Comey says he was fired because of Russia investigation
Former FBI Director James Comey asserted Thursday that President Donald Trump
fired him to interfere with his investigation of Russia's role in the 2016
election and its ties to the Trump campaign.
"It's my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,"
Comey told the Senate intelligence committee in explosive testimony that
threatened to undermine Trump's presidency.
"I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way
the Russia investigation was being conducted," Comey testified under oath. "That
is a very big deal, and not just because it involves me."
Comey also accused the Trump administration of spreading "lies, plain and
simple" about him and the FBI in the aftermath of his abrupt firing last month,
declaring that the administration "defamed him and more importantly the FBI" by
claiming the bureau was in disorder under his leadership. And in testimony that
exposed deep distrust between the president and the veteran lawman, Comey
described intense discomfort about their one-on-one conversations, saying he
decided he immediately needed to document the discussions in memos.
"I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting,
so I thought it really important to document," Comey said. "I knew there might
come a day when I might need a record of what happened not only to defend myself
but to protect the FBI."
The revelations came as Comey delivered his much anticipated first public
telling of his relationship with Trump, speaking at a packed Senate intelligence
committee hearing that brought Washington and parts of the country to a
standstill as all eyes were glued to televisions showing the testimony.
The
former director immediately dove into the heart of the fraught political
controversy around his firing and whether Trump interfered in the bureau's
Russia investigation, as he elaborated on written testimony
delivered Wednesday. In that testimony he had already 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 FBI
probe into his campaign's Russia ties.
Comey said that he declined to do so in large part because of the "duty to
correct" that would be created if that situation changed. Comey also said in his
written testimony that Trump, in a strange private encounter near the
grandfather clock in the Oval Office, pushed him to end his investigation into
former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia asked Comey the key question:
"Do you believe this arises to obstruction of justice?"
"I don't know. That's Bob Mueller's job to sort that out," Comey responded,
referring to the newly appointed special counsel who has taken over the Justice
Department's Russia investigation.
In a startling disclosure, Comey revealed that after his firing he had
actually tried to spur the special counsel's appointment by giving one of his
memos about Trump to a friend of his to leak to the press.
"My judgment was I need to get that out into the public square," Comey said.
The Republican National Committee and other White House allies worked
feverishly to lessen any damage from the hearing, trying to undermine Comey's
credibility by issuing press releases and even ads pointing to a past instance
where the FBI had had to clean up the director's testimony to Congress.
Republicans and Trump's own lawyer seized on Comey's confirmation, in his
written testimony, of Trump's claim that Comey had told him three times the
president was not directly under investigation.
Trump himself was expected to dispute Comey's claims that the president
demanded loyalty and asked the FBI director to drop the investigation into
Flynn, according to a person close to the president's legal team who demanded
anonymity because of not being authorized to discuss legal strategy. The
president has not yet publicly denied the specifics of Comey's accounts but has
broadly challenged his credibility, tweeting last month Comey "better hope there
are no 'tapes'" of the conversations.
"Lordy, I hope there are tapes," Comey remarked at one point Thursday,
suggesting such evidence would back up his account over any claims from the
president.
But it was a Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who asked the
question that many Republicans have raised in the weeks since Comey's firing as
one media leak followed another revealing Comey's claims about Trump's
inappropriate interactions with him.
Discussing the Oval Office meeting where Comey says Trump asked him to back
off Flynn, Feinstein asked: "Why didn't you stop and say, 'Mr. President, this
is wrong,'?"
"That's a great question," Comey said. "Maybe if I were stronger I would
have. I was so stunned by the conversation I just took it in."
The hearing unfolded amid intense political interest, and within a remarkable
political context as Comey delivered detrimental testimony about the president
who fired him, a president who won election only after Comey damaged his
opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the final days of the campaign. Clinton has blamed
Comey's Oct. 28 announcement that he was re-opening the email investigation for
her defeat. She's argued she was on track to a victory when Comey's move raised
fresh doubts about her. "If the election were on Oct. 27, I would be your
president," Clinton said last month.
Many Democrats blame Comey for Clinton's loss, leading Trump to apparently
believe they would applaud him for firing Comey last month. The opposite was the
case as the firing created an enormous political firestorm that has stalled
Trump's legislative agenda on Capitol Hill and taken over Washington.
Under questioning Thursday, Comey strongly asserted the intelligence
community's conclusion that Russia did indeed meddle in the 2016 election.
"There should be no fuzz on this. The Russians interfered," Comey stated
firmly. "That happened. It's about as unfake as you can possibly get."
Trump has begrudgingly accepted the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia
interfered with the election. But he has also suggested he doesn't believe it,
saying Russia is a "ruse" and calling the investigation into the matter a "witch
hunt."
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Annotated testimony:
Source: Associated Press
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