JAMES COMEY/LEGAL/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “After remaining mute on Thursday [6-8-17] during harsh testimony from the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey accusing him of lying, President Trump tweeted early Friday that Mr. Comey had given him ‘vindication’ in the Russia investigation.
‘Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication,’ he wrote at 6:10 a.m.
He added, ‘and WOW, Comey is a leaker,’ referring to the former director’s admission that he had orchestrated the leak of the contents of a memo detailing Oval Office discussions with the president to The New York Times through a friend.
In keeping with his temporarily tempered approach to the Comey hearing, the president retweeted another defense of his actions later in the morning posted by Alan M. Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus who has advised the Trump team on Middle Eastern policy. ‘We should stop talking about obstruction of justice,’ Mr. Dershowitz said on Twitter, linking to an interview he gave to Fox News. ‘No plausible case. We must distinguish crimes from pol sins.’ “
-Glenn Thrush and Peter Baker, “Trump Sees ‘Total and Complete Vindication’ in Comey’s Testimony,” The New York Times online, June 9, 2017