Is ex-FBI director’s testimony beginning of Donald Trump’s end?

James Comey, the former Director of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), began his testimony before the US Congress on Thursday. This is the first time that Comey, fired by President Donald Trump a month ago, is being given a chance to make public his version on the circumstances surrounding his dismissal.

In the testimony that was being streamed live, James Comey stated that he was fired because of the “Russia investigation,” referencing to FBI’s probe into Trump campaign’s alleged links to Russia.

Trump, on the other hand, had claimed that he had fired Comey because of his shoddy handling of the Hillary Clinton’s email scandal before doing a 180-degree turn and saying that he was given marching orders due to the “made-up” story of ties between Russia and his campaign team. The White House, however, has stuck to the Hillary Clinton’s email scandal as reason behind Comey’s removal all along.

To which, Comey reacted on Thursday: “That didn’t make any sense to me. And although the law required no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies, plain and simple. And I am so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them, and I am so sorry that the American people were told them.”

“I take the President at his word that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” Comey said.

Trump’s critics have accused the President of “obstructing justice” by firing the FBI director, even drawing a parallel between Comey’s case and the ‘Nixon tapes’, latter leading to impeachment of former President Richard Nixon in 1974.

However, there was some support for Trump,

Many, however, seemed on the side of Comey.