CNN reports state that ex-FBI director James Comey is set to tell the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday that President Trump had a discussion with him about ex-security adviser Michael Flynn asking him to abort the investigation, according to an online copy of his opening speech.
Comey said in the remarks that Trump asked him to let the Flynn matter go. Comey, in response, only stated that Michael Flynn was a good person. He claimed to have positive encounters with him while working together as colleagues, but he did not openly accept Trump's plea to let it go.
Details of his testimony released ahead of time
The Senate Intelligence Comittee has purposely published Comey’s testimony on their website with Comey’s consent, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said. He is expected to testify before the panel on Thursday.
The FBI chief said in his statement that he had nine closed-door meetings with the president, including three one-on-one meetings, and documented the conversations in memos.
In the statement, Comey recounted the phone conversation they had on March 30 were he stated that the president emphasized that the circumstances surrounding the Russia investigation conflicted with critical national issues and urged him to remove him from the investigation.
However the ex-FBI boss considered that it would not be good to openly say that the president was being probed because if that happened, and Trump became the main character in the investigation, he would have to state it in public.
Trump expects honesty and loyalty from Comey
Comey said he did not inform Trump that the Department of Justice and the FBI had been hesitant to go public with the statements that they did not investigate the president publicly for various reasons, primarily because it would create a duty to correct, if that changes.
In his statement, he said Trump told him he expected loyalty from him during their first dinner in January. Comey said he didn’t flinch, speak or do anything during the awkward silence that followed. He said he replied that he would always be honest to the president, and the president responded that he expected honesty and loyalty from him.
James Comey said that the president asked him repeatedly to openly say that he was not under investigation. But Comey also admitted in his testimony that he told the president he was not under investigation, as Trump indicated in Comey’s sack letter.
