James Comey Testifies President Trump Lied: 'Lordy, I Hope There Are Tapes'

WASHINGTON, DC — Former FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday morning that the White House has lied about his firing and disclosed that the F.B.I. has scrutinizing President Trump for conduct that falls within “the scope of” the bureau’s investigation into Russian interference with last year's election. He said the president tried to stop an investigation of a top aid but was not specifically targeted by the probe. (You can watch a replay of the testimony below.)

The blunt testimony, broadcast not only on cable news stations but also on the major networks, underscored Trump's peril and elevated questions about whether the president has tried to obstruct justice.

Trump's personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, went on the attack following the testimony, portraying Comey as a disgruntled fired employee. In a statement, Kasowitz disputed Comey's most notable claims: that the president had pressured him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn and that Trump had asked him to pledge his loyalty.

Sen. Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican and chair of the committee, said when opening the hearing that Comey's prepared testimony "outlines a strained relationship" with the president. He continued: "American people need to hear your side of the story."

In his opening statement, Comey said he initially accepted his firing without question. However, he said that in the following days he became confused and concerned over the shifting reasons Trump gave for firing him. He was confused that the White House initially said he was fired because of his behavior during the Clinton email investigation because in multiple meetings Comey had been led to believe the president and his colleagues continued to have tremendous faith in him.

He took particular exception to another Trump explanation for the firing, saying that the president defamed him and the FBI by saying the organization was in "disarray" and that it was poorly led. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

"Those were lies, plain and simple, and I am so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them," Comey said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Daily Caller reporter Kaitlan Collins that she can "definitely say" that Trump is not a liar. Trump's lawyer also offered a short rebuttal to Comey's testimony after the hearing concluded.

Sanders added, "I think it's frankly insulting that that's asked."

Comey said that Trump's admission that he the Russia investigation factored into the firing was the most likely explanation to be true.

"It confused me when I saw on TV the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation," Comey said. "The explanations, the shifting explanations, confused me and increasingly concerned me."

Asked directly why he now thinks he was fired, Comey said, referring to Trump's interview with Lester Holt, "I take the president at his word that I was fired because of the Russia investigation."

He later noted that the course of the events was complicated because of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recusal from the Russia investigation. "If I was fired because of the Russia investigation why was the attorney general involved in that chain? I don't have an answer to that question."

"Lordy, I hope there are tapes."

Comey also noted that he had information that he cannot discuss publicly about why the attorney general should have recused himself from the Russia probe. He said that Sessions' involvement in the investigation was "problematic."

Comey also revealed for the first time that Flynn, the former national security adviser, was facing a criminal investigation at the time he was fired.

Comey's prepared remarks released Wednesday noted that Trump told him, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go" Comey said in his testimony that he took this as a direction, even though it used the word "hope," because of the president's stature and the context of the meeting. (Comey later confirmed that the investigation into Flynn concerned his potentially lying to federal investigators.)

Trump's appeal on behalf of Flynn stunned him, Comey said, and he was concerned that before Trump brought up the Flynn investigation the president had asked Sessions and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to clear the room. He said he believed Sessions knew it was wrong to leave him alone with Trump.

Comey took detailed notes after every interaction with the president, he said, to create an accurate record of events.

"I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting,” Comey said of his first meeting with Trump.“It led me to believe that I gotta write it down, and I gotta write it down in a detailed way. … I knew that there might come a day where I might need a record of what happened, not just to defend myself and FBI and the integrity of our situation, and the independence of our function.”

Comey also acknowledged in his testimony that after being fired he instructed a friend to leak the information about his conversations with Trump to increase pressure for the appointment of a special counsel. Shortly after the leak, Robert Mueller was named special counsel to investigate the election, and Comey said Thursday that he had given him his notes on his Trump conversations.

“Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President,” Trump's lawyer said in a statement. “We will leave it [to] the appropriate authorities to determine whether this (sic) leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated.”

Kasowitz said that Trump never sought a loyalty pledge from Comey and the lawyer denied that the president had tried to end the Flynn investigation.

“The president never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone,” Kasowitz said.

Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, decided to live tweet the testimony. In response to Comey's statement that he initiated the leaks of the memos, he tweeted, "They found another leaker today." He seemed to imply that there was something nefarious or illegal about this action, but Comey noted that he regards the memos as his personal documents and that no classified information was made public.

When asked about Trump tweets that he might have taped his conversations with Comey, the fired director said, "Lordy, I hope there are tapes."

Comey also contradicted some of the president's assertions about their interactions. Comey said he never initiated telephone contact with Trump, despite Trump saying that Comey called him once. Trump also said that Comey initiated the famous January 27 dinner at which Comey says Trump asked for his loyalty. The former FBI director said that Trump asked Comey to join him for the meal.

Comey also repeatedly reiterated his previous statements that he is entirely confident that Russia engaged in intentional and extensive efforts to undermine faith in the American electoral process and to influence the 2016 presidential election. “There should be no fuzz on that,” he said.

He added that these efforts by the Russians were ramped up in 2016, and "They'll be back."

When Comey was asked if he believes Trump colluded with the Russians, he said he couldn't answer that publicly and would leave it to the continuing investigation. He said that a story in the New York Times that alleged that multiple Trump campaign officials had continuous contact with Russian officials was almost entirely inaccurate at the time but made no mention of any findings after the article appeared.

On the topic of why Comey confirmed to Trump that he was not under investigation, Comey said he thought it was appropriate to do under the circumstances of the conversation because it was "technically true." Trump's lawyer said Wednesday that this part of Comey's testimony made the president feel "completely vindicated." However, he noted that some in the Justice Department disagreed with this decision, because as the head of the Trump campaign, Trump would clearly at least be relevant to the investigation. But Comey said his comments were appropriate, because Trump was not at the time a specific target of a counterintelligence operation.

He also said that, at least to his understanding, he was never asked to end the Russia investigation.

Comey would not say that Trump's appeal for Flynn constituted obstruction of justice, because he did not think it was his place to say.

"I don’t think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct," he said.

However, he said Mueller would investigate these questions. Comey also added that Mueller was the right man to run the investigation.

Comey would say that Trump's attempts to get him to go easy on Flynn were "very disturbing" and "very concerning."

"I don’t think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct."

Comey became widely known when he delivered a press conference announcing the conclusion of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. He thrust himself back into the spotlight with a letter to Congress, sent less than two weeks before the election, announcing that his team was investigating new leads in the email investigation — leads which did nothing, in the end, to alter the agency's conclusions. Now, since he publicly confirmed that Trump's campaign and associates were under investigation for possible ties to the investigation into Russian meddling in the election, and was subsequently fired by Trump, he is again at the center of a national debate.

In reference to the Clinton email investigation, Comey said that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch's meeting with Bill Clinton on a tarmac was the reason he decided to go public with his conclusions. He also said Lynch asked him to call the probe a "matter," rather than an investigation, which confused him. Comey said that this request made him "queasy," because it seemed the Justice Department was trying to conform its public communication to a campaign's desires, but it had no effect on the way the press reported it.

Asked by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn why a special counsel wasn't appointed in the email case, Comey said he considered asking for one. However, he decided not to because he said he had reviewed the case thoroughly and knew there was nothing to prosecute. He said it would be unfair under these circumstances to request a special counsel.

In reference to a CNN report that said Comey relied on falsified Russian intelligence to justify his decision to go public with the email investigation conclusions, Comey said this story was complete "nonsense."

ABC's Jonathan Karl quoted a source close to the president ahead of the meeting that said Trump disagrees with Comey's account of events. “The President disputes that he ever asked for Jim Comey’s loyalty," Karl quoted the source as saying.

More than an hour before the testimony was set to begin, droves of people were lined up in the halls outside the hearing room to get an in-person seat.The room is only equipped to seat about 90 observers.

Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney who, like Comey, was also fired by Trump, was in attendance. On Wednesday, Bharara tweeted about Comey's testimony, "Obstruction aside, it's NEVER ok for a POTUS privately to ask an FBI Director to drop a criminal investigation. Extraordinary, wrong & dumb."

At the end of the hearing, Sen. Burr said, ""We’re grateful to you for your service to your country."

He added that he knows Comey "loves this country enough to tell it like it is."

Watch a replay of Comey's testimony here:

Photo by Zach Gibson/Getty Images