Comey: Trump sought his ‘loyalty’
Fired FBI director’s prepared testimony released ahead of Senate intelligence committee hearing
WASHINGTON — Fired FBI Director James Comey will testify under oath Thursday that President Donald Trump repeatedly pressed him for his “loyalty” and directly pushed him to “lift the cloud” of investigation shadowing his White House by declaring publicly the president was not the target of the probe into his campaign’s Russia ties.
Mr. Comey’s detailed and vivid recollections of his one-on-one conversations with Mr. Trump — and the then-FBI director’s growing unease with the nature of the demands being made of him in their private conversations — were revealed in seven pages of prepared testimony released Wednesday, the day before his much-anticipated appearance before the Senate intelligence committee.
The committee Wednesday afternoon took the unusual step of releasing Mr. Comey’s planned written statement shortly after the end of a contentious hearing Wednesday during which two senior intelligence officials repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether Mr. Trump had asked them to
intervene with the FBI to try to impede or alter the investigation.
By asking that his remarks be released a day early, Mr. Comey also overshadowed the president’s announcement that he would nominate Christopher Wray — a lowkey and deliberative whitecollar criminal defense attorney who led the Justice Department’s criminal division during the George W. Bush administration and later represented New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former Justice Department colleague, in the so-called Bridgegate scandal — to be the next FBI director. And Mr. Comey surprised the White House, which had been preparing to defend against him, but not until Thursday.
Republicans and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Mark Kasowitz said Mr. Comey’s testimony is obvious vindication for a beleaguered Mr. Trump. At the same time, Democrats saw new evidence of a president looking to obstructjustice.
Mr. Comey draws no legal conclusions in his statement and does not accuse Mr. Trump of seeking to obstruct justice. Instead, Mr. Comey’s remarks paint a picture of an FBI director so disconcerted by his interactions with the president that he began keeping written memos of their private discussions. He’ll tell lawmakers he believed the president was trying to create a “patronage relationship” with him and describe in detail an Oval Office meeting in which Mr. Trump urged him not to investigate ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Russianofficials.
But the ex-FBI director also will validate Mr. Trump’s assertion that he was not personally a target of the federal counterintelligence investigation into possible campaign collusion with Russia. Mr. Comey says he did offer the president that “assurance,” but resisted Mr. Trump’s appeals to make that informationpublic.
“The FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump … because it would create a duty to correct, should that change,” Mr. Comeysays in the remarks.
Mr. Comey’s statement camehours after two top intelligence officials told lawmakers they never felt “pressured” to do anything inappropriate by the president. But Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Adm. Mike Rogers, the director of theNational Security Agency, angered members of the Senateintelligence committee by refusing to answer questions about conversations theyhad with Mr. Trump.
The ex-FBI director’s testimony recounts his conversations with the apparent precision of a veteran lawman. Mr. Comey notes he had nine oneon-one interactions with Mr. Trump over a four-month stretch, compared to two private conversations with thenPresident Barack Obama between September 2013 and the end of 2016. He also says he did not keep written memos of his interactionswith Mr. Obama.
The first meeting with Mr. Trump after the inauguration occurred on Jan. 27, during a private dinner at the White House that Mr. Comey came to view as an attempt by the president to “create some sort ofpatronage relationship.”
According to Mr. Comey, Mr.Trump asked if he wanted to remain as FBI director and declared:“I need loyalty.”
Mr. Comey also describes at length a Feb. 14 meeting in theOval Office in which he believed Mr. Trump asked him to back off an investigation intoMr. Flynn.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly cast the Russia investigation asa “hoax” and denied having anyimproper ties to Moscow.
The White House initially said Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey on the recommendation of the Justice Department, citing as justification a memo from Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, that criticized Mr. Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But Mr. Trump later said he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he fired Mr. Comey and would have dismissed him without the JusticeDepartment’s input.