Former FBI Director James Comey confirmed on Thursday that Russia had interfered with the US presidential polls and that President Trump later directed him to lay off the investigation into his aides’ ties to Moscow.
“It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” Comey said in a testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, stopping short of accusing Trump of obstruction of justice — a charge that could invite impeachment.
In an astonishing takedown of President Trump and what he saw as Trump’s methods and character.
The former FBI director told 15 Senators arrayed on the panel that he was fired after declining to affirm personal loyalty to Trump.
Comey said “Lordy, I hope there are tapes!” when reminded of the President’s tweets that there could be the recording of their conversations. He said he would be glad if tapes and memos of their conversations are released to establish the truth.
While some Republican lawmakers and Trump supporters focused on Comey’s affirmation that President Trump himself was not under investigation and there were no explicit instructions to stop the Russia probe, attention centered on the President’s language when, according to Comey, Trump told him at a meeting in the White House in February, “I HOPE you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.
Still, the testimony was extremely damaging to the image of the President, showing the former FBI director mistrusted Trump from the get-go.
Those were lies, plain and simple. And I am so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them,” Comey said.
Comey came out strongly on the issue of Russian interference in the Presidential elections, saying there was absolutely no doubt that Moscow was messing around in the United States.
“There should be no fuzz on this: the Russians interfered in our election… that’s about as un-fake as you can get,” Comey maintained, adding that the US was a “shining city on the hill,” and the Russians did not like it. “They want to run it down and dirty it up… They’ll be back,” he warned, after Mark Warner, the ranking Democratic Senator on the committee reminded the hearing of Trump’s “odd and unexpected affection for Putin” while virtually inviting him to hack into Hillary Clinton and Democratic emails during the election campaign.
Following the open hearing, Comey and the lawmaker retired to a closed session where more classified material could be discussed.
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