NATION/WORLD
Friday, June 9, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 9A
BRIEFLY
GOP-run House
votes to roll back
financial rules
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Former FBI director James Comey is greeted by Senate
Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C.
at the beginning of the Senate Intelligence Committee
hearing on Capitol Hill, Thursday.
Comey says he was
fired over Russia
probe, blasts ‘lies’
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Former FBI Director James
Comey asserted Thursday
that President Donald Trump
fired him to interfere with
his investigation of Russia’s
ties to the Trump campaign,
bluntly accusing the White
House of spreading “lies,
plain and simple.”
Comey also revealed that
he’d orchestrated the public
release of information about
his private conversations
with the president in an effort
to further the investigation.
Comey’s testimony, at a
hugely anticipated congres-
sional hearing that captured
the country’s attention,
provided a gripping account
of his interactions with
Trump and underscored the
deep distrust that had soured
their relationship before his
stunning firing last month.
In occasionally explosive
statements, Comey portrayed
Trump as a chief executive
dismissive of the FBI’s
independence and made clear
that he interpreted Trump’s
request to end an investiga-
tion into his former national
security adviser as an order
coming from the president.
He expressed confidence
that the circumstances of his
firing, and Trump’s overall
behavior toward him, could
be investigated by special
counsel Robert Mueller
for possible obstruction of
justice. But he declined to
offer an opinion on whether
it met such a threshold.
Trump’s private attorney,
Marc Kasowitz, seized on
Comey’s admission that he
had told Trump on multiple
occasions that he was not
personally under investiga-
tion and maintained the testi-
mony made clear that Trump
“never, in form or substance,
directed or suggested that Mr.
Comey stop investigating
anyone.”
Kasowitz also jumped
on Comey’s revelation that
he had released details of
his private conversations
with the president, casting
the former FBI director as
one of the “leakers” set on
undermining the Trump
administration.
Still, there’s no doubt the
veteran lawman made for a
challenging adversary.
“It’s my judgment that
I was fired because of the
Russia
investigation,”
Comey said toward the end
of more than two hours of
testimony before the Senate
intelligence committee. “I
was fired in some way to
change, or the endeavor was
to change, the way the Russia
investigation was being
conducted.
“That is a very big deal,
and not just because it
involves me.”
At one point he practically
dared Trump to release any
recordings of their conversa-
tions, a prospect the president
once alluded to in a tweet.
“Lordy, I hope there
are tapes,” Comey said,
suggesting such evidence
would back up his account
over the president’s.
Thursday’s hearing was
Comey’s first public appear-
ance since his sudden May 9
firing and it brought Wash-
ington and other parts of
the country to a standstill as
Americans sat glued to their
screens, harkening back to
the Watergate congressional
hearings that held the nation
rapt four decades earlier.
Republicans mindful of
the gravity of the moment
worked feverishly to lessen
any damage from the
hearing. They tried to under-
mine Comey’s credibility by
issuing press releases and
even ads pointing to a past
instance where the FBI had
to clean up the director’s
testimony to Congress.
In his opening statement,
Comey somberly accused
the Trump administration
of spreading “lies, plain and
simple” in the aftermath of
his abrupt ouster, declaring
that the administration
“chose to defame me and,
more importantly, the FBI”
by claiming the bureau was
in disorder.
He then dove into the
heart of the fraught political
controversy around his firing
and whether Trump inter-
fered in the bureau’s Russia
investigation, as he elabo-
rated on written testimony
released a day earlier.
In that testimony, Comey
said that Trump demanded
his “loyalty” and directly
pushed him to “lift the cloud”
of investigation by declaring
publicly the president was
not a target of the FBI probe
into his campaign’s Russia
ties.
He said that when Trump
told him he hoped he would
terminate an investigation
into Michael Flynn, the
ousted national security
adviser, he interpreted that as
a directive.
“I mean, this is the pres-
ident of the United States,
with me alone, saying, ‘I
hope’ this,” he said. “I took it
as, this is what he wants me
to do.”
Asked whether that
February Oval Office discus-
sion amounted to obstruction
of justice, Comey said he
expected that to be a matter
for Mueller, the former FBI
director who has taken over
the Justice Department’s
investigation.
He said that while he found
the exchange disturbing,
“that’s a conclusion I’m sure
the special counsel will work
towards, to try and under-
stand what the intention was
there, and whether that’s an
offense.”
