Former FBI director James Comey tells a Senate intelligence
committee how he was concerned that Donald Trump would lie about the nature of
their meetings, which led to Comey taking detailed notes. Comey added that he
believed there may come a day when he required a record to defend himself and
the FBI
Former FBI director James Comey has released his account of
how Donald Trump put pressure on him to shut down an investigation into the
former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s links to Russia. ‘He is a good
guy. I hope you can let this go,’ Trump says. On another occasion, Comey says
Trump told him repeatedly, ‘I need loyalty.’ Read what our panel of legal
experts think of Comey’s document ahead of his testimony before the Senate
intelligence committee
James Comey details Trump's 'lies'
and reaffirms belief of Russian meddling in election
James Comey’s Senate
testimony asserted that the Trump administration lied to smear his reputation,
and that he leaked details of Trump meetings to the press
David Smith in Washington
Thursday 8 June 2017 23.21 BST First published on Thursday 8
June 2017 16.01 BST
The scandal of Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia
deepened on Thursday when James Comey, the man he fired as director of the FBI,
branded the US president a liar.
At a hearing that riveted Washington and millions across the
United States, James Comey said he believed he had been sacked because of the
FBI’s investigation into Moscow’s meddling in last year’s presidential
election.
Comey’s explosive testimony over nearly three hours
asserted:
The Trump administration lied to smear the reputation of
Comey and the FBI following his dismissal;
Comey documented every meeting he had with Trump because he
thought the president might lie about what had taken place;
He passed details of the meetings – via a friend – to the
press in the hope of spurring the appointment of a special counsel;
He believes that Trump directed him to shut down the FBI’s
investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Comey also offered a stark view of the underlying issue –
“massive” Russian interference in the US election. “There should be no fuzz on
this whatsoever. The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle.
They did it with purpose. They did it with sophistication. They did it with
overwhelming technical efforts.”
In one of the most gripping chapters yet of the long-running
Trump/Russia saga, Comey testified under oath to the Senate intelligence
committee on Capitol Hill. Bars in New York and Washington DC opened as
America’s three major TV networks broadcast live coverage of the hearing, which
earned comparisons with Watergate.
His evidence did not deliver a knock-out blow to the Trump
presidency, but it nevertheless cast the billionaire Republican’s integrity in
a withering light.
Comey said of his own dismissal: “The administration chose
to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organisation was
in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in
its leader.”
Comey: I was concerned Trump would lie about our meeting
“Those were lies, plain and simple, and I’m so sorry that
the FBI workforce had to hear them, and I’m so sorry the American people were
told them.”
He told the panel: “It’s my judgment that I was fired
because of the Russia investigation. I was fired in some way to change, or the
endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted.
That is a very big deal.”
In a statement for the record released on Wednesday, Comey
detailed several meetings with Trump this year, claiming that Trump demanded
his “loyalty” and directly pushed him to “lift the cloud” of suspicion by
declaring publicly the president was not the target of the Russia
investigation.
In his testimony, Comey explained that he documented each
meeting because he thought Trump might be dishonest about what had taken place
– a practice he never felt obliged to undertake with former presidents George W
Bush or Barack Obama.
“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature
of our meeting, and so I thought it really important to document,” he said of
their first conversation at Trump Tower in New York in January.
He also described a meeting in the Oval Office in February,
when Trump allegedly cleared the room of officials, including the attorney
general, and discussed the investigation into former national security adviser
Michael Flynn’s links to Russia. “I hope you can let this go,” the president
allegedly said.
In a memorable exchange, Senator Angus King of Maine asked:
“When a president of the United States in the Oval Office says something like
‘I hope’ or ‘I suggest’ or ‘would you,’ do you take that as a directive?”
Comey replied: “Yes, it rings in my ear as kind of, ‘Will no
one rid me of this meddlesome priest?’” – a reference to King Henry’s II’s kiss
of death to Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket.
Comey also revealed that he asked a friend to leak to the
New York Times details of his memo about the Oval Office encounter“because I
thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel”.
The former FBI chief was testifying under oath to the Senate
intelligence committee on Russia’s interference in the presidential election in
a packed room of the Senate’s Hart building on Capitol Hill, with millions
watching on TV and online.
