WASHINGTON: Washington held its breath yesterday for former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony at the US Congress, where he accused President Donald Trump’s team of defaming him and undermining the FBI. 

“The administration... chose to defame me, and more importantly the FBI,” Comey told lawmakers. “Those were lies, plain and simple.” 

The main highlight of the two-hour testimony was Comey declaring that he read Trump’s request “I hope you’ll let this go” — in reference to the investigation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — as a “directive” from the president to ignore the investigation. 

That quote has triggered a debate on Trump’s potential obstruction of justice, which if proven could lead to impeachment, although that would require at least two-thirds of senators to find him guilty, which is unlikely. 

In answer to a question about Trump suggesting in May, days after firing Comey, that he had secretly recorded his conversations, the former director said: “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”  

The high-ranking witness left no doubt about Russia’s meddling in the US election, while refusing to talk publicly about possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign. 

Noah Rothman, a policy analyst and assistant online editor at Commentary Magazine, told Arab News: “Comey did his best to convey that he was, as ever, the last honest man in Washington.” 

This was revealed by Comey pointing fingers at “the Obama administration to pressure him to ‘align’ the language of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails with the Clinton campaign’s language, and also that he felt it was a ‘directive’ from Trump to back off the investigation into Flynn,” said Rothman.

“It was probably inevitable that there are more questions today regarding the investigation into Russian interference into the election than there are answers, but that is the case.”  

In a divided country with a deep level of partisanship, Rothman anticipated that “Democrats who are eager to claim a smoking gun was discovered today are allowing the wish to father the thought.” 

So too are Republican partisans, he said, “who contend that the only big news out of this hearing was previously reported allegations involving impropriety by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.”

In conclusion, Rothman said: “The story (from Comey’s testimony) is the Trump campaign’s alleged misdeeds, and the plot is unfolding.”