James Comey's Testimony: Trump Demanded Loyalty, Wanted Flynn Probe Ended

WASHINGTON, DC — Former FBI Director James Comey will tell the Senate that President Trump asked for his loyalty and for an end to the investigation into former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, according to planned testimony released Wednesday. "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's prepared remarks quote the president as saying at a private Oval Office meeting on February 14. Comey says he replied only that Flynn was a good guy.

After news of the remarks broke, Trump's personal lawyer Marc E. Kasowitz said, "The president feels completely and totally vindicated." And yet Comey says in the testimony, published on the Senate Intelligence Committee website, that the nature of these comments worried him.

"I did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign," Comey says in the statement. "I could be wrong, but I took him to be focusing on what had just happened with Flynn’s departure and the controversy around his account of his phone calls. Regardless, it was very concerning, given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency." (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

It was these types of conversations that inspired Comey to start taking memos about his conversations with Trump, which he said was not his practice under President Obama. He says he "felt compelled" to document these discussions. After the February conversation in the Oval Office, in which Trump asked the Comey to back off the Flynn investigation, Comey asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prevent such direct communication in the future; he said the conversation was inappropriate without the attorney general in the room.

Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN, tweeted after the story broke, "Comey's statement establishes obstruction of justice by Trump. Period." However, others expressed skepticism about the obstruction of justice charge, noting that the president does oversee the Justice Department.

"[Trump] described the Russia investigation as 'a cloud' that was impairing his ability to act
on behalf of the country," Comey says in the prepared remarks.

Comey also confirms that he had informed the president that the FBI was not directly investigating him, as Trump has said. In an email, the RNC quoted the parts of Comey's statement confirming this part of Trump's message, and these remarks were what Trump took to be vindication.

"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," Kasowitz's statement said. "He is eager to move forward with his agenda."

Comey also notes that Trump repeatedly tried to get the FBI to go public with this information, even though Comey though the request was inappropriate. He also told Trump that if the FBI confirmed Trump was not personally under investigation, it would then be obligated to publicize if this fact changes.

The testimony only stokes the expectations for the already highly anticipated hearing Comey will attend Thursday morning. We already know that the intelligence community believes Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election using multiple espionage tactics, and the FBI has been investigating possible links between Russian intelligence and the Trump campaign since last July. Reports suggest Flynn is being investigated as a part of this probe, as well as for failing to disclose his work as a paid foreign agent for Russia and Turkey. Flynn was fired by Trump as national security adviser for misleading the vice president about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.

Comey was eventually fired by Trump on May 9, creating a controversy that continues to dog his presidency and resulted in the appointment of a special counsel to overssee the Russia investigation and related probes.

Comey's testimony revealed today also restates what has previously been reported, that Trump asked Comey for his "loyalty" at a dinner on January 27.

“I need loyalty," Comey quotes the president saying at the dinner. "I expect loyalty.” Trump also made it clear at that dinner that many other people wanted Comey's job, according to the prepared statement. The White House has denied that the president asked Comey for loyalty, and it has denied that Trump asked Comey to end the Flynn investigation.

Comey says in the prepared remarks that he didn't want to pledge his loyalty. "I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed," Comey writes. "We simply looked at each other in silence."

He did say that he told Trump he would give him honesty, according to the account, to which Trump said, "That’s what I want, honest loyalty.” Comey says he agreed to that, though he wasn't sure if they understood the phrase differently.

Throughout Comey's accounts of his conversations with Trump, Comey repeatedly quotes the president as describing the Russia investigation as a cloud "that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country." In a call on April 11, Comey says the president told him, while discussing the trouble the "cloud" is causing for him, "I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.”

Earlier on Wednesday, four of the leaders in the intelligence community testified before the Senate. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats refused to answer questions about whether Trump had privately asked him to intervene in the Russia investigation, which the Washington Post had reported Tuesday. However, Coats and NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers said he never felt "pressure" to intervene in the probe.

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Read the full document from the Senate.

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