COMEY GETS HIS TURN Ex-chief: Trump pressed on Flynn

Former FBI director James Comey confirmed in detail Wednesday that President Trump privately requested his loyalty and urged him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to a preview of his testimony.

Comey outlined nine contacts with the president in a sevenpage opening statement filed with the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he is due to speak publicly for the first time since he was fired in May in the midst of a widening FBI investigation into whether Trump associates colluded with Russian officials who allegedly sought to influence the presidential election by hacking Democrats.

These contacts included a hastily arranged dinner Jan. 27 in which Trump told the FBI chief overseeing the Russia inquiry, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’’

“I didn’t move, speak or change my facial expression any way during the awkward silence that followed,” Comey said. “We simply looked at each other in silence.”

On Feb. 14 at the White House, Comey said, Trump strongly defended Flynn, saying he “hadn’t done anything wrong ” in his contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn had been fired one day earlier for lying to administration officials about his communication with Kislyak.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go,” Comey said, quoting Trump. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Alarmed by the exchange, Comey said he prepared an “unclassified memo” immediately after the conversation and discussed it with FBI leadership.

“I had understood the president to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in

connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December,” Comey said. “I did not understand the president to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign. I could be wrong. … Regardless, it was very concerning given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency.”

Comey’s testimony confirmed the president’s assertions that the director informed him on three occa- sions that he was not a subject of the FBI’s Russia investigation. Comey said he relayed the information to the president during his first briefing with Trump on Jan. 6, the White House dinner Jan. 27 and a telephone call March 30.

“The president feels completely and totally vindicated,” Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz said in a written statement. “He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda.”

Comey’s statement is more than a simple recounting of conversations with Trump. It is remarkable for its detail, describing furnishings in the rooms where they met, their seating arrangements and their often wide-ranging discussions by telephone.

Comey said Trump called him directly at FBI headquarters March 30 and described the Russia inquiry as “a cloud” that impaired the president’s ability to lead the country.

“He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia,” Comey wrote, referring to the sexually charged contents of an unsubstantiated dossier that purported to link Trump to the Kremlin. “He asked what we could do to ‘lift the cloud.’ 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-emphasized the problems this (inquiry) was causing him.”

Comey said he reported the conversation to then-acting deputy attorney general Dana Boente. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from all Russia-related matters because of his own contacts with the Russian ambassador.

“I did not hear back from him before the president called me again two weeks later” to ask what Comey had done to “get out” the word that Trump was “not personally under investigation.”

Comey said he told Trump to pursue that information through Boente’s office, “which was the traditional channel” for contacts between the White House and the FBI.

“The president feels completely and totally vindicated. He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda.” Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz