Comey testimony doesn't warrant impeachment charges: Former DOJ official

Following former FBI Director James Comey’s open hearing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, former Department of Justice official Robert Driscoll on Thursday said he doesn’t believe President Trump will face any “serious charge like impeachment,” and may have even helped Trump.

“From what we’ve seen now, things have probably gotten, if anything, marginally better for President Trump today so far than marginally worse,” Driscoll said during an interview on the FOX Business Network.

Comey, who was fired from his post as the FBI Director nearly a month ago, testified on Thursday over the allegations that Trump asked him to drop the ongoing investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump administration, as well as former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn.

The debate now revolves around whether there is any ground for obstruction of justice charges against President Trump, in which Driscoll said it “really becomes a political question, and whether the hearing on Thursday was enough to raise the public’s ire, or in the political sphere, enough to warrant someone to move forward on impeachment that would have traction in a Republican House, and then a trial in a Republican Senate.”

He added, “I think it’s a fine line, and clearly Comey was suggesting there’s obviously an intimidating factor being in the White House and being alone, that it’s important.”

However, Driscoll noted that it was hard to read whether Trump told Comey he would be fired unless he abandoned the probe into Flynn, or if it was more of an innocent conversation based on the former FBI Director’s testimony on Thursday.

At the same time, “Comey didn’t pull the fire alarm leaving that meeting either in terms of responding to the President directly, or by going to others and saying you know, he thought a crime had been committed,” Driscoll said.