Comey testimony as it happened: Trump's lawyer hits back at fired FBI director and says he could be investigated
The Independent will be covering his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee live
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Your support makes all the difference.Former FBI Director James Comey is due to give evidence to the Senate Intelligence Committee about conversations he had with President Donald Trump and whether the former businessman pressured him to drop an investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
The committee has already released his prepared opening statement in which he will confirm under oath that Mr Trump tried to get him to drop the probe into whether General Flynn, who was forced to resign two weeks after the inauguration, had met with Russian officials during the campaign to discuss economic sanctions imposed by Barack Obama.
He will also testify about a pair of phone calls with Mr Trump where he had reportedly complained to him about the FBI's investigation into his campaign team's links with Russia, calling it a "cloud" looming over the presidency and reportedly urged mr comey to state publicly that the President himself was not under investigation.
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Mr Comey said he should have been "stronger" in pushing back against Mr Trump over Mr Flynn
The full quote on that exchange:
Ms Feinstein asked why Mr Comey did not say ‘this is wrong’ after Mr Trump said “I hope you can let this go”.
“Maybe if I were stronger, I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in,” Mr Comey says
Mr Comey talks about Mr Trump’s reference to the Russia investigation as a “cloud.”
Mr Comey says Trump’s ask was to establish publicly that he, Trump, was not under investigation. Comey told the president he’d see what could be done.
Comey says his assurance to Trump that “we’ll see what we can do” was a “slightly cowardly way” of getting off the phone.
Then he reported the conversation to his team.
“You have the president of the United States asking you to stop an investigation,” Feinstein says. What did your colleagues think?
They were shocked, Comey says. “They were very concerned.”
“We decided that the best thing to do would be to hold it, keep it in a box.”
Talking about Mr Flynn and Mr Trump's request to "let it go" Mr Comey says:
"I saw the tweet about the tapes, Lordy I hope there are tapes. I remember saying ‘I agree he’s a good guy,’ as a way of saying ‘I’m not agreeing with what you asked me to just do.’
On the topic of tweets, nothing from President Trump yet, but Donald Jr has weighed in on the conversation over Flynn.
Mr Comey tells Marco Rubio that he perceived Mr Trump's comments over Mr Flynn as an 'order'.
Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon. “I believe that the timing of your firing stinks.”
“The odour of presidential abuse of power,” Mr Wyden says, “is so strong.”
Mr Wyden: "Did that dinner suggest that your job may be contingent on how you handle the [Russia] investigation?"
Mr Comey: “I don’t know if I would go that far... Seemed that job could be contingent on how I conduct myself and whether I demonstrated loyalty."
Mr Wyden: "Do you have any information on who recommended or may have been involved in your firing?"
Mr Comey: “I don’t.”
Mr Comey also mentioned Jeff Sessions but he can’t talk in an open setting about why he thought the Attorney General would recuse himself from the Russia case.
Comey says he knew things that would make his "presence in a continued Russia investigation problematic... [things indicating] that he was not going to be in contact with Russia-related matters much longer."
Mr Comey said he spoke to the Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “and explained my serious concern about the way the President was interacting with the FBI.” But he did not tell them what the President had said.
Mr Comey asked a friend, a professor at Columbia Law School, to share the content of his memo - the one with Mr Trump asking him to let the Flynn investigation go - with a reporter.
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