Comey testimony: Watch the fired FBI Director's hearing against Trump live
Mr Comey's testimony has been dubbed the 'Super Bowl of Washington'
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Your support makes all the difference.Former FBI Director James Comey’s prepared testimony before the Senate includes confirmation that Donald Trump pressured him to drop an FBI investigation, demanded loyalty from the former intelligence chief, and insisted that he “had not been involved with hookers in Russia”.
What other secrets Mr Comey may have to disclose could be on full display during his live testimony in the Senate, which can be viewed below.
In his prepared remarks, Mr Comey details several interactions with Mr Trump that left him feeling “uneasy”. As a top ranking intelligence chief who technically reported to the Justice Department, Mr Comey at one point sought out shelter from private interactions with the President by asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to play interference on that front after Mr Trump once dismissed the attorney general and his deputy in order to have a private conversation with the former FBI chief.
In that conversation, Mr Trump asked that Mr Comey’s FBI drop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Mr Flynn was fired less than a month into the Trump White House after it was determined that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, saying that he had not discussed sanctions on Russia related to meddling in the 2016 election even though he had.
That tidbit regarding Mr Flynn has created quite a bit of intrigue, with many wondering if those conversations constitute obstruction of justice on the President's behalf.
Since his ouster, it has been reported that Mr Flynn had even more extensive connections to Russia, including monetary connections related to speeches and lobbying for Russia allies.
Questions about the Trump campaign’s potential connections to Russian officials and meddling have formed, as Mr Trump told Mr Comey during a meeting between the two, a cloud over the administration. Several members of Trump’s campaign reportedly had potentially inappropriate conversations with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign or transition, including the President’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.
Following Mr Comey’s firing, the Justice Department acted quickly to install a special counsel to probe Russia’s 2016 meddling, and whether Trump officials were complicit — knowingly or not — in that effort. The man in charge of that effort, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, has installed several seasoned prosecutors to help him out. That group includes prosecutors who worked on the Watergate scandal that led to former President Richard Nixon’s resignation, as well as prosecutors who worked on Enron and mafia investigations.
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