We’ll just have to take his word for it, I guess, same as with Clapper’s spiel about Russia supposedly having swung the election.

Worth noting, though, that Republican attendees at yesterday’s “Spygate” briefings for congressional leaders have been quiet in the aftermath. Democrats waltzed out afterward and claimed that nothing new or unsettling was revealed, as you’d expect. Normally that’d be the cue for a little “bigger than Watergate” Republican pushback, but as I write this Devin Nunes and Trey Gowdy have been conspicuously silent.

Mitch McConnell did say a little something about what he heard, but sounded underwhelmed:

.@SenateMajLdr on the DOJ briefing today: "Nothing particularly surprising, but again it was classified so there's no real report I can give to you." #SpecialReport https://t.co/GKVfvUpKfW pic.twitter.com/0P5bmmDJRk

— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 24, 2018

“A source familiar with one of the meetings told Reuters that Nunes ‘did not speak at all'” at his briefing, Vanity Fair reported last night, “and that his Republican colleagues ‘did not aggressively push or defend Trump’s spying allegations.’” Is POTUS out on a limb this time?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/999984492197613568
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/999984495179726848
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/999984507574018049

Maybe Rosenstein went in there with the goal of cowing the members by explaining how this entire line of inquiry is creating a national security risk. I don’t understand that in the specific case of Stefan Halper, whose “spy work” seems to have involved little more than schmoozing ancillary members of Trump’s campaign, but I understand it in the broader context. If real spies risking their lives to provide info to the government think the risk of being exposed for political reasons has risen as the president and DOJ wage war on each other, naturally that’s going to make them less willing to provide that info. I wonder if Rosenstein came armed with some sort of evidence in that respect. If not, it’s strange that the GOP would be so low-key about what he told them. Trump is all-in on the “spy” talking point and momentarily — and unusually — he’s all alone.

Comey tells Conan O’Brien here that he thinks Trump will have forgotten about this in two weeks and will have moved on to something else he can sell as “bigger than Watergate” to try to discredit the Russiagate probe. Where did he get that idea?