Comey accuses Trump administration of defaming him

Former FBI Director James Comey tells Congress that President Donald Trump repeatedly urged him to halt a probe into his former national security adviser’s ties to Russia and that the administration defamed him and the FBI. 

UPDATE: Public Senate Intelligence Committee hearing has ended.

UPDATE: Comey says he believes he was fired to change the way the Russian investigation is run.

UPDATE: White House asked about Comey testimony says that Donald Trump is not a liar.

UPDATE: Comey does not want to say if he believed that Trump colluded with Russia.

UPDATE: U.S. House speaker Ryan says Trump “was new at this” and probably was not “steeped” in FBI independence from White House.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday, asked about President Donald Trump’s interactions with former FBI Director James Comey, said Trump “was new at this” and probably not “steeped” in FBI independence from the White House.

“He’s new in government, and so therefore I think he’s learning as he goes,” Ryan told reporters at a news conference. “I’m not saying it’s an acceptable excuse. It’s just my observation.”

UPDATE: Answering questions, Comey said that he did not initiate the Trump dinner. That statement coming form the president was untrue.

“I never initiated a conversation with the president,” Comey told before the Senate Committee.

UPDATE: Comey says that there is no doubt that Russia intervened in the election. 

UPDATE: Former FBI director said that he believed that sharing his memo will lead to appointment of special counsel.

“I asked a close friend of mine to share the memo with a member of the press,” Comey told Senators.

UPDATE: Mike Pence was aware of concerns over Flynn-Russia ties, Comey says.

UPDATE: Comey said that the Attorney General will have to recuse himself form the Russia investigation. “Career people said he had to recuse himself,” Comey said.

 UPDATE: Trump is getting ready to oppose some of the key statements made by former FBI director Comey.

UPDATE: While Comey said that the president did not order him to drop the Flynn investigation, he perceived it as an order.

UPDATE: Trump and Comey never spoke again after April 11. Comey also said that his colleagues were just as “shocked and troubled” by the president’s request on the Flynn investigation as he was.

UPDATE: The former FBI director told the Committee that he was stunned by the Oval Office meeting with Donald Trump.

UPDATE: The relationship between Trump and Comey got to a rough start because of the January 6 conversation.

UPDATE: Comey says he takes Trump at his word that he was fired because of the Russian investigation.

UPDATE: Comey says that Trump did not order him to let the Flynn investigation go. He said that he took Trump’s words as a direction that he wanted the investigation dropped.

UPDATE: Comey told the Committee that Trump was not under investigation while he was director.

UPDATE: Comey said that during the private meeting with Trump, the Attorney General knew that he should not be leaving the room.

UPDATE: Comey says that no other president has asked him for his loyalty and that the 10 year mandate was made so that directors do not have to have a political loyalty.

UPDATE: Comey says he felt that Trump wanted something in return for him keeping his FBI job.

UPDATE: Comey says that he did not feel that he had to document his meetings with Obama or Bush as he had with Donald Trump. 

UPDATE: The circumstances, that he was alone with the president-elect, the subject matter, that touched the FBI’s core responsibilities, and the person, that Trump could lie to the public, lead Comey to make an account of his meeting.

UPDATE: The FBI was aware of the Russian intrusion since 2015.

UPDATE: Flynn was under criminal investigation by the FBI and Comey said that he was disturbed by private meeting with Trump.

UPDATE: Comey says it is not up to him to say whether the president tried to obstruct justice.

UPDATE: Comey says he has no doubt that the Russians tried to influence the election and that the Russian government were aware of the hacking activity.

UPDATE: Comey: “I understood that I serve at the pleasure of the president but the shifting explanations confused me”

“It confused me when I saw on the television that I was fired because of the Russia investigation. I was also confused about the public statements that I was fired for my decisions during the campaign. The administration choose to defame me and the organization.”

“I want the American people to know this truth: The FBI will always be independent. It was the honor of my life to be a part of the FBI family. Thank you for doing so much good for this country.”

UPDATE: James Comey took the oath before testifying.

UPDATE: Warner says the way in which Trump fired Comey was “shocking” and praised Comey for his professionalism.

Warner said that Comey’s testimony and firing raise important questions that need answers.

UPDATE: Warner says that this investigation is not about re-litigating the election and it is not about Republicans or Democrats.

“We have to find out what the Russians did,” said Democrat Warner. 

UPDATE: Comey arrived before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Comey‘s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee starts at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT), in the most widely anticipated U.S. congressional hearing in years.

The outcome could have significant repercussions for Trump‘s presidency as special counsel Robert Mueller and several congressional committees investigate alleged Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump’s campaign colluded with this. Russia has denied such interference and the White House has denied any collusion.

The issue has dogged Trump’s first five months in office, with critics saying that any efforts by him to hinder the FBI probe could amount to obstruction of justice. Comey will be making his first public appearance since Trump fired him on May 9, triggering a political firestorm.

The Senate panel released Comey’s written testimony on Wednesday, shifting the drama on Thursday to the question and answer period of the hearing.

In his written testimony, Comey quoted Trump as telling him the Russia investigation was a “cloud” impairing his ability to operate as president.

In a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office on Feb. 14, Comey’s statement said, Trump asked him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, part of a wider probe into Russian meddling in the election.

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Comey quoted Trump as saying.

The Senate panel’s top Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, will say in his opening statement that Comey’s testimony showed Trump violated guidelines put in place after the 1970s Watergate scandal to prevent White House interference in FBI investigations.

“I do want to emphasize what is happening here – the president of the United States is asking the FBI director to drop an ongoing investigation into the president’s former national security adviser,” Warner said in excerpts provided to Reuters on Thursday.

After Trump fired Comey, Democrats accused the Republican president of seeking to hinder the Russia probes. Democrats and some Republicans on the committee will use Thursday’s hearing to press for further details of any attempts by Trump to blunt the Russia investigation.

Senator Angus King, an independent who votes with Democrats, told CNN he expected many questions would relate to Comey’s firing and the conversations that preceded it.

In a detailed account of a series of conversations with Trump, Comey said Trump told him during a one-on-one dinner on Jan. 27 that he needed “loyalty.”

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said on Wednesday he was very concerned about the loyalty comments, adding, “That is another way the president sought to impede the investigation.”

Republican Senator Richard Burr, the panel’s chairman, sought to play down the remark, saying: “I don’t think it’s wrong to ask for loyalty from anybody in an administration.”

The hearing was expected to be widely watched, with bars in the capital offering “impeachmint” cocktails and $5 Russian vodka shots during the live broadcast.

A line of people snaked through the hallway outside the hearing room waiting to get in, including some Capitol Hill interns who told reporters they were there shortly after 4 a.m.

Trump’s attorney, Marc Kasowitz, released a statement on Wednesday saying the president felt vindicated by Comey’s acknowledgement in his written testimony that Trump was not personally under investigation.

Although he has been involved in other political controversies, most notably his handling of the FBI investigation into 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.

Trump has been impulsive and visceral in the White House, often turning to Twitter to lambaste perceived adversaries. He is widely expected to use Twitter to counterpunch at Comey on Thursday, perhaps even during the hearing.

As Comey’s written testimony underscored, he and the president had an awkward relationship.

Then-presidential candidate Trump excoriated Comey last summer for deciding not to prosecute Clinton over her handling of government emails while she was secretary of state. Then he praised Comey when he reopened the issue in October, just days before the election.

After taking office on Jan. 20, 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.”

During Thursday’s hearing, Comey was not expected to directly accuse Trump of trying to obstruct justice by asking him to halt the FBI probe of Flynn. He was also unlikely to reveal new details of the 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.