Trump asked Comey to halt Flynn probe: report
Report: Notes reveal pressure over Flynn case
Donald Trump asked FBI director James Comey to shut down an investigation into the president’s former national security adviser, according to the New York Times.
Comey, who was suddenly fired by Trump last week, wrote a detailed two page memo about a conversation he had in the Oval Office with the president the day after Michael Flynn resigned.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump told Comey, according to the memo.
“He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
Trump told Comey that Flynn had done nothing wrong, the Times reported the memo as saying.
Comey did not say anything to Trump about curtailing the investigation, only replying: “I agree he is a good guy.”
On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that people close to the matter said Comey kept detailed notes of his multiple conversations with Trump.
Details of Comey’s notes were shared with a very small circle of people at the FBI and Justice Department, these people said.
Comey’s description of the event make clear his understanding of the conversation was that the president was seeking to impede the investigation, according to people who had read the account or had it read to them, these people said. Comey felt the conversation was improper and decided to keep the details of the conversations away from the case agents working on the Russia probe.
Flynn quit after misleading top White House officials about his contacts with Russia, including Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
The White House said the report about the memo was “not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”
The White House said that while the president had expressed his view that Flynn was a “decent man,” he had never asked Comey or anyone else to end any investigations involving him.
Trump abruptly fired Comey last week, saying he did so based on his very public handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe.
The revelation over the Comey memo comes as Trump and the White House are dealing with the fallout from the president disclosing classified information to senior Russian officials in the Oval Office.
But the extraordinary leak of Trump’s private Oval Office conversations — and now the leaking of the Comey memo — appear to be a direct consequence of the president’s combative relationship with the U.S. spy agencies. The White House vowed to track down those who disclosed the information.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said unauthorized leaking of sensitive or classified information was “frankly dangerous.”
And earlier Tuesday, Trump tweeted that he had asked Comey and others “from the beginning of my administration, to find the LEAKERS in the intelligence community.”
During a meeting last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak, Trump shared details about an Islamic State terror threat related to the use of laptop computers on aircraft, according to a U.S. official.
The official said the disclosure came as Trump boasted about his access to classified intelligence. An excerpt from an official transcript of the meeting reveals that Trump told them, “I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day.” The official said the revelation potentially put the source at risk.
After he spoke with the Russians, Trump was informed that he had broken protocol and White House officials placed calls to the National Security Agency and the CIA looking to minimize any damage.
However, the White House said the disclosure of the information was “wholly appropriate.”
In a series of morning tweets, Trump declared he had “an absolute right” as president to share “facts pertaining to terrorism” and airline safety with Russia.
Although top aides on Monday had declared reports about Trump’s discussions false, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Tuesday sought instead to downplay the significance of the information he revealed.
“In the context of that discussion, what the president discussed with the foreign minister was wholly appropriate to that conversation,” McMaster said.
The intel about the Islamic State plot was collected by Israel, a crucial source of intelligence.