Donald Trump calls Comey a 'leaker' after testimony
9 Jun 2017 11:14 PM IST
President Donald Trump said he was vindicated and derided James Comey as a "leaker" on Friday after the fired FBI director accused him of lying and trying to quash an investigation into a former national security adviser.
Trump broke his silence on Comey's damning congressional testimony with a single tweet that echoed the points made by his private lawyer after Thursday's hearing: Trump himself was not under investigation and Comey gave an account of his conversation with the president to a lawyer who shared it with a
news outlet. "Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication ... and WOW, Comey is a leaker!" Trump tweeted in his first comments since Comey appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday. The Republican president stopped short of saying that Comey lied under oath.
In the highly anticipated hearing, Comey delivered a scathing indictment of Trump, accusing him of trying to block a probe into ties between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, and saying the White House defamed him and the FBI in explaining his dismissal by Trump last month.
The probe into Flynn was part of a wider FBI investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and possible collusion with Trump campaign aides. In the hearing, Comey did not disclose any links between Trump advisers and alleged Russian meddling.
Russia has denied such interference. The White House has denied collusion with Moscow.
Comey told the Senate panel he took meticulous notes of each meeting or conversation he had with Trump because "I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, and so I thought it really important to document."
Comey testified that Trump told him on Jan. 26 he expected loyalty from the FBI director and the next month urged him to drop the Flynn probe. "I hope you can let this go," Comey reported the president as saying in a Feb. 14 meeting.
Trump's personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, disputed both statements after Thursday's hearing, essentially pitting the two accounts against each other. Asked on Friday which version she would believe, Republican US Senator Susan Collins said it was possible Comey misremembered or misinterpreted some of their exchanges.
"But he testified under oath and I do believe that he's an individual of integrity who would not deliberately lie under oath," Collins told CNN. "I tend to place more credence in testimony that's given
under oath."
Trump legal team to file complaint over Comey memos
US President Donald Trump's personal lawyer plans to file a complaint early next week about former FBI Director James Comey's disclosure of conversations with the president, a person close to the legal team said on Friday. Lawyer Marc Kasowitz will file the complaint with the Justice Department's inspector general and will also make a "submission" to the Senate Judiciary and Senate Intelligence committees about Comey's testimony, said the source, who declined to be identified because the matter was not public. Comey, in US Senate intelligence committee testimony on Thursday, accused Trump of firing him to try to undermine the Federal Bureau of Investigation's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign.
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