Donald Trumped: Comey says Prez is a liar – and admits he's a leaker

Testimony paints lurid picture (and we’re not talking golden showers)

Comey: I'm a leaker!

After most of his meetings with Trump, Comey said that he made detailed notes as soon as possible and circulated them to senior staff at the FBI. But after he was fired on May 9, and Trump started talking about him online, Comey admitted he became a leaker – giving his notes to a friend to pass to journalists.

The reason given for Comey's firing was originally put down to advice from the Deputy Attorney General that the FBI boss had overstepped his responsibilities by clearing Hillary Clinton publicly of legal issues with running her private email server. But within days, the president contradicted the official line and said it was related to the Russia investigation.

"When I decided [to fire Comey], I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story'," the President said on May 11. The following day he tweeted out a thinly veiled warning to Comey.

James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017

"The President tweeted on Friday, after I got fired, that I better hope there's not tapes," Comey told today's hearing. "I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, because it didn't dawn on me originally, that there might be corroboration for our conversation, there might be a tape."

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"Lordy, I hope there are tapes," Comey told Congress.

Comey had written a memo after another unusual meeting with the president on Valentine's Day, when he was asked to stay behind after a meeting of intelligence chiefs in the Oval Office. Trump asked everyone in the room to leave and then asked Comey to drop the investigation into Mike Flynn.

"He's a good guy and has been through a lot," Comey claims Trump said. "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He's a good guy, I hope you can let this go."

The inference unnerved Comey, he said, since while not a direct order, it was not something he was used to hearing from presidents. Comey quoted Henry II's "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?", which led to the murder of Thomas Becket, and Senator King said that was exactly the analogy he was about to use.

Senator Kamela Harris (D-CA) was even more blunt. She remarked to Comey that if someone put a gun to his head and said he hoped he would hand over his wallet, the inference was pretty clear.

After Trump's tweet, Comey said he decided to share the memo of the meeting with a close friend, now identified as Columbia law professor Daniel Richman, with the intention of it being leaked to the press. The New York Times published a story on the meeting using the memo as a basis.

Comey said he leaked the memo to get a special prosecutor involved, which later happened. He didn't leak directly because he feared a media frenzy, saying he was "worried it'd be like feeding seagulls at the beach."

Obstruction of justice?

The memo could prove problematic for Trump in more ways than one. Not only does it contradict his assertion that he didn't ask for the Flynn investigation to be curtailed, but the issue of tapes – or more likely digital recordings – now comes to the fore.

Comey isn't dumb – he wouldn't have made these statements unless he was sure of their veracity. So if there are recordings of that White House dinner, he appears confident that they will bear out his side of the story.

If such recordings exist, then it would also open the door to possible charges of obstruction of justice. Asking law enforcement to go easy on a chum could be seen as obstruction, a charge Comey said he could not make a judgement on.

"I don't know, it's Bob Mueller's job to sort that out," referring to the special counsel for the Russia investigation.

In the wake of Comey's testimony Marc Kasowitz, President Trump's personal lawyer, issued the following statement:

Contrary to numerous false press accounts leading up to today's hearing, Mr Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told the President privately: The President was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference. He also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference.

Mr Comey's testimony also makes clear that the President never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election, and in fact, according to Mr Comey, the President told Mr Comey, "it would be good to find out" in that investigation if there were "some 'satellite' associates of his who did something wrong." And he did not exclude anyone from that statement.

Consistent with that statement, the President never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr Comey stop investigating anyone, including suggesting that that Mr Comey "let Flynn go." As he publicly stated the next day, he did say to Mr Comey, "General Flynn is a good guy, he has been through a lot," and also "asked how is General Flynn is doing." Admiral Rogers testified that the President never "directed [him] to do anything ... illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate" and never "pressured to do so." Director Coates said the same thing. The President likewise never pressured Mr Comey.

The President also never told Mr Comey, "I need loyalty, I expect loyalty" in form or substance. Of course, the Office of the President is entitled to expect loyalty from those who are serving in an administration, and, from before this President took office to this day, it is overwhelmingly clear that there have been and continue to be those in government who are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications. Mr Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers.

Today, Mr Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President. The leaks of this privileged information began no later than March 2017 when friends of Mr Comey have stated he disclosed to them the conversations he had with the President during their January 27, 2017 dinner and February 14, 2017 White House meeting.

Today, Mr Comey admitted that he leaked to friends his purported memos of these privileged conversations, one of which he testified was classified. He also testified that immediately after he was terminated he authorized his friends to leak the contents of these memos to the press in order to "prompt the appointment of a special counsel."

Although Mr Comey testified he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet, the public record reveals that the New York Times was quoting from these memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies Mr Comey's excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory. We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated.

In sum, it is now established that the President was not being investigated for colluding with the Russians or attempting to obstruct that investigation. As the Committee pointed out today, these important facts for the country to know are virtually the only facts that have not leaked during the long course of these events.

As he said yesterday, the President feels completely vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda with this public cloud removed.

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