Key takeaways from the James Comey Senate hearing Comey claims that the White House tried to "defame me" and "lied" about his firing when they said Trump was firing him for undermining the morale of the agency he had led since 2013. When it came to the FBI's investigation into Trump administration ties with Russia, Comey said he couldn't answer those question in "an open setting." He did infer that Trump inappropriately interfered in the investigation but that the president didn't ask him to drop it entirely. Comey had a friend intentionally leak memos of his conversations with Trump to the press in hopes of having a special counsel oversee the Russia investigation. Comey rebuffed Trump's assertion that he "better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations," saying "Lordy, I hope there are tapes." Trump spoke highly of Comey's ability to run the FBI. The FBI was not investigating Trump when the president fired Comey on May 9.
