Comey flatly replied "yes" when asked if he thought Trump fired him because of the Russian Federation probe. The Justice Department informed the White House counsel's office that Flynn was being untruthful shortly after Trump was inaugurated in January.
What time: The hearing begins at 10 a.m. ET. He also says he did not keep written memos of his interactions with Obama. Trump Jr posted repeatedly during the testimony, defending his father and attacking Comey. His brother, Eric (@EricTrump) didn't directly address Comey's comments, but instead attacked a recent Forbes article detailing the Trumps' involvement with a children's cancer charity. He said that the "Flynn stuff" was "very far from any kind of coercion or influence and certainly not obstruction". Comey also testified in his written testimony that Trump, in a odd private encounter near the grandfather clock in the Oval Office, pushed him to end his investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Former FBI director James Comey's testimony at the Senate Intelligence Committee could be a once-in-a-generation event.
"I have long believed that a President can fire an FBI Director for any reason or for no reason at all", he said in a farewell letter to fellow staffers.
Comey said he shared Trump's three requests for him with the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and his counsel, the chief of staff, general counsel, and the number 3 person at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the head of the national security branch. Lankford expressed hope for an open discussion with Comey. Dianne Feinstein why he believes he as fired, Comey said he couldn't know for sure.
Comey entered the overflowing Capitol Hill hearing room Thursday and took his seat at the witness table, alone, as the session got underway.
"The shifting explanation [for my dismissal] confused me and increasingly concerned me", Comey told the committee Thursday morning.
Comey: "Not to my understanding, no".
The ex-FBI boss is due to give testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday as part of its probe into Russia's meddling in the USA election.
Michigan State Football Players Charged With Sexual Assault
They are being charged with third degree criminal sexual conduct, which is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Hollis said he was assigning Jennifer Smith, Alan Haller and Elliott Daniels to oversight roles for the football program.
The confrontation came over the renewal of a domestic surveillance program whose legality Comey had strenuously questioned.
The idea that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian Federation to defeat Hillary Clinton by now looks like a ghost story.
"On May the ninth, when I learned that I was sacked, for that reason, I immediately came home as a private citizen". "I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting". "I had one one-on-one meeting with President Bush but I didn't feel with president Bush the need to document it in that way".
The unusual nature of his testimony was laid bare the following week when Attorney General Loretta Lynch declined to answer numerous same questions Comey received. The former director immediately dove into the heart of the fraught political controversy around his firing and whether Trump interfered in the bureau's Russian Federation investigation, as he elaborated on written testimony delivered Wednesday.
Comey defended his decision to publicize email investigation results, after he was asked if he had learned anything since which would have changed that decision.
"He then said, 'I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go".
"I did not say I would 'let this go'".
Ryan Goodman, a professor at New York University School of Law, said Trump's efforts to protect Flynn provide "strong evidence" of obstruction of justice.
Lawmakers said Thursday's hearing will focus on whether Trump was obstructing justice - the charge that led to president Richard Nixon's resignation in 1973.
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