Former FBI Director James Comey says President Donald Trump fired him last month because he did not like the way Comey was handling the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination by the Trump campaign.
“It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” Comey testified during his much anticipated appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. “I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal, and not just because it involves me.”
Comey added that the Russia investigation is “vital” because of the threat the Kremlin poses to the U.S. “If any Americans were part of helping the Russians do that to us, that is a very big deal,” he said.
But when asked if the President was obstructing justice by firing him, Comey refused to answer, saying that would be up to the special counsel.
During his testimony, Comey detailed his contacts with Trump — nine one-on-one conversations, according to the former director — and the president’s repeated requests for “loyalty” from him.
Comey told senators that the president directed him to drop the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who the president asked to resign less than one month into the administration after revelations Flynn had lied about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
Comey wrote in his opening statement that the president told him, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” Comey told senators he took the president’s statement on the Flynn probe “as a direction.”
“I mean, this is a president of the United States with me alone saying I hope this. I took it as, this is what he wants me to do. I didn't obey that, but that's the way I took it,” Comey said.
Comey said the question of whether Flynn made false statements to the FBI regarding his Russian contacts “was the subject of the criminal inquiry.”
“General Flynn at that point in time was in legal jeopardy. There was an open FBI criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the Russian contacts, and the contacts themselves,” Comey said.
Comey also noted at several points that he could not elaborate on some questions in a public setting, notably concerning what he knows about the Russian government-owned development bank VEB, under sanctions by the U.S., and why he believed Attorney General Jeff Sessions would recuse himself from the investigation. Sessions did eventually recuse himself when it became public that he had met with Russian officials during the presidential campaign.
“Our judgment, as I recall, is that he was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons,” Comey said. “We also were aware of facts that I can't discuss in an opening setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic.”
On the question of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Comey said “there should be no fuzz on this whatsoever.”
“The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle. They did with purpose. They did it with sophistication. They did it with overwhelming technical efforts. It was an active measures campaign driven from the top of that government. There is no fuzz on that,” Comey said.
Comey added, “it's not a close call. That happened. That's about as unfake as you can possibly get. It is very, very serious.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a cyber and influence campaign aimed at interfering in the U.S. election and boosting Trump’s chances, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment on Russian hacking and efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.
“People need to recognize it. It's not about Republicans or Democrats. They're coming after America, which I hope we all love equally. They want to undermine our credibility in the face the world. They think that this great experiment of ours is a threat to them. So they're going to try to run it down and dirty it up as much as possible,” Comey said.
Comey also discussed what Trump raised with him about the investigation into possible coordination between Trump campaign associates and the Russians. In March, Comey confirmed the FBI’s investigation for the first time. The counterintelligence probe began in late July 2016.
In the wake of Comey’s dismissal, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into whether there was any coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia to interfere in last year’s presidential election.
According to Comey, Trump repeatedly described the Russia investigation as a “cloud.” During a March 30 phone call, Comey said in his opening statement, Trump told him “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. He asked what we could do to ‘lift the cloud.’”
Comey also told senators that he has turned over to Mueller the memos he wrote after speaking with the president. The former FBI director said he decided to take notes because of "the circumstances, the subject matter and the person I was interacting with." He said he was concerned Trump “might lie about the nature of our meeting.”
With both former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, Comey said he did not feel the need to document his meetings as he did with Trump.
Meanwhile, as to his firing, Comey said Trump and his administration spread “lies, plain and simple” about him and the Bureau after he was dismissed.
The former FBI director told senators that the shifting explanations behind it “confused me and increasingly concerned me.” Initially, Trump said Comey was fired due to his handling of the the investigation into Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s email server. The president shortly after then said he had been thinking of “this Russia thing” when he made his decision.
“Although the law required no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader,” Comey said. “Those were lies, plain and simple.”
Trump’s attorney attorney Marc Kasowitz said in a statement that Comey’s testimony "makes clear that the president never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election." He also said that "the president never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including suggesting that Mr. Comey 'let Flynn go.'"
White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, meanwhile, told reporters Thursday that Trump is “not a liar.”
Mackenzie Weinger is a national security reporter at The Cipher Brief. Follow her on Twitter @mweinger.
