A PRIMA FACIE CASE OF OBSTRUCTION:

Boiled down to its essential framework, Comey's story goes like this. After the election, Trump made repeated, personal contact with the FBI director in an attempt to suborn his professionalism. In a private dinner with the president, Comey got the strong sense that Trump was trying to "create some sort of patronage relationship," and he repeatedly tried to buffalo Comey into promising "loyalty." Comey was extremely uncomfortable with this, trying to say he would only promise honesty, but eventually agreed to "honest loyalty" to end the conversation. Disturbed, Comey immediately began creating a paper trail of memos documenting every aspect of his meetings with Trump.

In a subsequent one-on-one meeting, Trump attempted to get Comey to drop the investigation into Mike Flynn, saying: "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." Comey agreed that Flynn was a good guy, but did not promise to drop the investigation. In the later questioning, Senator Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked why Comey had not told Trump off for even asking that, and Comey replied that he was so stunned he didn't even think to confront him. "Maybe if I were stronger, I would have," he said.

Trump then made two calls to Comey, saying that the investigations into potential Russia connections were creating "a cloud" over his presidency, asking what Comey could do to "lift the cloud" and if he could make it known that Trump was not personally under investigation. In the second one on April 11, Trump pretty clearly referenced the stooge relationship he thought he had created, saying "I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know."

Some days after that, of course, Trump fired Comey, citing his mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, and how his poor leadership of the FBI was creating a morale crisis. Only days later Trump admitted in an interview with Lester Holt that the Russia investigation was the real reason.

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