Echoing the thoughts of many who have watched this farce from outside the Beltway, Senator Mike Lee said early Thursday that he would be surprised to hear former FBI Director James Comey testify that President Trump pressed him to end a federal investigation into former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Speaking on CNN's "New Day", Lee said "that would surprise me" when asked if Comey would testify that Trump pressured him. His reasoning is simple...
"I'm on the Judiciary Committee and just a few weeks ago we had, still Director Comey, come and testify. Someone asked him about political pressure and he said, 'This is something I haven't seen, something in my experience has not occurred.'"
As a reminder, testifying under oath in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 3rd, Comey states that he has not been pressured to close an investigation for political purposes, "not in my experience."
COMEY: Not in my experience. Because it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something like that -- without an appropriate purpose.
I mean where oftentimes they give us opinions that we don't see a case there and so you ought to stop investing resources in it. But I'm talking about a situation where we were told to stop something for a political reason, that would be a very big deal.
It's not happened in my experience.
Caught on tape?
As The Hill reports, recent reports said Comey is expected to testify that he believes Trump was trying to meddle in the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the presidential election.
Lee said he hasn't personally seen Comey's memos related to Trump's reported requests to the former FBI director to end the investigation into Flynn.
"Those memos, if they exist, if he said those things, would seem to contradict his testimony," Lee said.
"So that'll be my first question ..., 'How do you reconcile that memo, if in fact it does say that, with the testimony you provided with the committee in early May?' "
Lee said there are an "infinite number of possibilities" about what could happen.
"I'm not going to pre-judge the fact until I have them," he said, "but I will have a whole bunch of follow-up questions for him if these things turn out to be the case."
This comes a day after reports that Comey would testify publicly.