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“Despite so many false statements and lies,” the president of the United States tweeted Friday, “total and complete vindication… and WOW, Comey is a leaker!”

To be clear: on the one hand, Donald Trump alleges that the former director of the FBI, James Comey, perjured himself in sworn testimony before the Senate Intelligence committee — testimony based on his detailed contemporaneous memos of his conversations with him. On the other hand, the same testimony offers “total and complete vindication” of his conduct.

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Oh, and Comey’s provision of his personal recollections to the media after leaving office is a damnable leak — his lawyer has threatened to file a complaint with the Justice department over it — though it is a “leak” of information that, according to Trump, Comey made up. Except, that is, for the bits that totally and completely vindicate him.

This is all just so sad and embarrassing. The thrust of Comey’s testimony was that the president fired him as FBI director to put a stop to the agency’s investigation into the many clandestine contacts before and after the last election between members of Trump’s inner circle, notably his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and agents of the Russian government. That much is not in dispute: Trump himself has publicly said as much.