What were people expecting honestly?
Comey was never going to divulge any major points of the ongoing investigation. That seemed pretty clear when he paused his testimony and then met with Mueller to cross reference and run things by him. Everything was going to be centered around verifying the already leaked notes and adding any context. Looking at the question of obstruction of justice.
The testimony confirms that the "Fake News" Washington Post and the"FAILING NYTimes," with their "anonymous sources" weren't bullshitting. The meetings happened. In addition to two subsequent phone calls by Trump. Where Trump asked for personal loyalty and/or tried to lean into Comey to drop the investigation. That Comey not only took notes but he immediately briefed his FBI team about the incidents. Probably adding a layer of coverage and authenticity to his accounts. Meaning as long as the story didn't change, it will be hard for Trump and the administration to spin this except for playing the "Trump is ignorant" card that I saw briefly used....I guess as a side note it also proves Trump was bluffing with his "TAPES" threat.
Comey did make it clear Trump is not the subject of the investigation at the time he said it, but didn't say he was clear of any wrongdoing, just that the investigation wasn't looking into him personally. He made a point in the paper that they didn't ever want to say that publicly he wasn't a subject because that could change and then would require them to correct it publicly as well. Comey also doesn't say that remains the case today.
This paragraph was interesting:
During the dinner, the President returned to the salacious material I had briefed him about on January 6, and, as he had done previously, expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them. He said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn’t happen. I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative. He said he would think about it and asked me to think about it.
