When former FBI Director James Comey released on Wednesday his statement for his Thursday testimony, the public was not shocked by its contents. After all, news reports that U.S. President Donald Trump pressured him to drop the investigation on ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn made headlines weeks ago.
Although Comey clarified in the statement that the president was not being investigated for his Russian ties, the former FBI director said he is sure Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 election. In response to a question from Republic North Carolina Sen.
Richard Burr if the Russian government was behind the hacking of Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign email accounts, Comey affirmed it, The Washington Post reported.
Russians failed to intrude into voter bases
Despite the success of Russian agents in hacking the Democratic and Clinton emails, Comey said the Russians were not able to intrude into voter database. A leaked NSA document given by a female contractor named Reality Leigh Winner to The Intercept said that the Russians hacked a U.S. voting software supplier days before the November election. Comey added that Russian government officials were aware of the attempts to interfere in the election.
Even if he had assured Trump that the FBI is not investigating the president, the billionaire still fired Comey because he resisted Trump’s request to drop the probe on Flynn.
He reached the conclusion that Trump fired him after he watched NBC interview the president and he read newspaper stories on why he was booted out of his job.
Sessions and Kushner were lingering
Besides Flynn, two other Trump administration officials were mentioned prominently by Comey in his Thursday testimony. He recalled that after a briefing on Feb.
14 at the Oval Office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner lingered even if Trump asked everyone to leave, except the FBI director.
In the case of Sessions, Comey believes the AG knew he should stay around which is why he lingered. He said the same thing about Kushner. But after the two men left, that was when Trump brought up the name of Flynn.
When Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked the ex-director why he did not tell Trump it was wrong to drop the investigation of Flynn, Comey explained that he was stunned by the conversation that he just took it in. His agreeing with the president that Flynn is a good guy was Comey’s “slightly cowardly way" of saying he would not halt the investigation.
Ahead of the testimony, Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that Comey’s interactions with Trump were disturbing and utterly shocking. He hinted that Comey’s testimony opens new questions leading to obstruction of justice route for the president.