The opening statement to Comey’s much-anticipated testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee was released Wednesday afternoon. The testimony details the nine heart-to-heart conversations Comey had with Trump over the last four months, three times in person and six times over the phone.
The report confirms that Trump directly asked Comey on January 27 for his loyalty, in a meeting that can only be described as an intimate dinner date that the president tricked Comey into attending. Comey’s response was to literally freeze his face:
Comey on 1/27 dinner: he suspected "the dinner was...an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship" pic.twitter.com/WeZFV0ZN25
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) June 7, 2017
Comey’s testimony also appears to confirm Trump’s claim that Comey told Trump three times that he was not personally under investigation. Comey, however, adds an interesting proviso: “I did not tell the President that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change.” In other words, Comey did not want to publicly announce that Trump wasn’t under investigation because it would mean he would be under an obligation to potentially correct the record later.
Comey testimony also confirms that on February 14 Trump asked him to drop the investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, stating, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
Comey says he understood Trump "to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements" pic.twitter.com/VtSR24npTT
— Dan Froomkin (@froomkin) June 7, 2017
It was also revealed that Trump has been mad for months about the so-called “pee-gate” report, which alleged that the Russians had compromising information about Trump, including that he paid prostitutes to urinate on a bed that had been used by the Obamas. On March 30—over two months after BuzzFeed published the infamous dossier—Comey says that Trump called him to say that “he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia.” Does the president protest too much?