Comey and Yates Testimony

FBI Director James Comey's open testimony this week didn't really seem to reveal much. Some people jumped on this line of questioning:

HIRONO: So in the investigations that you're currently doing on the Russian interference and the Trump team's relationship, are you coordinating with any U.S. attorney's office in these investigations?
COMEY: Yes, well -- two sets of prosecutors, the Main Justice the National Security Division and the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney's Office.

Some people are reading into this that grand juries are already convening and that they're getting ready to indict a bunch of people. I don't know that much about the process, but I'm in wait-and-see mode on this one. It doesn't seem that unusual for the investigative branch to coordinate with the legal people, regardless of how much evidence they have. But then, my main source for this is Law & Order.

Anyway, I'm not reading too much into anything Comey said. I do like how people keep saying "There's no evidence!". Uh huh. It's a classified investigation. It would be stupid for them to reveal evidence at this time because it would screw up any trials. There's mountains of circumstantial evidence already made public, so that's a silly thing to say. As far as hard evidence, we'll find out when they either start arresting people, or conclude the investigation and say nothing was found. Until then, crying that no evidence has been found so we should just move on is ridiculous.

Meanwhile, Sally Yates is set to testify on Monday. On Tuesday, the chair of the committee, Lindsey Graham, asked Susan Rice to testify, presumably about unmasking. Seems like an attempt to mitigate or distract from Yates' testimony. Rice said no, because the co-chair, Sen. Whitehouse, did not agree to the invitation, and so it wasn't a bi-partisan request.

I have also been worried that the Rice request might be an excuse to tank or delay the hearing. "Oh look! Rice won't testify. We can't agree on witnesses. We have to cancel or postpone." That's still a possibility. Or something else happening to keep it from going forward. Though with every day that passes, the probability increases that it really will.

I don't expect much new out of her testimony either, only a solidification of the timelines, which are going to look bad for the Trump White House. But you never know. She might reveal something new and interesting. I'm giving her chance of actually testifying at 75% now.