June 9, 2017

President Trump’s “combative press conference this afternoon, in which he declared his ‘100 percent’ willingness to rebut Jim Comey under oath, reflects the White House’s new take-no-prisoners war footing,” Axios reports.

The theory: “The best way to defend is to attack. If you’re explaining, you’re losing. White House officials, while recognizing the optics were devastating, tell us they were relieved that the substance of Comey’s testimony lacked a smoking gun. But they know that special counsel Bob Mueller poses a dire threat to Trump’s hold on the office.”

Washington Post: “The hard-charging New York lawyer President Trump chose to represent him in the Russia investigation has prominent clients with ties to the Kremlin, a striking pick for a president trying to escape the persistent cloud that has trailed his administration.”

“Marc Kasowitz’s clients include Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who is close to President Vladimir Putin and has done business with Trump’s former campaign manager. Kasowitz also represents Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, U.S. court records show.”

President Trump said he “would be willing to testify under oath that he didn’t urge James Comey to ease off the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe of the former national security adviser, a day after the former FBI director testified before the Senate that Mr. Trump had done so,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Trump: “I didn’t say that. I will tell you I didn’t say that. And there’d be nothing wrong if I did say it, according to everything I’ve read today.”

President Trump’s outside attorney “plans to file a complaint against former FBI Director James Comey with the Justice Department Inspector General and the Senate judiciary committee,” CNN reports.

“The complaint will focus on Comey’s testimony that he gave a friend the content of memos about his conversations with Trump and asked the friend to then give that information to a reporter. Comey said Friday that he gave the friend — later identified as Daniel Richman, a longtime Comey confidante and Columbia University professor — the information after Trump tweeted that he may have tapes of his conversations with the fired FBI director.”

With an early morning tweet, President Trump accused former FBI director James Comey of lying under oath, Playbook observes.

“Lawmakers will say if the president believes Comey lied, Trump himself should come to Capitol Hill and testify under oath about his recollection of events. This is why keeping quiet is oftentimes the best idea. Trump has now created a whole new storyline that is certain to distract Washington for the days and weeks to come.”

“Note that most Republicans yesterday didn’t accuse James Comey of lying — in fact, many of them called him honest and honorable. They just took issue with whether Trump directly asked Comey to drop the Russia investigation.”

Playbook: “Forget what the White House thinks of yesterday’s testimony. We spent the day in the Capitol, talking to Republican members of Congress — the ones that have to vote on President Donald Trump’s agenda — and they were absolutely shocked at how poorly yesterday went for the president. Publicly they say that the president is a political neophyte who is still learning the presidency. But privately, they said James Comey was extraordinarily convincing and Trump’s team absolutely botched their response. They’re all afraid of more shoes dropping.”

“Trump’s political standing on Capitol Hill is growing more and more perilous. Meanwhile, the RNC’s principal rebuttal seemed to be that the Obama administration had a bad day — which is true, but almost entirely irrelevant.”

“Republicans were shocked just how well Comey came across. He didn’t try to jam his viewpoint down the committee’s throat, he was confident but not cocky and admitted, on several occasions, that his impression of his interactions could’ve be faulty, but the evidence otherwise seemed overwhelming to lawmakers.”

“Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication…and WOW, Comey is a leaker!”

— President Trump, on Twitter.