Comey to testify Trump told him: 'I expect loyalty'
Ex-FBI chief James Comey will tell
Congress on Thursday President Donald Trump wanted a "patronage
relationship" and asked for his "loyalty".
According to his
opening statement, Mr Comey will also testify the president asked him to
drop an inquiry into fired National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
He says Mr Trump called the Russian probe "a cloud" over him.
Mr Comey also says he had told Mr Trump three times he was not under scrutiny, confirming the president's account.
Reacting
to the prepared testimony on Wednesday evening, Mr Trump's private
legal counsel on the Russia inquiry, Marc Kasowitz, said the president
was "pleased" Mr Comey had confirmed he was not in investigators'
crosshairs.
"The president feels completely and totally vindicated," said the attorney.
But
in Thursday's Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, Mr Comey will
detail how Mr Trump made him uncomfortable during a series of encounters
leading up to the FBI director's firing on 9 May.
It is one of
several congressional panels that, along with the Justice Department, is
investigating US intelligence assessments that Russian hackers meddled
in last November's presidential election in an effort to help Mr Trump
beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
The inquiries are also
investigating whether any Trump campaign officials colluded with the
alleged Kremlin plot, which Moscow has repeatedly denied.
According
to seven pages of prepared testimony, Mr Comey will say his first
meeting with the president occurred on 6 January in a conference room at
Trump Tower, where Mr Comey briefed him alone on "salacious and
unverified" allegations about him.
A dossier compiled by a former
British intelligence official had claimed the Russian security services
possessed compromising material on Mr Trump, including that he had been
recorded consorting with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel.
Mr Comey's statement says the president "expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them" during a subsequent meeting.
That
denial came in a one-to-one dinner on 27 January at the White House, Mr
Comey will say, adding that he had a "very awkward conversation" with
the president that evening.
Who do you believe? Anthony Zurcher, BBC News
It's like a sneak preview of a blockbuster movie - this opening statement should be preceded with a "Spoiler Alert!" warning.
Mr
Comey is going to largely confirm all the reports that were circulating
in the media about what took place during his private meetings with the
president - the talk of loyalty, the pressure on the FBI to ease off
its Flynn investigation, the multiple requests for public confirmation
that the FBI was not targeting Mr Trump himself.
While Mr Comey
casts the president in a less-than-flattering light, he does shy away
from directly accusing the president of obstruction of justice. Much
will be made of how the two men may have interpreted the phrase "honest
loyalty" differently. In addition, Mr Comey viewed the president's Flynn
request as only relating to his conversations with the Russian
ambassador and not the investigation as a whole.
That may not matter much, however.
Large
portions of the former director's account is in direct contradiction to
Mr Trump's version of their meetings. It sets up a "he-said, he-said"
situation - but Mr Comey has memos and conversations with other FBI
officials to buttress his case.
What's more, if recent polls are
any indication, the American public trusts him more than the president.
Mr Comey's performance under questioning - particularly if Mr Trump
responds angrily via Twitter - could further sour the public mood.
Mr
Trump asked the FBI director during the discussion in the Green Room
whether he wanted to stay in his job, Mr Comey will testify.
He
will say he found this "strange" because Mr Trump had already told him
twice in earlier conversations that he hoped he would not step down.
The
former FBI director will testify the question "concerned me greatly"
because he felt the dinner was an effort to "create some sort of
patronage relationship".
The former FBI director will say: "A few moments later, the president said, 'I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.'
"I
didn't move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during
the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in
silence."
In testimony, the former FBI director will detail his
next encounter with Mr Trump, during a meeting attended by intelligence
chiefs at the White House on 14 February.
The president asked Mr Comey to stay at the end of the Oval Office meeting and told him: "I want to talk about Mike Flynn."
Mr
Trump accepted Mr Flynn's resignation as national security adviser just
24 days into the job after he misled the White House about his
conversations with the Russian ambassador.
Mr Comey will say Mr
Trump told him: "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go,
to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy."
The former FBI director will testify that he offered no such assurance.
Mr
Comey will also say the president phoned him on 30 March and said the
Russia investigation was "a cloud that was impairing his ability to act
on behalf of the country".
The former FBI director will testify
that Mr Trump "said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been
involved with hookers in Russia".
Mr Comey will say he assured Mr
Trump during their discussions on 6 January, 27 January and 30 March
that the president himself was not under investigation.
He will testify that Mr Trump told him during the 30 March phone call: "We need to get that fact out."
The
former FBI director will say Mr Trump phoned him again on 11 April to
press him on this matter. It was the last time they spoke.
Mr Comey will say he told the president the White House should contact the Department of Justice.
The
former FBI director notes that he spoke with President Barack Obama
only twice during the more than three years that their time in office
overlapped.
But he can recall nine one-on-one conversations with Mr Trump in four months, three in person and six on the phone.
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