Comey testifies Trump never under investigation

Former FBI director believes he was fired over probe, says White House lied about his dismissal

WASHINGTON — Former FBI Director James Comey asserted Thursday that President Donald Trump fired him because of his conduct of the investigation of alleged Russian interference with the 2016 election, and accused the White House of spreading “lies.”

Comey also admitted that he’d orchestrated the public release of information about his private conversations with the president in an effort to further the investigation.

Comey’s testimony, at a congressional hearing underscored the deep distrust that had soured their relationship before his stunning firing last month.

Comey portrayed Trump as a chief executive skeptical of the FBI’s independence and claimed to interpret Trump’s suggestion to end an investigation into his former national security adviser as an order coming from the president.

He also speculated that the circumstances of his firing, and Trump’s overall behavior toward him, could be investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller for possible obstruction of justice. But he declined to offer an opinion on whether it met such a threshold.

Trump’s attorney, Marc Kasowitz, highlighted Comey’s admission that he had told Trump on multiple occasions that he was not personally under investigation and pointed out the testimony made clear that Trump “never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone.”

Kasowitz also highlighted Comey’s revelation that he had released details of his private conversations with the president, outing the former FBI director as one of the “leakers” set on undermining the Trump administration.

Comey at one point dared Trump to release any recordings of their conversations, a prospect the president once alluded to in a tweet.

“Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey said, suggesting such evidence would back up his account over the president’s.

Thursday’s hearing was Comey’s first public appearance since his May 9 firing and it brought Washington pundits to a standstill as they watched it on television.

In his opening statement, Comey somberly accused the Trump administration of spreading “lies, plain and simple” in the aftermath of his abrupt ouster, declaring that the administration “chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI” by claiming the bureau was in disorder.

In that testimony, Comey said that Trump asked for his loyalty and directly pushed him to “lift the cloud” of investigation by declaring publicly the president was not a target of the FBI probe into his campaign’s Russia ties.

He said that when Trump told him he hoped he would terminate an investigation into Michael Flynn, the ousted national security adviser, he interpreted that as a directive.

“I mean, this is the president of the United States, with me alone, saying, ‘I hope’ this,” he said. “I took it as, this is what he wants me to do.”

Asked whether that February Oval Office discussion amounted to obstruction of justice, Comey said he expected that to be a matter for Mueller, the former FBI director who has taken over the Justice Department’s investigation.

“I’m sure the special counsel will work towards, to try and understand what the intention was there, and whether that’s an offense,” he said.

In a startling admission, Comey revealed that after his firing he actually tried to spur the special counsel’s appointment by giving a memo he had written about a meeting with Trump to a friend to release to the media.

“My judgment was I need to get that out into the public square,” Comey said.

Trump himself was expected to dispute Comey’s claims that the president demanded loyalty and asked the FBI director to drop the investigation into Flynn, according to a person close to the president’s legal team who demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss legal strategy.

Comey also made clear that political entanglement in law enforcement has cut across party lines.

During a discussion of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, Comey disclosed that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, an Obama administration appointee, instructed him to refer to the issue as a “matter,” not an “investigation.”

“That concerned me because that language tracked how the campaign was talking about the FBI’s work and that’s concerning,” Comey said. “We had an investigation open at the time so that gave me a queasy feeling.”