Comey stands tall

First of all, James Comey is 6ft 8ins. That's pretty tall but I reckon he stands even taller this morning. His testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee was forthright, not grandstanding, honest (as far as we can tell), alarming and simply stated. His words, carefully chosen, amounted to a prima facie case of obstruction of justice committed by the president of the United States. Trump's clever lawyer who was sensibly selected to counter Comey's arguments rather than have a torrent of Trump tweets, effectively accused Comey of lying about conversations he had had with the president and highlighted the bits in the testimony which put Trump in a good light. I don't think there's an intelligent person on the planet who believes Trump instead of Comey. Having taken notes of the conversations as soon as they were over, Comey, a good old-fashioned FBI man, would surely not have written down a totally false account of the chats. Perhaps this is what Trump did. Perhaps he took out a note book and put down his version of the conversations, knowing they would clash with the then FBI director's memory. If that's the case, who is the more credible witness? It has to be Comey, he has more credibility than Trump. The president wanted Comey to stop investigating the Russia affair. There's little doubt about that. That's obstruction, interference, whatever you like to call it. The only worrying aspect of Comey's testimony is his confession that he arranged the leaking of his conversations with Trump. This gives ammunition to his critics, specially the White House, that he was playing a political game behind the scenes. What he did is not a criminal offence but it slightly tarnishes his image of being an upright, straightforward guy. Despite that, he came across as a man who feels he was unfairly sacked as director of the FBI, a job he loved and had fully intended to keep for the full ten-year term. He will remain Trump's Enemy Number One. If he doesn't finish off the Trump presidency, then I suspect Robert Mueller will, once he has completed his investigation into the Russia allegations. It's a very sorry state of affairs. Still, at least Theresa May won't have the embarrassment of hosting Trump in a State visit to London later this year. She will no longer be prime minister of Great Britain!