Public hearings are never very elucidating and Monday’s hearing on Russia’s interference in the election was no different. What did we learn? We received confirmation of the long reported investigation into Trump’s campaign and Russia. There was yet another narrowly tailored denial that Obama ordered wiretaps on Trump Tower and Democrats showed themselves to be prone to connect the dots conspiracy theories. Of course, all these things have been known to those closely following the news, so we learned a whole lot of nothing. The Republicans seemed intent on delving into the leaks of classified information regarding Flynn, while Democrats spent most of their time running through various online conspiracies that point to contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.

The confirmation of the investigation will be touted as a major revelation, but it’s rather mundane. It was first reported as early as October 2016 and former officials declared that nothing was found as of Jan 20th. As to the details of the investigation, Comey showed himself to be the politician that his detractors claim. Despite Comey’s statement that he ‘can’t go into the details,’ he had no issue doing so when it undermined White House claims. So he let everyone know that Obama never ordered a wiretap of Trump tower, but he refused to comment on the White House’s knowledge or involvement in the investigation. There was no problem stating that the GCHQ did not share intel on Trump, but nothing about other intelligence agencies as reported by the NYT. In other words, the few disclosures were agenda driven. They weren’t intended to shed light on the situation, but to damage Trump politically. This isn’t to say that they were incorrect, they are true, but they obfuscate the broader scope of Trump’s claims. Consider what he refused to answer. Did the investigation of Russian collusion include electronic surveillance? If it did, did it ever capture any of Trump’s communications? What about any of his associates? Was Trump himself a target of the investigation? What was the basis for the launching of the investigation? Was the DOJ or White House involved in any capacity? He even refused to comment on the FISA warrants or admit the transcripts of Flynn’s conversation were classified information.

This is not to ignore Trump’s actions, which have hamstrung his own defense and been a major detriment in clarifying what happened. His inaccurate tweets have allowed rebuttals of claims that ‘Obama ordered my wires tapped,’ without actually delving into the scope of the investigation itself. One interesting thing that did come up was that the FBI investigation began in July. This was right after reports that the FISC court denied the warrants to surveil Trump’s associates. Regardless, so long as this investigation is underway it will create an opening for critics to impute wrongdoing on Trump’s part. James Comey seems in no rush to finish it quickly, he must have learned his lesson from the Clinton case, but there is no reason to think anything has changed. In fact, at least one GOP senator is claiming that Comey told him nothing has been found.