Former Director of Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) James Comey said Thursday that he was confused over the circumstances under which he was sacked. The president tweeted a veiled threat at Comey days after he fired him, writing, "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
"Mr. Comey said, following a morning threat briefing, that he wanted to ensure that he and his Federal Bureau of Investigation staff were following proper communications protocol with the White House".
Sources said that despite being called a liar by the man he fired during yesterday's three-hour Senate intelligence committee grilling, Mr Trump was relieved at the outcome.
When asked at the United States congressional hearing why he was sacked, Comey said he did not know for sure. After Comey's morning of testimony on Capitol Hill, any honest investigation will have to include the president himself.
And Mr. Comey flatly rejected the White House's initial explanation for his May 9 firing.
After weeks of buildup, former FBI Director James Comey finally delivered his testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Community.
"If there are tapes", Comey said, "it's not just my word against his".
Earlier on Friday, Trump took to Twitter to declare "total and complete vindication" in response to Comey's testimony.
The president said he would be willing to tell that to the newly appointed special counsel in the Russian Federation investigation, Robert Mueller. The president has said maybe there is, maybe there isn't'.
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The Westminster election, it should be noted, is separate to the North Assembly election which took place earlier this year. The new arithmetic of the House of Commons will also makes Brexit negotiations more hard .
Trump tweeted in his first comments since Comey appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.The Republican president stopped short of saying that Comey lied under oath.In the highly anticipated hearing, Comey delivered a scathing indictment of Trump, accusing him of trying to block a probe into ties between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, and saying the White House defamed him and the FBI in explaining his dismissal by Trump last month.The probe into Flynn was part of a wider FBI investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 USA presidential election and possible collusion with Trump campaign aides. Comey has testified that he already handed them over to special counsel Robert Mueller.
With a single tweet, Trump also castigated Comey as "a leaker" for giving an account of his conversation with the president to a law professor who shared it with a news outlet.
Still, there was no doubt the veteran lawman made for a challenging adversary. This is arguably the most moonwalking-ass administration ever in the history of president-ing, so I don't believe anything that the president says. But thanks to Trump's own actions, the cloud darkened considerably on Thursday and now seems likely to hover over his presidency for months, if not years, to come.
The most generous impression is that Trump is the archetypal bad boss, asking vaguely threatening questions about whether you even want your job anymore, because plenty of other people do.
"James Comey confirmed a lot of what I said, and some of the things he said just weren't true", Mr Trump said.
"When will you tell us about the recordings?" asked ABC News' Jonathan Karl. "President, this is wrong, '?"
Pelosi is assessing the president this way: "I'm concerned about his fitness for office".
He said he asked the attorney general, in the likelihood they would both have to testify, if he could confirm there was an investigation. "Lordy, I hope there are tapes", he said to the senators. "We had an investigation open at the time so that gave me a queasy feeling". Instead, Trump let his lawyer do the talking for him. Major legislation is stalled.
"No collusion, no obstruction", Trump told a White House press conference in reference to the twin controversies dogging his administration - accusations his aides colluded with the Russian effort to tilt the vote, and that he sought to block a probe related to the matter. "That happened. That's about as unfake as you can possibly get".
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