In case you missed it, James Comey, the recently fired FBI director, went before the Senate Intelligence Committee to essentially answer any and all questions about Donald Trump attempting to derail his investigation into his national security adviser.
Whether you’re into politics or not, there was a lot of tea to spill. Here’s what you may have missed.
1) Comey says that he was confused by his firing because up until recently, Trump said he was doing a good job.
“He told me repeatedly that he had talked to lots of people about me, including our current attorney general, and had learned that I was doing a great job and that I was extremely well-liked by the FBI workforce. So it confused me when I saw on television the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation and learned, again, from the media that he was telling, privately, other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation.”
“I was also confused by the initial explanation that was offered publicly, that I was fired because of the decisions I had made during the election year. That didn’t make sense to me for a whole bunch of reasons, including the time and all the water that had gone under the bridge since those hard decisions that had to be made. That didn’t make any sense to me.”
2) Comey has no doubts that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. When asked if he had any doubts that Russian government was behind the intrusions in the DNC and the DCCC systems or that Russian government was behind the cyber intrusion in the state voter files, he answered “No, no doubt” every time.
3) Back in May, Trump tweeted that Comey better hope there are no “tapes” of their recorded conversations before he goes leaking info to the press. Comey basically dares Trump to release whatever he has.
“And, look, I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” said Comey.
4) The Justice Department special counsel is investigating Trump’s firing of Comey and Comey’s already turned over his memos to Bob Mueller.
5) Former Attorney General Michael Flynn was under a criminal investigation when Trump requested Comey stopped investigating him.
“General Flynn, at that point in time, was in legal jeopardy. There was an open FBI criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the Russian contacts and the contacts themselves. And so that was my assessment at the time.
I don’t think it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that’s a conclusion I’m sure the special counsel will work towards, to try and understand what the intention was there, and whether that’s an offense.”
Read the full transcript here.
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