Is Trump Guilty Of Obstruction Of Justice? Comey Laid Out The Case

All we want are the facts, ma'am.

During his congressional testimony Thursday, James Comey played his best Sgt. Joe Friday, the protagonist of the 1950s Dragnet TV series known for that signature line.

Asked if he thought President Trump obstructed justice, Comey, the fired FBI director, declined to give his opinion.

"I don't know," Comey said. "That — that's Bob Mueller's job to sort that out."

Mueller is the former FBI director, who is now the special counsel in charge of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and Trump campaign associates' connections to Russia.

Comey admitted to authorizing the leak of a memo he wrote about a meeting with the president that gave him pause. And he did it for an eyebrow-raising reason — "because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel," Comey said.

For as much as Comey wanted to be the indefatigable facts man full of public rectitude, he clearly thought Trump had done something wrong — and he revealed that he had an agenda.

While Comey may not have expressed an overt opinion about whether Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice, the careful former prosecutor certainly laid out a set of facts that any prosecutor could use to try to prove just that.

For Trump's part, he contested Comey's testimony, saying in a news conference Friday that Comey said things that "just weren't true." Specifically, Trump claimed he never asked for a pledge of loyalty from Comey or asked Comey to let go of investigating former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Someone's lying.