Morning Note

A grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Thursday, officially accusing him of lying to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation.

The case stems from a 2017 incident when Comey showed a friend seven memos documenting his private conversations with President Trump. The friend, Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman, then leaked their details to The New York Times, which led to the appointment of Robert Mueller. Comey told Congress that he did not authorize anyone to disclose the memos to the media three years later, stating, “I had no idea he was going to do that.”

Donald Trump reacted to the news by blasting the Russia hoax, saying it "placed a cloud over the entire nation” and that “it could have caused wars.”

The president is exactly right. Russia-obsessed neocons used the fake collusion narrative to whip up anti-Putin hate and justify America’s involvement in the prolonged Ukraine war. Their recklessness has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.

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