The fired FBI chief, James Comey, has publicly revealed how Donald Trump put pressure on him to shut down an investigation into a senior adviser’s links to Russia.
Trump asked Comey to drop his investigation into the former national security adviser Gen Michael Flynn, Comey’s first written account of his interactions says.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” the president is alleged to have told Comey in the White House in February. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
Comey, who was subsequently dismissed by Trump, writes that he understood the president to be asking him to drop the investigation into Flynn, an intervention he found “very concerning”.
Comey’s statement for the record was released on Wednesday ahead of his eagerly awaited appearance before the Senate intelligence committee on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Over seven pages, he provides intriguing detail about his private conversations with Trump, including a 30 March phone call in which Trump asked what Comey could do to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation.
The document appears certain to become the focus of an investigation into whether Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice, an offence for which he could be impeached.
It tells how, over dinner on 27 January, Trump told him repeatedly, “I need loyalty,” and, in a phone call on 30 March, he asked what Comey could do to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation.
In between, on 14 February, Comey recalls a meeting at the Oval Office with a group of senior officials who were then asked to leave the room. He writes: “When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the President began by saying, ‘I want to talk about Mike Flynn.’ Flynn had resigned the previous day. The President began by saying Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice President. He added that he had other concerns about Flynn, which he did not then specify.
“The President then made a long series of comments about the problem with leaks of classified information – a concern I shared and still share.”
After a brief interruption, Trump resumed. “The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, ‘He is a good guy and has been through a lot.’ He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President.
Analysis Danger for Trump from Comey hearing lies in three words: obstruction of justice
Testimony could establish whether Trump’s conversations with the ex-FBI chief were simply high-level confidential chatter – or something crossing into illegality
Read more
“He then said, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.’ I replied only that ‘he is a good guy’. (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would ‘let this go’.”
Comey adds that he immediately prepared an unclassified memo of the conversation about Flynn and discussed the matter with FBI senior leadership. “I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign.
“I could be wrong, but I took him to be focusing on what had just happened with Flynn’s departure and the controversy around his account of his phone calls. Regardless, it was very concerning, given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency.”
In another critical and vividly described scene, Trump invited Comey to dinner at the White House on 27 January and repeatedly asked the FBI director to pledge his personal loyalty.
“It turned out to be just the two of us, seated at a small oval table in the center of the Green Room. Two Navy stewards waited on us, only entering the room to serve food and drinks,” Comey writes.
Trump started off the conversation by asking Comey whether he wanted to stay in his job, which the FBI director said he “found strange” as the president had already told him in earlier conversations he wanted Comey to stay.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/07/james-comey-trump-congress-statement
Trump asked Comey to drop his investigation into the former national security adviser Gen Michael Flynn, Comey’s first written account of his interactions says.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” the president is alleged to have told Comey in the White House in February. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
Comey, who was subsequently dismissed by Trump, writes that he understood the president to be asking him to drop the investigation into Flynn, an intervention he found “very concerning”.
Comey’s statement for the record was released on Wednesday ahead of his eagerly awaited appearance before the Senate intelligence committee on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Over seven pages, he provides intriguing detail about his private conversations with Trump, including a 30 March phone call in which Trump asked what Comey could do to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation.
The document appears certain to become the focus of an investigation into whether Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice, an offence for which he could be impeached.
It tells how, over dinner on 27 January, Trump told him repeatedly, “I need loyalty,” and, in a phone call on 30 March, he asked what Comey could do to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation.
In between, on 14 February, Comey recalls a meeting at the Oval Office with a group of senior officials who were then asked to leave the room. He writes: “When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the President began by saying, ‘I want to talk about Mike Flynn.’ Flynn had resigned the previous day. The President began by saying Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice President. He added that he had other concerns about Flynn, which he did not then specify.
“The President then made a long series of comments about the problem with leaks of classified information – a concern I shared and still share.”
After a brief interruption, Trump resumed. “The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, ‘He is a good guy and has been through a lot.’ He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President.
Analysis Danger for Trump from Comey hearing lies in three words: obstruction of justice
Testimony could establish whether Trump’s conversations with the ex-FBI chief were simply high-level confidential chatter – or something crossing into illegality
Read more
“He then said, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.’ I replied only that ‘he is a good guy’. (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would ‘let this go’.”
Comey adds that he immediately prepared an unclassified memo of the conversation about Flynn and discussed the matter with FBI senior leadership. “I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign.
“I could be wrong, but I took him to be focusing on what had just happened with Flynn’s departure and the controversy around his account of his phone calls. Regardless, it was very concerning, given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency.”
In another critical and vividly described scene, Trump invited Comey to dinner at the White House on 27 January and repeatedly asked the FBI director to pledge his personal loyalty.
“It turned out to be just the two of us, seated at a small oval table in the center of the Green Room. Two Navy stewards waited on us, only entering the room to serve food and drinks,” Comey writes.
Trump started off the conversation by asking Comey whether he wanted to stay in his job, which the FBI director said he “found strange” as the president had already told him in earlier conversations he wanted Comey to stay.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/07/james-comey-trump-congress-statement