Comey entered the room at 10.02am to a chorus of clicking
cameras, shook hands with chairman Richard Burr and sat behind a table, staring
ahead inscrutably, his hands pressed together.
Those were lies, plain and simple
Comey on the White House's stated reasons for firing him
Comey said he was puzzled when the dismissal was attributed
to his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private
email server, only for Trump to tell an interviewer it was because of Russia.
Comey said: “It’s my judgment that I was fired because of
the Russia investigation,” telling senators: “I was fired in some way to
change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was
being conducted.”
Comey set out the high stakes of the Russia investigation in
passionate remarks about an attack on America’s way of life.
“The reason this is such a big deal is we have this big,
messy, wonderful country where we fight with each other all the time, but
nobody tells us what to think, what to fight about, what to vote for except
other Americans,” he said. “And that’s wonderful and often painful. But we’re
talking about a foreign government using technical intrusion and lots of other
methods tried to shape the way we think, we vote, we act. That is a big deal.
“And people need to recognize it. It’s not about Republicans
or Democrats. They’re coming after America, which I hope we all love equally.
They want to undermine our credibility in the face of the world. They think
that this great experiment of ours is a threat to them, and so they’re going to
try to run it down and dirty it up as much as possible.”
The former FBI chief faced detailed questioning about a
series of meetings with Trump he set out in his statement for the record, which
was published by the committee on Wednesday.
One was a private dinner with Trump at the White House in
January. Comey said he walked away feeling like the president was “looking to
get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job”.
He also discussed a meeting in the Oval Office in February,
when Trump allegedly cleared the room of officials, including the attorney
general, and discussed the investigation into former national security adviser
Michael Flynn’s links to Russia. “I hope you can let this go,” Trump allegedly
said.
Senator James Risch of Idaho zeroed in on the word “hope”,
asking: “He did not direct you to let it go?”
Comey acknowledged: “Not in his words, no.”
Risch asked: “Again, those words are not an order? He said:
‘I hope.’”
Comey replied: “The reason I keep saying his words is, I
took it as a direction. This is the president of the United States. I took it
as a direction.”
Risch demanded: “You don’t know anyone who has been charged
for hoping something?”
Comey: “As I sit here I don’t.”
Comey also revealed that he was behind the leak to the New
York Times of the details of his memo describing Trump asking him to let the
Flynn inquiry go. He said his motivation in asking a friend to share the
content of the memo was to prompt the appointment of a special counsel to take
over the Russia investigation – special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed
the next day.
He was motivated by Trump’s tweet implying that there were
recordings of their meetings. Comey said he “woke up in the middle of the
night” in a panic about the president’s tweet.
In a later line of questioning, Comey was again asked why he
chose to leak his notes to the media. “As a private citizen, I felt free to
share that. I thought it was very important to get it out,” he said.
Asked whether he thought Trump had tried to obstruct justice
or merely seek a way for Mike Flynn to save face,Comey replied: “I don’t think
it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an
effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing and very concerning,
but that’s a conclusion that I’m sure the special counsel will work towards to
try and understand what the intention was there and whether that’s an offence.”
Comey’s written testimony disclosed that Trump demanded his
“loyalty” and directly pushed him to “lift the cloud” of investigation by
declaring publicly the president was not the target of the investigation into
his campaign’s Russia ties.
Democrats are keen to establish whether Trump’s actions
amounted to obstruction of justice, while Republicans have seized on Comey’s
confirmation that he assured the president more than once that he was not a
target of the FBI’s investigation.
Trump fired Comey as director of the FBI on 9 May, admitting
later that the Russia investigation was on his mind at the time. The president
later tweeted: “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our
conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
Comey said on Thursday: “I’ve seen the tweet about tapes.
Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”
He added later: “The president surely knows whether he taped
and, if he did, my feelings aren’t hurt. Release all the tapes: I’m good with
it.”
Trump managed to refrain from tweeting during the hearing,
but his personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz in a statement tried to turn the tables
on Comey, saying he had “admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made
unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the
president”.
Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told
reporters: “I can definitively say the president is not a liar. I think it is
frankly insulting that question would be asked.”
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