This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/09/trump-comey-leaker-senate-testimony

The article has changed 13 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Donald Trump calls Comey a 'leaker' in first response to Senate testimony Donald Trump calls Comey a 'leaker' in first response to Senate testimony
(about 3 hours later)
Donald Trump on Friday branded his former FBI director a “leaker”, a day after James Comey gave testimony in which he accused the president of trying to quash an investigation and lying about him and the FBI. Donald Trump called his former FBI director a “leaker” on Friday, one day after James Comey testified under oath that the president lied about his firing and the FBI in an effort to undermine the agency’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” Trump tweeted in his first comments since the Senate intelligence committee hearing on Thursday. Trump’s legal team was confirmed to be preparing to file a complaint against Comey, for sharing his memos of meetings with the president with the New York Times.
Trump appeared to be accusing Comey of lying to Congress, a crime punishable by five years in jail, though convictions are extremely rare. In response, one Democratic senator, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, tweeted “this is not just another silly tweet … it is essential for our country that the president offer his testimony to Congress about what exactly happened.” “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication ... and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” Trump tweeted in his first public comments on Thursday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing, bringing to a close an unusually prolonged silence for a president whose first line of defense is often expressed in 140 characters or less.
Comey, who was fired by Trump on 9 May, spoke for nearly three hours, answering questions about investigations of links between Trump aides and Russia, and the president’s attitude to them. Trump appeared to be accusing Comey of lying to Congress in a hearing that was watched across the country. After Comey’s testimony, Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz said in a brief statement to the press the former FBI director had “admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president”.
It was a packed hearing which brought much of the US to a standstill. The president reportedly watched some of the hearing with his lawyers, then spoke to a conservative Christian audience at a Faith and Freedom summit, without mentioning events on Capitol Hill. The legal complaint will be filed with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Justice early next week, according to a source close to the legal team who did not want to speak on the record before the complaint was filed.
The legal team will also send a complaint to the Senate judiciary committee regarding Comey’s testimony before that panel last month – as well as his testimony before the intelligence committee – to clarify on the record what Trump’s legal team views as discrepancies and falsehoods in the displaced FBI director’s testimony.
Richard Painter, a White House ethics counsel under George W Bush, said such an action would only amplify the notion that Trump was trying to impede with the investigation. “Trying to get DOJ to go after Comey – a material witness – over ‘leak’ is yet more obstruction of Justice,” he tweeted.
At least one Democratic senator, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, suggested Trump should now testify before Congress himself, to offer his account of the interactions with Comey now in dispute. “This is not just another silly tweet,” Schatz tweeted. “… It is essential for our country that the president offer his testimony to Congress about what exactly happened.”
Comey, who was fired by Trump on 9 May, told the Senate intelligence committee he believed the president fired him over his handling of the investigation into findings of Russian interference of the US election, which US authorities have concluded was designed to thwart Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.
Comey confirmed that he detailed several conversations with Trump in memos, in which the president asked him to drop his inquiry into former national security adviser Michael Flynn – saying “I hope you can let this go” – and sought a pledge of loyalty that Comey deemed inappropriate, given FBI independence.
Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!
In the hearing, Comey branded Trump a liar and said he believed he had been sacked because of the FBI’s investigation into Moscow’s meddling in last year’s presidential election. His evidence did not deliver a knock-out blow to the Trump presidency, but it nevertheless cast the billionaire Republican’s integrity in a withering light. In the hearing, Comey branded Trump a liar and said the president had mischaracterized their conversations to justify his abrupt dismissal.
Comey said of his own dismissal: “The administration chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organisation was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. “The administration chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI, by saying that the organisation was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader,” Comey said. “Those were lies, plain and simple, and I’m so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them, and I’m so sorry the American people were told them.”
“Those were lies, plain and simple, and I’m so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them, and I’m so sorry the American people were told them.” Comey also said he told Trump on three occasions he was not personally under investigation. Federal investigators have cautioned that their inquiry into contacts between Trump and Moscow remains inconclusive, but Trump’s lawyers and supporters nonetheless seized on that piece of information to claim the president had been cleared of wrongdoing.
He told the panel: “It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation. I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal.” Comey also suggested that Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed in the wake of Comey’s firing to take over the Russia inquiry, was investigating whether Trump’s actions amounted to obstruction of justice.
Comey also revealed he had asked a friend, from the law department of Columbia University, to leak to the New York Times details of his memo about a meeting with Trump “because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel”. “It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” Comey said. “I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted. That is a very big deal.”
Former FBI director Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel on 17 May. Comey said he asked a friend, a member of the law department of Columbia University, to give to the New York Times details of his memos about his interactions with Trump, “because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel”. Mueller, a former FBI director, was appointed as special counsel on 17 May.
In his testimony, Comey explained that he documented each meeting with Trump because he thought the president might be dishonest about what had taken place – a practice he never felt obliged to undertake when meeting former presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama. Comey explained that he documented each meeting with Trump because he thought the president might be dishonest about what transpired.
“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, and so I thought it really important to document,” he said of their first conversation at Trump Tower in New York in January.“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, and so I thought it really important to document,” he said of their first conversation at Trump Tower in New York in January.
After the hearing, Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz delivered a statement to the press in which he said the FBI director had “admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president”.
On Friday, Trump is due to face the media in a scheduled a joint news conference with the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis.On Friday, Trump is due to face the media in a scheduled a joint news conference with the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis.
He issued a second tweet just before 7am. Suggesting which morning show he might have been watching on television, the president wrote: “Great reporting by @foxandfriends and so many others. Thank you!” He issued a second tweet just before 7am, writing about what is reportedly his favored morning show: “Great reporting by @foxandfriends and so many others. Thank you!”