James Comey, former F.B.I. director, released information in a testimony relating to his abrupt termination by Donald Trump, revealing inevitable truths about the president: his persistence of ensuring loyalty and clearing up his name, despite Comey’s uneasiness.
Trump had fired him from his position as F.B.I. director in May, stirring controversy as Comey was top official leading the investigation of the Trump administration’s possible collusion with Russia in regards to the 2016 presidential election. Comey, at a hearing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee, characterized his personal relationship with Donald Trump through narratives of their strained interactions in his testimony.
In the midst of the deep analysis, Comey had assured Trump three times that the president himself is not under direct investigation, confirming what Trump had been emphasizing to the public. Trump, however, repeatedly insisted that Comey should release that information to the public, which Comey denied to do in case Trump’s affiliation with Russia would change. This, according to the former F.B.I. director’s testimony, would only fuel frustration from the president.
Following Trump’s first act of persistence in publicizing his involvement in the investigation, Comey states in his written testimony, “I felt compelled to document my first conversation with the President-Elect in a memo. To ensure accuracy, I began to type it on a laptop in an F.B.I. vehicle outside Trump Tower the moment I walked out of the meeting.”
The memos, addressed and confirmed in the Senate hearing, had been leaked by Comey in hopes of prompting a special counsel by giving his written records of the conversation to a friend, a Columbian law school professor, to release to the press. Comey defended the composing of the memos by the presence of a “gut-feeling” about the subject and setting of the conversation. Comey had also emphasized that he had continued to write these memos after encounters with Trump, and that he did not feel the need to document conversations with other presidents he had previously encountered.
After Trump first took office, according to Comey, he had invited the F.B.I. director to a one-on-one dinner with him at the White House on January 27. At the dinner, the status of Comey’s occupation and for the future was brought into question by the president, after Trump reiterated whether or not Comey was to stay and continue being a director.
Comey emphasized the statement that had followed at the dinner, as the president said to him, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”
To this statement, Comey said that his reply was, “You will always get honesty from me.”
“That’s what I want. Honest loyalty,” Comey recalled as Trump’s response.
The statement drew negative implications, mainly because the Justice Department, while working alongside the presidential administration, is expected to remain independent and dedicated to the law. Trump’s emphasis on the word “loyalty” raised questions as to what exactly he was implying.
Another key point in Comey’s testimony included the conversation between Trump and himself following an Oval Office meeting weeks later. On the subject of Michael Flynn, a former member of the Trump administration who had resigned after going under fire for Russian connections, Trump said to Comey, “He is a good guy and has been through a lot. I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”
Comey, in his written testimony, wrote in response, “I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December.”
At the hearing, Senator James Risch said to Comey, “He did not order you to let it go. Again, those words are not an order. He said ‘I hope.’”
Comey defended his assumptions, responding, “And the reason I keep saying his words is, I took it as a direction. It is the president of the United States, with me alone, saying “I hope this”—I took it as, this is what he wants me to do. I didn’t obey that, but that’s the way I took it.”
In the written testimony, Comey also wrote of the last exchange he had had with the president. In a phone call on April 11, Trump had said in another request to release his status in the Russian investigation, adding, “Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing, you know.” Comey reports that he did not ask the president to expand on the term “thing”.
Notably, in the hearing, Comey responded to Donald Trump’s tweet that expresses a hope for a release of possible tapes that had recorded their conversations, to which Comey said, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”
Comey additionally testified at the hearing that the Trump administration had chosen to “defame” him, telling “lies, plain and simple.”
Throughout his testimony, Comey contradicted Trump’s statements on the conflict at hand, while also responding to many questions asked by the Senate at the public hearing with the point that he was not permitted to reveal information in the public setting, but indicated the questions would most likely be answered during the classified hearing that is set to follow the public hearing. Although the conclusion of the conflict remains uncertain, Comey’s testimony adds to the development of Trump’s incentive in his agenda.
