Former FBI
Director James Comey will tell Congress on Thursday that President Donald Trump
pressed him repeatedly to halt a probe into his ex-national security
adviser's
ties with Russia and to declare publicly that Trump himself was not under
investigation.
Comey's
testimony in the most widely anticipated congressional hearing in years will
put at center stage a high-stakes clash between two men with vastly different
personas.
The outcome
could have significant repercussions for Trump's 139-day-old presidency as
special counsel Robert Mueller and multiple congressional committees
investigate whether Trump's campaign team colluded with Russia during the 2016
presidential election. The White House and Russia deny any collusion occurred.
In written
testimony released by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, Comey
quoted Trump as telling him the Russia investigation was a "cloud"
impairing his ability to operate as president.
Comey said
in his statement that in a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office on Feb.14,
Trump asked him to drop an investigation of former national security adviser
Michael Flynn that is part of a wider probe into Russia's alleged meddling in
the 2016 presidential election.
"I hope
you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Comey
quoted Trump as saying.
Comey also
said Trump told him during a one-on-one dinner on Jan. 27 that he needed
"loyalty."
Trump fired
the FBI chief on May 9, setting off a political firestorm, and he has since
called Comey a "showboat" and a "grandstander."
Democrats,
along with some Republicans, on the committee will use the hearing on Thursday
to press for further details of any attempts by Trump to blunt the Russia
investigation.
"I’m
very concerned about the implication that Comey keeping his job was dependent
on his loyalty or, in Comey’s words, developing a ‘patronage relationship.’
That is another way the President sought to impede the investigation,"
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said in a comment emailed to Reuters.
Senator
Susan Collins, a Republican member of the panel, said earlier this week:
"I want to know more also about the president's interactions with Mr.
Comey with regard to the investigation into Michael Flynn. ... It makes a big
difference what the exact words were, the tone of the president, the context of
the conversation."
But
Republican Senator Richard Burr, the panel's chairman, sought to downplay
Comey's "loyalty" remark, saying: "I don't think it's wrong to
ask for loyalty from anybody in an administration."
Trump's
attorney, Marc Kasowitz, released a statement on Wednesday saying the president
felt "totally vindicated" by Comey's acknowledgement that he had told
Trump on three occasions that he was not personally under investigation.
Despite
landing himself in other political controversies, including his handling of the
FBI investigation of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's
private email server, Comey is widely seen as cautious and fact-oriented.
"One
thing you don't ever hear about him is (that) people don't think he tells the
truth. He brings a lot of credibility," said Benjamin Wittes, a Comey
confidant and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Less than
five months into office, Trump has proven himself to be impulsive and visceral,
turning to Twitter to lambaste perceived adversaries in 140 characters or less.
AWKWARD
RELATIONSHIP
As Comey's
written testimony underscored, he and the U.S. president had an awkward,
topsy-turvy relationship.
Then-candidate
Trump excoriated Comey last summer for deciding not to prosecute Clinton over
her handling of government emails, then praised him when he reopened the issue
in October just days before the election.
Trump
initially kept Comey on as FBI director, and publicly embraced him at a January
White House event. Two days after firing him, Trump said it was because of
"this Russia thing."
Trump is
widely expected to use his Twitter account, which lists 31.8 million followers,
to counterpunch at Comey on Thursday - perhaps even in real time.
The
Republican president's unconstrained use of Twitter has confounded allies and
skeptics alike.
"Every
time you tweet, it makes it harder on all of us who are trying to help you. I
don’t think you did anything wrong. Don’t get in the way of an investigation
that could actually clear you," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox
News on Wednesday.
Despite the
high drama, Comey is not expected to drop any major new bombshells, or directly
accuse Trump of trying to obstruct justice by asking him to halt the FBI probe
of Flynn.
He is also
unlikely to reveal new details of the ongoing Russia investigation. U.S. law
enforcement officials said Comey had discussed his testimony with Mueller's
investigative team to ensure it did not interfere with the special counsel's
probe.
"The
one thing you know he's not going to do, you know he's not going to reach a
conclusion (on the legality of Trump's actions) and he's not going to talk
about the underlying investigation," said Stephen Ryan, a former federal
prosecutor and congressional investigator now at the McDermott, Will &
Emery law firm.
Still, Ryan
said the testimony, and senators' questions, would be historic. The closest
comparison, he said, was the appearance 44 years ago of President Richard
Nixon's White House counsel John Dean, who, after being fired by Nixon, gave
damning testimony in 1973 to the Senate Watergate Committee.
Reuters*
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