Japan is no stranger to political drama. Daily Diet interpellations provide arresting images and sound bites. But rarely is there a scene like that which unfolded last week in Washington, when former FBI Director James Comey testified before Congress on his relations with U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump fired Comey reportedly after the director would not heed the president's call to tell the public that he was not under investigation or kill the entire Russia inquiry, although various explanations for Trump's action have been put forth, several by the president himself. Comey's testimony reveals a president largely unrestrained by the norms that have guided and constrained previous occupants of the White House.
More than 20 million people watched Comey's televised three-hour testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. His seven-page statement was released the day before his appearance, a move that allowed senators to better prepare questions and probe important issues. Unfortunately, however, some of the most important questions concerned matters that either Comey could not speak about in public session or addressed developments about which he could not speak at all.
The statements Comey could make and the judgments he offered were damning, however. First, there is his characterization of the U.S. president as a liar. Rarely, if ever, has a taciturn, judicious career law enforcement officer used such blunt language to describe his boss. Yet, Comey did it and repeatedly throughout his appearance. Second, there was Trump's utter disregard for established procedures to insulate law enforcement from political pressure. This took the form, most simply, in meetings between Comey and Trump — Comey pointed out that he talked to President Barack Obama just twice during his eight years in office, but either met or discussed matters with Trump nine times in just four months — and those encounters included blunt requests to bend rules and procedures on the president's behalf, whether it was providing public denials that Trump was under investigation or shutting down the inquiry into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's behavior and ties to Russia.