In a startling disclosure,
Comey revealed that after his
firing he actually tried to spur
the special counsel’s appoint-
ment by giving a damning
memo he had written about
a meeting with Trump to a
friend to release to the media.
“My judgment was I need
to get that out into the public
square,” Comey said.
The February meeting was
one of several one-on-one
encounters that Comey said
made him feel such intense
discomfort that he felt
compelled to document them
in memos.
“I was honestly concerned
that he might lie about the
nature of our meeting, so I
thought it really important to
document,” Comey said. “I
knew there might come a day
when I might need a record
of what happened not only to
defend myself but to protect
the FBI.”
Trump himself was
expected to dispute Comey’s
claims that the president
demanded loyalty and asked
the FBI director to drop the
investigation into Flynn,
according to a person close
to the president’s legal team
who demanded anonymity
because they were not
authorized to discuss legal
strategy. Instead, Kasowitz
pushed back and the presi-
dent remained conspicuously
silent on Twitter during the
hearing despite expectations
he might respond.
Many Democrats still
blame Comey for Clinton’s
loss, leading Trump to
apparently believe they
would applaud him for firing
Comey.
WASHINGTON
(AP) — The Republican-led
House approved sweeping
legislation Thursday to undo
much of former President
Barack Obama’s landmark
banking law created after the
2008 economic crisis that
caused millions of Americans
to lose their jobs and homes.
The largely party-line
vote was 233-186, as
Republicans argued the rules
designed to prevent another
meltdown were making it
harder for community banks
to lend and hampered the
economy. No Democratic
lawmakers supported
the measure; only one
Republican opposed it.
“Our community banks
are in trouble,” said Speaker
Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “They
are being crushed by the
costly rules imposed on
them by the Dodd-Frank
Act. This law may have
had good intentions but its
consequences have been dire
for Main Street.”
House passage was
widely expected, but the
Republican overhaul of the
2010 Dodd-Frank law is
unlikely to clear the Senate
in its current form. Senators
have said they’ll spend the
next few months trying to
find common ground on
legislation designed to boost
the economy. Potential areas
for compromise include
changes to how much capital
banks must maintain and
decreasing the paperwork
burden for small lenders.
President Donald Trump
had said he wants to do “a
big number” on Dodd-Frank,
and the House vote marks
progress .
The overhaul bill targets
the heart of the law’s
restrictions on banks by
offering a trade-off: Banks
could qualify for most of the
regulatory relief in the bill
so long as they meet a strict
requirement for building
capital to cover unexpected
big losses.
Democrats defended the
Dodd-Frank law, saying it
has meant financial security
for millions of people
and that undoing it would
encourage the kind of risky
lending practices that invite
future economic shocks.
Qatar rejects
‘blockade,’ denies
terror allegations
DOHA, Qatar (AP) —
Arab states have no right
to “blockade” Qatar, the
country’s top diplomat said
Thursday, insisting the
campaign by Saudi Arabia
and its allies to isolate the
tiny, energy-rich nation
is based on “false and
fabricated news.”
In an interview with
The Associated Press,
Qatari Foreign Minister
Sheikh Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al Thani
repeatedly denied that his
country funded extremists
and he rejected the idea of
shutting down its Al-Jazeera
satellite news network.
He said Qatar, as an
independent nation, also
had the right to support
groups like the Muslim
Brotherhood, despite the
fact that its neighbors
outlawed the Sunni Islamist
organization.
Sheikh Mohammed’s
hard line mirrored that of a
top Emirati diplomat who
told the AP on Wednesday
that the United Arab
Emirates believes “there’s
nothing to negotiate” with
Qatar.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt,
Bahrain, the United Arab
Emirates and other countries
severed diplomatic ties with
Qatar earlier this week and
cut off air, sea and land
travel to the nation.
starting at just
Things we want you to know: Limited-time offers, valid only while supplies last. Trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. Smartphone Sale: New Postpaid Plan required. Retail Installment
Contract and credit approval also required. A $25 Activation Fee applies. A Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee (currently $2.02) applies; this is not a tax or government required charge. Additional fees (including Device
Connection Charges), taxes, terms, conditions and coverage areas apply and may vary by plan, service and phone. Available to new lines and upgrades. Pricing valid on all Smartphones of standard memory
size with a 30-month Retail Installment Contract. Monthly pricing varies by device. Offers valid at participating locations only and cannot be combined. See store or uscellular.com for details. Kansas Customers:
In areas in which U.S. Cellular ® receives support from the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed
to the Kansas Corporation Commission Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. ©2017 U.S. Cellular