CNN reported that Ex-Fbi Director James Comey, in his testimony on Thursday said he told Daniel C. Richman, a Columbia law professor to go public with the memos which contained details of his conversations with President Trump.
Comey, who documented his conversations with Trump, said he shared the details of the conversation with his “good friend” and co-worker after being asked by the Senate intelligence. He said he told Daniel to be an intermediary with the press.
Comey's wake up call
Richman confirmed to CNN via an email conversation that he was the friend the Ex-FBI chief was referring to in his testimony.
CNN reported that Comey said, "The President tweeted on Friday, after I got fired, that I better hope there's not tapes," Comey said.
"I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, because it didn't dawn on me originally, that there might be corroboration for our conversation, there might be a tape." He decided to go public with the details of the conversations. In that regard, he told his friend to share the memo with a reporter.
Comey said he intentionally asked his friend to leak the conversation and did not do it himself for specific reasons, one of which was that he felt it might lead to the appointment of a special counsel.
The intermediary
James Comey was also asked by the panel if the friend he referred to was Journalist Benjamin Wittes, who also serves as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. Comey told the panel that Wittes was not used as a middleman to publicize the information and seized the opportunity to speak on Richman’s role in the matter.
Comey said that “Dan, as he fondly called him” was a very good guy. He and Jim had been mutual friends for a longtime he added. He reiterated that their actions were not “illegal, improper or dishonorable”. Wittes also stated in a LawFare blog post that Richman had affirmed that he was the friend referred to in Comey’s testimony.
He also stated in that blogpost that he and Comey are now reaffirming Daniel’s role in the matter. And that it wasn’t an anonymous leak of any sort. However, Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s outside Counsel, lambasted Comey over the leak.
Kasowitz reiterated in a press briefing that Comey admitted that he shared the classified information with his friends.
He also stated that after his firing, he permitted his friends to publicize the details of the document so as to instigate the appointment of a special counsel.
He added, "We will leave it the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated, CNN reported.
