![]() Kasowitz also denied Trump sought Comey's loyalty. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that Mr. On Comey's assertion that Trump pressed him to end the Flynn investigation, Kasowitz said "the president never in form or substance directed or suggested that Mr. Trump's personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, issued a statement saying Comey confirmed what he told the president in private that he was not under investigation in the Russian probe. The House intelligence committee is also investigating whether Obama officials were engaged in a political spying operation against Trump and his transition team using foreign intelligence collection as cover. Last month, former CIA Director John Brennan, an Obama loyalist, testified to Congress that he asked the FBI, during the height of the presidential campaign, to investigate whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians. The testimony by the former FBI chief on the dossier followed earlier testimony suggesting a politically motivated campaign was underway by Democrats and other Trump opponents during the presidential race to portray Trump and his aides as tools of Moscow. But that's a question that'll be answered by the investigation, I think." As I said, when I left, we did not have an investigation focused on President Trump. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) asked Comey to comment directly on the dossier that the chairman described as "100 percent directed at the president-elect," he declined to comment.Īsked if he believes Trump colluded with Russia, Comey said: "That's a question I don't think I should answer in an open setting. "If the FBI receives a credible allegation that there is some effort to coopt, coerce, direct, employ covertly an American on behalf of the foreign power, that's the basis on which a counterintelligence investigation is opened," Comey said when asked if the document had raised blackmail concerns. Many of the claims in the Steele dossier have been exposed as false, including charges that Trump was compromised by prostitutes working for the FSB intelligence service at a Moscow hotel. On the dossier, Comey testified that the allegations contained in the 36-page intelligence report, produced by former British spy Christopher Steele for the Washington investigative firm Fusion GPS, had raised concerns the president was being blackmailed by the Kremlin. ![]() President Trump did not initially comment on the Comey hearing, but on Friday tweeted, "Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication.and WOW, Comey is a leaker!" His lawyer issued a statement denying Comey's charges of interfering with FBI probes, and accused him leaking confidential information. ![]() ![]() But he opposed further investigation because he felt the FBI probe was sufficient.Ĭomey announced in July that Clinton had been careless in handling highly classified information in private emails but opposed prosecuting her, despite federal laws making the mishandling of classified information a crime. Lynch instead told him to use the politically safe term "matter," a request Comey said "confused me and concerned me."Ĭomey said as a result of Lynch's inappropriate contacts during the Clinton probe he considered calling for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the email system because of Lynch's conflict of interest for meeting Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, during the investigation. The former FBI director also revealed that Obama administration Attorney General Loretta Lynch directed Comey in the summer of 2016 not to call the FBI's criminal probe of Hillary Clinton's private email system an investigation. ![]() Comey testified under oath before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Trump asked him to drop an FBI investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, something he regarded as an attempt to interfere with the probe. ![]()
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