch of impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.

While the Senate Intelligence Committee itself does not have the power to bring charges, Thursday’s hearing could provide evidence used by others to investigate Mr Trump. The words of a former FBI director testifying under oath carry weight.

Nonetheless Thursday’s testimony may also hold potential pitfalls for Mr Comey, himself a controversial figure who was widely criticized for publicising information about an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of an email server while Secretary of State.

Mr Comey is likely to face questions about ‘unmasking’ - how names of individuals caught up in the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the US election emerged into the public domain.

Similarly, his handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal is likely to surface. The intervention, which enraged Democrats, has been criticized by numerous department of justice officials.

He is also likely to be asked why he didn’t act sooner given his concerns about the president.

Mr Trump’s private attorney Marc Kasowitz has already said that the president feels “completely and totally vindicated” by the confirmation that he was not personally under investigation as part of the Russia probe, a position that has been echoed by most of the Republican establishment.

But despite Mr Trump’s attempts to fight back, Thursday is likely to be Comey’s day, as he takes the opportunity to give his side of the story after his abrupt sacking by the president last month.

A week before last year’s presidential election, Mr Trump was praising Mr Comey for his intervention on the Hillary Clinton email scandal. “It took a lot of guts” for the FBI to speak out, he said at a campaign rally in Michigan.

What a difference seven months makes.