‘Very awkward’ as Trump asked FBI to drop Russia probe
SACKED Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey has revealed all about his “very awkward” private encounters with US President Donald Trump.
Mr Comey has released a seven-page statement laying out in detail each meeting and phone call he had with the President.
The statement comes ahead of Mr Comey’s anticipated testimony tonight to the US Senate committee investigating whether Russia interfered with the US election and whether Mr Trump’s camp helped out.
The statement confirms Mr Trump repeatedly demanded Mr Comey’s loyalty, that Mr Trump urged him to “let go” of his investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and that he pressured him to “lift the cloud” of the FBI probe into Russian meddling.
Mr Comey describes a one-on-one dinner Mr Trump invited him to at the White House on January 27, when the President surprised him by asking whether he wanted to stay on as FBI director.
“I replied that I loved my work and intended to stay and serve out my 10-year term as director. And then, because the set-up made me uneasy, I added that I was not ‘reliable’ in the way politicians use that word, but he could always count on me to tell him the truth,” Mr Comey said in the statement.
“I added that I was not on anybody’s side politically and could not be counted on in the traditional political sense, a stance I said was in his best interest as the President.
“A few moments later, the President said, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty’.
“I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence.”
Mr Trump returned to the subject later in the dinner, demanding Mr Comey’s loyalty a second time.
Later in the statement, Mr Comey confirms earlier reports that Mr Trump pressured him to drop the FBI probe into Michael Flynn, who resigned after misleading White House staff about conversations he had with Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.
Mr Comey describes how Mr Trump asked him to stay behind after a meeting in the Oval Office on February 14.
The President told him Mr Flynn “hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice-President”.
“He is a good guy and has been through a lot,” Mr Trump reportedly said to Mr Comey. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy.”
Mr Comey said he he did not agree to drop the Flynn investigation.
CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin said Mr Trump’s actions in this episode amounted to “obstruction of justice”.
In a later conversation on March 30, Mr Trump ratcheted up the pressure on Mr Comey over the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the election.
The President called him and said the Russian investigation was “impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country”, Mr Comey wrote in his statement.
“He asked what we could do to ‘lift the cloud’,” it reads.
“I responded that we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could, and that there would be great benefit, if we didn’t find anything, to our having done the work well. He agreed, but then re-emphasised the problems this was causing him.”