Zach Gibson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Former FBI Director James Comey will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday morning, where he will describe in detail his encounters with President Trump.
Comey’s official statement for the record, submitted to the committee on Wednesday, chronicles two separate conversations with the president that contradict statements made by the White House.
In his statement, Comey wrote about a Feb. 14 meeting alone with the president in the Oval Office in which Trump allegedly told Comey he wanted to talk about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who had resigned the day before.
Comey wrote that Trump then said, ” ‘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.’ I replied only that ‘He is a good guy.’ “
In a press conference on May 18, Trump was asked whether he had ever urged Comey “in any way, shape or form” to back off the investigation into Flynn. Trump said flatly: “No. No. Next question.”
Comey’s statement and expected testimony also appear to contradict White House assertions that Trump never demanded Comey’s loyalty during their private encounters, as described by sources in recent news reports.
In a one-on-one dinner at the White House on Jan. 27, Comey alleges in his statement that the president mentioned that his job was in high demand and asked whether he wanted to stay on as FBI director, despite two prior conversations in which Comey says he had assured the president that he intended to stay.
“My instincts told me … the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship,” Comey wrote.
Comey said the president told him, “I need loyalty” and “I expect loyalty” during the dinner. Trump allegedly later said again, “I need loyalty,” to which Comey replied, “You will always get honesty from me.”
But during a White House press briefing on May 12, Press Secretary Sean Spicer rejected the notion that Trump ever asked Comey to pledge loyalty.
When asked directly whether the president asked Comey to pledge his loyalty during the January dinner, Spicer responded: “No.”
The reporter followed up: “How important is it that the FBI director be loyal to the president?”
Spicer said, “I think the president wants loyalty to this country and to the rule of law.”
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