Comey had testified to Congress that there had been Russian interference in the 2016 elections and that there was an ongoing investigation. In March that year he confirmed that the FBI was investigating links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies, though he never implicated Trump directly; and Trump sacked him without warning in May. Comey kept notes of his conversations with Trump, because he "was honestly concerned he might lie" about them. "I knew there might come a day when I might need a record of what happened," he said. These are fun reading: https://static01.nyt.com/files/2018/us/politics/20180419-james-comey-memos.pdf If Comey helped Trump win the 2016 election by reopening the Clinton case, you'd think Trump would be grateful, but the Russia investigation infuriated him. Whatever you might think of Comey, I believe this opinion piece about how Bill Barr and others caved to Trump was spot on, maybe even more so now:
Amoral leaders have a way of revealing the character of those around them. Sometimes what they reveal is inspiring. For example, James Mattis, the former secretary of defense, resigned over principle, a concept so alien to Mr. Trump that it took days for the president to realize what had happened, before he could start lying about the man.
But more often, proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. I think that’s at least part of what we’ve seen with Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein. Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.
It starts with your sitting silent while he lies, both in public and private, making you complicit by your silence. In meetings with him, his assertions about what “everyone thinks” and what is “obviously true” wash over you, unchallenged, as they did at our private dinner on Jan. 27, 2017, because he’s the president and he rarely stops talking. As a result, Mr. Trump pulls all of those present into a silent circle of assent.
Speaking rapid-fire with no spot for others to jump into the conversation, Mr. Trump makes everyone a co-conspirator to his preferred set of facts, or delusions. I have felt it — this president building with his words a web of alternative reality and busily wrapping it around all of us in the room.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/william-barr-testimony.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE8.igU_.5XHixJiUJhn3&smid=url-share
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