He seized on an excerpt shown Saturday in which Comey said his belief that Clinton would beat Trump in the 2016 presidential race was probably a factor in his decision to disclose, just days before the election, a renewed investigation into her emails. On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Comey “will be forever known as a disgraced partisan hack”.
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Comey also said that when Trump said in a later meeting the two discussed an investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump’s first choice to be national security adviser, and his contacts with Russian.
Trump tweeted on Sunday that he “hardly even knew this guy”.
“It’s possible that in the moment, I should – you know, another person would have said, ‘Sir, you can’t ask me that”.
Trump is again calling former FBI Director James Comey a “slimeball” ahead of the publication of his new book, set for Tuesday. As he likes to say now, he doesn’t know if his public disclosures affected the election, but he really thought they wouldn’t because the polls were so clear.
Stephanopoulos asked “Why is President Trump so reluctant to call out Vladimir Putin?”
Trump has denied that conversation, but Comey insisted that it definitely occurred.
“With that direction, was President Trump obstructing justice?”
Comey cited Trump’s response to the white-nationalist riots in Charlottesville, his treatment of women, and his tendency to make misleading and exaggerated statements as reasons behind his assessment of the president. One, as a counter intelligence person I’m thinking, “That’s crazy-” without any Americans being present, one.
Comey testified before Congress Trump’s quest for loyalty made him uncomfortable.
“There’s certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice”, Comey said.
But Comey writes in his book that after the 2016 election, then-President Obama told Comey that he remained confident in his “integrity” and “ability”. “I can’t trust him”.
He was sacked by Trump in May 2017.
For the most part, Comey avoided commenting on the ongoing Russian Federation investigation.
While there are still some unanswered questions, of course, ABC’s Sunday night telecast told the Comey tale from start to finish.
He replied: “I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been”.
“I did not go into the business about people peeing on each other”, he said. “Lynch said the discussion did not involve the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use, and a Bill Clinton aide said the meeting came because “[Clinton and Lynch] realized they were both sitting on the same tarmac”. He says he agrees now with the criticism that his remarks muddied important issues. Video 2: He says he thinks the Russians may have something on Trump. Video 3: He talks about Trump demanding loyalty.
Clinton has asserted that she would have been elected president if Comey hadn’t re-opened the investigation. The polls swung considerably against Hillary Clinton after Comey’s October 28 announcement, and didn’t recover when he declared two days before the election that the investigation hadn’t actually turned up anything incriminating about her.
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Comey said he didn’t believe the allegation, but feared that if it ever came out, it would destroy the credibility of the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Comey answers, “I don’t know is the honest answer”. So far, 19 people have been charged in the investigation.
