He added: “I really want to have a very good first contact with President Trump”.
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Comey’s accusations could further mire Trump’s administration in legal difficulties. “I have to tell you, and I wonder if you would agree with me, Jeffrey, if you and I will focus expert witnesses in an impeachment trial of President Trump, and we were asked the question, has President Trump committed an obstruction of justice by pardoning Flynn, or by firing Comey, or by telling Comey not to investigate Flynn, my answer as an expert on the Constitution would be absolutely not”.
The White House and Trump’s lawyers expressed vindication over some parts of Comey’s testimony and lashed out at others.
“That’s a great question”, Comey said. “Lordy, I hope there are tapes”, he said.
Detailing private talks with a sitting president, which under normal circumstances would never see the light of day, Comey said he took painstaking notes of the extraordinary encounters for fear Trump might “lie” about the meetings.
Comey also pointed out that they were right – Sessions recused himself from the Russian Federation investigation less than two weeks later.
But the White House and Trump’s allies have sought to put a positive spin on Comey’s revelations.
Comey also told the committee he and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was said to be in disarray with poor leadership, were defamed by the Trump administration after the sacking: “Those were lies, plain and simple”, Comey said.
Former FBI Director James Comey testified Thursday before the Senate.
“If you REALLY thought Trump was putting pressure on you to shut down the Russian Federation investigation, why didn’t you tell Attorney General Jeff Sessions?” .
“Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or, for that matter, any other criminal offense, where they said or thought they hoped for an outcome?” Mueller is now looking at whether the president obstructed justice. If Trump hadn’t fired Comey, or possibly if he’d just fired him in a sensible and professional manner, then Comey might not have testified at all. He hoped the news would trigger the appointment of a special counsel, which it did.
But Comey did what most people do, he kept his head down and figured eventually his boss would figure out, “This is not how this works”, because everyone thinks they can manage a awful boss.
“That’s Bob Mueller’s job to sort that out”, he said.
Former FBI director James Comey listens to the committee chairman at the beginning of the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 8, 2017, in Washington.
In a statement Thursday night pushing back on parts of Comey’s testimony, DOJ said the only reason for Sessions’ recusal was his connection to the campaign.
“Comey is going to dispute the president on this point if he’s asked about it by senators, and we have to assume that he will be”, Borger told one panel.
“We will establish the facts separate from rampant speculation and lay them out for the American people to make their own judgment”, he said. Trump has repeatedly railed against the media, which has produced a constant drumbeat of stories based on leaked information describing the Russian Federation ties and alleged attempts by the White House to shut down the investigation.
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Kasowitz released an angry – and appallingly typed – statement to the press accusing Comey of leaking confidential information by handing over his memos about conversations with Trump to someone he knew would in turn provide the information to the media. Comey said he did this in hopes that a special counsel would be appointed to the Russian Federation investigation. 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. But this is an “unresolved legal debate”, said Andrew Wright, a professor at Savannah Law School. Obstruction was an article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon before he resigned and was one of the counts on which the House of Representatives impeached President Bill Clinton, who was later acquitted by the Senate.
