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HC Wake-Up Call: Trump Accuses Comey of Lying to Congress, Senator Says Mueller Probe ‘Beyond the Stage’ of Clinton Impeachment & First Sounds From Mars

Emily Veith

Good morning, Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.

But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)

President Trump Accuses James Comey of Lying to House Judiciary & Oversight Committees

President Donald Trump lashed out at former FBI Director James Comey after he gave testimony before the Senate Judiciary and Oversight Committees on Friday, accusing him, without evidence, of lying to the committees and questioning his ability to recall certain events related to the lawmakers’ questions.

“On 245 occasions, former FBI Director James Comey told House investigators he didn’t know, didn’t recall, or couldn’t remember things when asked. Opened investigations on 4 Americans (not 2) – didn’t know who signed off and didn’t know Christopher Steele. All lies,” Trump tweeted Sunday morning.

In a subsequent tweet, Trump claimed Comey “must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day,” adding that his testimony was “so untruthful.”

“This whole deal is a Rigged Fraud headed up by dishonest people who would do anything so that I could not become President. They are now exposed!” Trump wrote.

Republican lawmakers had called on Comey to testify Friday on the FBI’s decisions during the 2016 presidential election, The Washington Times reports.

According to a transcript of the interview released Saturday, Comey did not recall the answers to several questions, including ones concerning details of the Clinton investigation back in 2015 and 2016, CNN reports.

According to The Washington Times, Comey said the FBI launched it Russia counterintelligence investigation into four Americans and their potential connections to the Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 presidential election — not into the Trump campaign.

“The Trump campaign was not under investigation,” Comey responded to a Democratic question asserting that the Trump campaign was under review. “The FBI, in late July, opened counterintelligence investigations of four Americans to see if they were working in any way with the Russians to influence our elections.”

An FBI attorney was present at the interview and instructed Comey to not answer certain questions about the Russia investigation, saying that some of those matters are still relevant to and being investigated as part of the ongoing Russia investigation.

Republicans were reportedly frustrated that the attorney instructed Comey not to answer certain questions, and Comey and committee Democrats felt the interview was a waste of time, with questions primarily focusing on Hillary Clinton’s emails, CNN reports.

Sen. Chris Murphy Says the Russia Investigation is “Beyond the Stage” of the Clinton Impeachment

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the publicly available information from the special counsel’s investigation indicate that President Donald Trump’s actions are “beyond the stage” of what lead to former President Bill Clinton’s impeachment.

While Murphy said it was up to the House of Representatives whether or not Trump should be impeached and cautioned against drawing too many conclusions without all of the facts, he did say that special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe has reached a “new level.”

“I think you are beyond the stage that led to the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton, whether or not you think that that was worthy of impeachment,” Murphy told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

In responding to the recent filings from the special counsel on former Trmp attorney Michael Cohen’s and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort’s illegal activities, Murphy said, “The president has now stepped into the same territory that ultimately led to President Nixon resigning the office. President Nixon was an unindicted co-conspirator. Was certainly a different set of facts, but this investigation is now starting to put the president in serious legal crosshairs and he should be worried and the whole country should be worried.”

According to CNN, Cohen’s filing indicates that he was directed to make hush money payments to two women — Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal — who had claimed to have affairs with Trump, so they would keep the extramarital affairs private. Trump is mentioned in the filing as “Individiual-1.”

Meanwhile, the special counsel wrote in Manafort’s filing that the former campaign chairman had lied about the extent of his contact with a Russian national during the campaign, CNN reports.

Mueller, however, is reportedly is in the process of writing his final report, but it is not known when the report will be finished and made public.

“I would also counsel the special investigator to show his cards soon,” Murphy said. “I mean I think it’s important for the special investigator to give Congress what he has sometime early in 2019 so that Congress can make a determination. If the president did, in fact, collude with the Russians to try to manipulate the election, or engage in multiple felonies with Michael Cohen, it doesn’t really make sense for congress to get that report from the special investigator in 2020, we need that next year. We need that as soon as possible.”

NASA Releases First Recorded Sounds From Mars

NASA’s new Mars lander has captured the first sounds of Mars’ “really unworldly” wind.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory released the sounds of the rather eerie winds on Friday, which were collected by the InSight lander during its first week on Mars, The Huffington Post reports. These are the first sounds detectable by human ears from our solar system neighbor.

InSight landed on Mars on November 26th.

“Reminds me of sitting outside on a windy summer afternoon,” Cornell University’s Don Banfield told reporters of the winds, which were blowing 10 to 15 miles per hour. “In some sense, this is what it would sound like if you were sitting on the InSight lander on Mars.”

Thomas Pike, from Imperial College London, said the rumbling is “rather different to anything that we’ve experienced on Earth, and I think it just gives us another way of thinking about how far away we are getting these signals.”

According to The New York Times, the sound we hear in the recording is the wind blowing against InSight’s solar panels and the resulting vibration of the spacecraft. It was recorded by an air pressure sensor inside the spacecraft that’s part of a weather station and the seismometer on its deck.

“We’re all still on a high from the landing last week … and here we are less than two weeks after landing, and we’ve already got some amazing new science,” Lori Glaze, acting director of planetary science at NASA, said. “It’s cool, it’s fun.”

What to look out for…

Disney released its first trailer for the new, live-action Kim Possible, so make sure to check it out!

Emily has also authored political articles for Restless Magazine and numerous inspirational and empowering pieces for Project Wednesday. When she isn't writing, she can be found flying off to her next adventure, attempting new recipes, listening to one of her infinite playlists on Spotify, or cuddling with her dogs. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter @emilycveith.