Comey says he helped reveal details of conversations with Trump to spur special counsel
Former FBI director says he helped reveal details of conversations with Trump to spur special counsel appointment
By Devlin Barrett and Ellen Nakashima June 8 at 11:33 AM
Former FBI director James B. Comey said Thursday he helped reveal details of his private conversations with President Trump because he thought doing so would spur the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the administration—a remarkable admission showing the degree of concern he had about both Russian interference with U.S. politics, and his doubts about the Justice Department’s ability to probe such activity.
Testifying at the Senate intelligence committee, Comey described how details of his private memos about his one-on-one conversations came to light shortly after his dismissal.
“The president tweeted on Friday after I got fired that I’d better hope there are not tapes,” Comey said. He said he woke up on Monday thinking that if there are tapes, there might be corroboration. Comey said he asked “a friend of mine to share” the memo he had written about his conversation with Trump “with a reporter.” He said the person was “a good friend of mine who’s a professor at Columbia Law School. “I thought it might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
The friend is Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Columbia Law School. The reporter is Michael Schmidt of the New York Times.
Comey also blasted the Trump administration for bad-mouthing the bureau and his leadership to justify his firing, saying “those were lies, plain and simple’’—a stark challenge to the president’s rationale for his ouster.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/comey-testimony-trump-senate-hearing/2017/06/07/afadf87c-4bd0-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html
