Fired FBI Director James Comey delivered some of the most watched political testimony in years by calling out the 'lies' told after President sacked him, blasting an administration he says chose to 'demean' him and claiming he felt the president 'directed' him to call off an FBI investigation - then admitting he had leaked against the president himself.
In riveting testimony watched around the nation, Comey disputed 'shifting explanations' that followed his firing, and specifically pointed to Trump's televised comment that he fired Comey because of the FBI's Russia investigation.
His remarks laid out the carefully constructed beginnings of a case that President Trump used his power and his relationship with Comey in a way that might have taken investigative pressure off a longtime supporter accused of Russia ties – fired security advisor Mike Flynn – and remove a 'cloud' that was hanging over his young administration.
Comey described the president's extraordinary efforts to get with him one-on-one to discuss the Flynn case, create a sense of political indebtedness, and reject salacious unproven allegations about the president.
He stated his own unequivocal belief that he was fired 'beause of' his handling of the wideranging investigation of Russian election interference, but ripped the president's decision to explain his own firing by citing a variety of other reasons.
But Comey also declined to call what he experienced obstruction of justice, admitted directing the leak of his own memos of his Trump encounters, and confirmed that the president was not personally under investigation at the time he was unceremoniously fired in May.
'The administration then chose to demean me and more importantly the FBI,' Comey complained at the top of his remarks.
'Those were lies, plain and simple,' he said in firm but unemotional terms.
Comey testified he believed the president directed him to halt a probe of security advisor Mike Flynn, said he kept copious notes because he feared Trump would lie, and acknowledged putting out information about his unusual meetings with the president after Trump tweeted after he fired Comey.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4583766/Comeys-testimony-uncomfortable-spotlight-Trump.html#ixzz4jSh8npPm
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