'Vindication?' Not so fast, Mr. Trump
On May 17, the day after the Times piece ran, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein named former FBI Director Mueller, a long-time friend of Comey, to the post,
Trump was apparently declaring victory because Comey wouldn't say whether he believed the president obstructed justice by saying he wished Comey would "let" the Flynn investigation "go." Comey told the senators that he was confident that Mueller would make that determination.
Indeed, if Trump should be angry at anyone, it is himself. By needlessly firing Comey and tweeting recklessly about it, Trump single-handedly turned his Russia problem -- a "cloud" over his administration, he reportedly told Comey -- into a much bigger problem.
Now it's an investigation into possible obstruction of justice charges, the same charge that forced Richard M. Nixon to resign his presidency for cover-ups during the Watergate scandal.
Yes, here comes the old Watergate era line once again: It's not the crime, it's the cover-up that counts.
Were it not for the rising investigation into a possible cover-up, Trump would have reason to celebrate Comey's debunking of a February New York Times article as "in the main ... not true," although he didn't say in the open hearing what specifically wasn't true,
So, as the story about Team Trump's possible collusion with Russians took a hit, suspicions about a possible Trump cover-up got a big boost from Comey's testimony.
No, this investigation is only beginning. For those who appreciate history, it's important to note that the Watergate investigations went on for more than two years. Bill Clinton's Whitewater scandal lasted for seven of his eight years in office.
But the big question on everyone's minds -- Will Trump be impeached? -- depends largely on the partisan makeup of the House and Senate. Legal scholars argue about it, but impeachment is a political process more than a legal one. It all comes down to how many votes the president has in Congress, which Trump's Republican Party currently controls.
Still, there are danger signs on the horizon. A Politico/Morning Consult poll at the end of May found 43 percent of voters want impeachment proceedings to begin. Most of those cite political reasons, not criminal offenses. Still, that's up from 38 percent the previous week.
Vindication is just one of Trump's challenges.
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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)
(c) 2017 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
