Sacked FBI director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee was not only an astounding expose of US President Donald Trump, publicly taken down as a “liar”, but also confirmation of the suspicion that Russia interfered with the 2016 polls. While the deceptive nature of a blustering President may not shock the world, having grown used to seeing him change the established order in just 100-plus days in cavalier style, the revelation that Russia could have helped put him in the White House should be a shock. The testimony of an upright officer, who says the administration lied and tried to defame him, may be the start of a process of the deconstruction of Donald Trump in office.
Mr Comey’s testimony in the closed hearing later will be another significant step, although it’s doubtful if any of this will lead to the President’s impeachment: that hasn’t happened for over a century, with Richard Nixon resigning in 1974 and Bill Clinton acquitted in 1999. It’s unlikely the revelations will amount to a charge of obstruction of justice by Mr Trump. What he told the FBI director on the investigation of ex-NSA Michael Flynn’s Russia ties during the campaign could be seen as just expounding on the idea “of letting Flynn go” than a direct order to scuttle the probe. What has happened so far is that the character of the US President and that of his administration has been exposed in public. In typical Trump style, he tweeted that Mr Comey’s testimony gives him “total and complete vindication”. We must see what transpires next.
