Comey: Trump told ‘lies, plain and simple’
Ex-FBI director claims he was sacked over Russian investigation
SACKED FBI director James Comey branded Donald Trump a liar yesterday as he gave explosive evidence at a hearing about the president’s links to Russia.
He said he had been so worried Mr Trump would lie about their meetings that he took detailed notes after each encounter.
Mr Comey described one exchange as ‘a very disturbing thing, very concerning’ as he gave evidence to an inquiry into alleged Russian interference in the presidential election.
After accusing Mr Trump’s White House of spreading ‘lies, plain and simple’ about him and the FBI, he admitted he ensured his memos were leaked to the press in order to spark an investigation by a special counsel.
The admission prompted Mr Trump’s lawyer to respond with a statement which accused Mr Comey of the ‘unauthorised disclosure’ of ‘privileged communications’. He suggested the former crime agency boss himself should be investigated for leaking the memos to the press, one of which Mr Comey admitted concerned a classified conversation.
The statement also made clear that the president denies several of the damning pieces of evidence which Mr Comey gave under oath in a session that lasted for nearly three hours.
The former FBI boss accused Mr Trump of pressuring him to stop investigating former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had been sacked over his dealings with Russia.
His accusations relate to a meeting at the White House in February in which Mr Comey says the president said he ‘hoped’ the FBI chief would ‘let Flynn go’ by dropping the investigation as he was a ‘good guy’.
Mr Comey said he took those remarks as a ‘direction’ and an ‘order’ from Mr Trump to drop the investigation.
He compared it to Henry II’s infamous comment about Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket, ‘Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?’, which promped a group of knights to murder the archbishop.
He insisted it was up to others to decide if this amounted to obstruction of justice – a crime which could lead to the president being impeached.
‘I don’t think it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning,’ Mr Comey told the committee.
Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz rejected the allegations made under oath, saying in a statement: ‘The president never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr Comey stop investigating anyone, including suggesting that Mr Comey “let Flynn go”.’
He also denied the president had demanded loyalty from his FBI chief. His statement added: ‘It is overwhelmingly clear that there have been and continue to be those in government who are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications. Mr Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers.’
Mr Comey’s testimony came after weeks of speculation that he could deliver a fatal blow to an administration that continues to be dogged by claims that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the presidential election.
In Washington, office staff took the morning off and headed to their local bars to watch the three hours of testimony as if it was a sports final. They saw Mr Comey accuse the Trump administration of lying by claiming the president got rid of him because the FBI was falling apart under his leadership.
Instead, Mr Comey insisted he was sacked because of his handling of the FBI’s investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.
Mr Comey said of his dismissal: ‘The administration chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying the organisation was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader.’
‘Those were lies, plain and simple, and I’m so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them, and I’m so sorry the American people were told them.’
He told the panel: ‘It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation.
‘I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal.’
In his testimony, Mr Comey explained that he documented each meeting because he thought Mr Trump might be dishonest about what had taken place – a practice he never felt obliged to undertake with former presidents George W Bush or Barack Obama.
‘I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of
‘Ordered to stop investigating’ ‘Lordy, I hope there are tapes’
our meeting, and so I thought it really important to document,’ he said of their first conversation at Trump Tower in New York in January.
Mr Comey also claims Mr Trump demanded his ‘loyalty’ and made him so worried about their relationship that he asked the US Attorney General to ensure he and the president were never left alone together.
The dispute boils down to Mr Trump’s word against Mr Comey’s, although the president hinted there might be tapes of their conversations. ‘Lordy, I hope there are tapes,’ said Mr Comey.
Mr Trump told a rally yesterday: ‘We are under siege but will come back stronger’.