TRUMP’S ‘LIES’

Comey recalled that the president asked him for “loyalty” and to lay off his former national security adviser Mike Flynn, who is under criminal investigation over his Russia ties, imploring Comey to “let this go”.

Comey indicated that it was now up to a high-powered special prosecutor to determine whether that behaviour, and his own sacking, constituted an obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense.

“It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” he told senators.

“I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavour was, to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal.”

Easing months of speculation, Comey did confirm that Trump was not personally the subject of a counterterror or criminal probe when he left the FBI last month.

The White House and Trump’s lawyers expressed vindication over some parts of Comey’s testimony and lashed out at others.

“I can definitely say the president is not a liar and frankly am insulted by that question,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Lawyer Marc Kasowitz said the president “never told Mr Comey ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty’ in form or substance”, rejecting a key allegation made by Comey.

Deploying Trump’s trademark bare-knuckle style, Kasowitz also suggested that Comey should be prosecuted for leaking “privileged information”.

Trump avoided directly responding to the explosive accusations, defiantly telling supporters at a religious event in the capital: “We are going to fight and win.”

After solemnly raising his right hand and vowing to tell the whole truth, a visibly aggrieved Comey kicked off his testimony with a bid to set the record straight about the state of the bureau he led until he was sacked last month.

“Although the law requires no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organisation was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader,” he charged.

“Those were lies, plain and simple.”

Trump abruptly fired Comey as director of the FBI on May 9, admitting later that the Russia probe was on his mind at the time.

In his written statement, Comey described his mounting discomfort in the weeks leading up to his dismissal as Trump pulled him aside in person and phoned to press him on the probe into his campaign associates and possible collusion with a Russian effort to tilt last year’s presidential election in the Republican’s favour.

At a private White House dinner on Jan 27, just days after the billionaire took office, Comey said Trump appeared to want to “create some sort of patronage relationship” with him.

“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.”

In an Oval Office tête-à-tête the following month, Comey said Trump pressed him to drop the FBI investigation into Flynn, who had been fired for lying to the vice-president about his unreported conversations with the Russian ambassador.

And he described trying to insulate himself and the FBI from political pressure, as the president complained about the Russian probe and labeled it “fake news”. AFP

I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavour was, to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal.