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Yesterday, the American public got a small piece of its freedom back when former FBI Director James Comey, under oath in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, shed light on the FBI’s investigation of Russian interference with our recent elections and possible Russian collusion with members of the Trump-Pence Transition Team and White House.

Here’s what we learned:

• Comey flatly accused Donald Trump and his Administration of lying on five separate occasions.

• Donald Trump asked Comey to swear loyalty to him over Comey’s oath of office to the American people.

• Comey said Trump fired him because his investigation of Russian actions during and after the election “created pressure” on the President that Trump “wanted to relieve.” If true, this would constitute obstruction of justice – an impeachable offense.

•  Comey refused to deny that the President himself colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign, saying, “That’s a question I don’t think I should answer in an opening setting.”

•  Comey questioned why Attorney General Sessions was involved in his firing over the Russia investigation when Sessions had voluntarily recused himself from all aspects of the investigation.

• Comey rejected Trump’s claim that Russian meddling in the 2016 election was fake news. He said today, “The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle…There is no fuzz on that. It is a high confidence judgment of the entire intelligence community and the members of this committee have seen the intelligence. It’s not a close call. That happened. That’s about as unfake as you can possibly get.”

• Finally, Comey stood by his statements and expressed hope that audio tape recordings of his conversations with Trump do actually exist.

Yesterday was a good day for transparency and truth in our democracy. But, it’s also clear there is much we still do not know.

Patriotism isn’t about right or left; it’s about right or wrong.

Comey, originally a Bush appointee, put his sense of honor and duty to the United States on full display during his testimony this morning. Kudos also to the Senate Intelligence Committee for taking this first step.  Now, let’s see the House and John Culberson also put our country before their divisive party politics.

Join me in holding Donald Trump, Michael Pence and House Republicans like John Culberson accountable to our Constitution. Donate here.

James

“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country.”
– President Theodore Roosevelt, May 1918