Trump pressured me to axe inquiry
Sacked FBI chief to testify that president badgered him over Russia links probe
THE sacked director of the FBI will confirm Donald Trump badgered him to drop the inquiry into his election team’s ties to Russia.
James Comey is due to testify as early as next week before the Senate, according to US reports.
The FBI boss was sacked last month, days after requesting an increase in money and staff for the probe into links the US president’s election team had with Moscow.
Initially, the White House said Comey had been fired over his handling of the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of an unsecured server to send classified emails.
However, a day later, Trump said it was his decision. The president allegedly told Russian officials in the Oval Office: “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nutjob.”
Comey has spoken to special counsel Robert Mueller, an ex-FBI director appointed as an independent investigator into Russia’s alleged election links.
Sources say Comey is unlikely to speak about the FBI inquiry in detail when he appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
But it is understood he will discuss his dealings with Trump before he was sacked. The US leader has been accused of trying to obstruct the Russian inquiry, leading some Democrats to call for his impeachment.
Trump said the probe was “the single greatest witch-hunt of a politician in American history”.
Already, it has emerged several of Trump’s aides had 18 previously undisclosed discussions with Moscow officials in the seven months before the election.
They included ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn who was fired, Trump said, after failing to disclose his links with Moscow.
Flynn had been secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign. Meanwhile, Trump is expected to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, defying almost every other country’s policy on tackling climate change.
Two senior US officials, familiar with the president’s plans, claim he will honour his election pledge.
The departure of the States, the world’s secondlargest greenhouse gas polluter, will not end the 195-nation pact. But other countries could ease their commitments on pollution.
Trump, who says the plan harms the US economy, tweeted: “I’ll be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days.”