Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday in his first public appearance since Trump fired him on May 9. "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".
My best and worst are below. Mr Trump may not have been scheming, but his efforts to draw a pledge of loyalty from his FBI director, his pleading for him to go easy on his former national security adviser and his repeated requests for assurances that he, personally, was not under investigation were ham-handed at best. He certainly didn't indicate that he viewed it as obstruction of justice or at least a prosecutable case.
Today's words from James Comey confirmed the strong evidence of potential obstruction of justice by the president of our nation, which requires an in-depth and complete investigation.
"As you know, we're under siege", Trump said, promising to protect religious liberty. "He can not be trusted to tell the truth". Lawmakers started the hearing with a call for unity of goal but the pretense of bipartisanship soon fell away.
When he was asked how his colleagues reacted when Trump asked him to "let it go" (about the Flynn investigation), Comey said: "They were shocked", and "they were very concerned". Martin Redish is a professor of law and public policy at Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law.
TV networks and cable channels plan to broadcast the Senate hearing live, and some bars are hoping to pull morning patrons in for Comey watch parties. It's not good stuff to have said on national television. A direct quote when he was asked about this by the chairman of the committee, a Republican, "Did Donald Trump ever ask you to stop the Russian investigation?"
"It confused me when I saw on television that the president said he actually fired me because of the Russian Federation investigation", Comey said of Trump's motives for his termination. "He is a good guy".
"They confused me because the president and I had had multiple conversations about my job, both before and after he took office. I took it as this is what he wants me to do". "I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in".
As noted above, that's not exactly what Mr Comey said - but it's close enough for the White House, it seems.
"It's my judgment that I was sacked because of the Russian Federation investigation", he told senators.
EIA lowers forecasts for OPEC oil production
The lower forecast takes into account OPEC's May 25 announcement regarding the extension of its production cuts. Gasoline inventories also unexpectedly rose, imports increased, and exports dropped, the EIA data showed.
"And although the law required no reason at all to fire an Federal Bureau of Investigation director, the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader", Comey said.
"That, to me, as an investigator, is a very significant fact".
Comey felt "queasy" when former Attorney General Loretta Lynch directed him to call the email investigation into Hillary Clinton a "matter" instead of an investigation.
Contrary to Comey's perspective of the nature of his discussions with Trump that he explained Thursday, the lawyers said that Trump never requested Comey's undying loyalty.
"I've seen the tweet about tapes".
"Lordy, I hope there are tapes", he said on Capitol Hill. Although the Times also reported on May 11 - before Trump's tweet - about Comey's private dinner with the president, that story made no reference to Comey's contemporaneous memos.
"The president is pleased that Mr Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the president was not under investigation in any Russian probe", the president's personal lawyer said. "Didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel". He said his one goal as president is to "fight for the American people and to fight for America and America first". But Trump showed no interest.
"He asked me for loyalty and that shit threw me for a bit; also, that dirtbag eats way too much fucking ketchup".
"We're talking about a foreign government that using technical intrusion, lots of other methods, tried to shape the way we think, we vote, we act. That is a big deal".
"He said, how about 6:30? It's the President of the United States and me alone, saying this is what he is hoping I'm going to do", said Mr Comey.
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