WASHINGTON // The former director of the FBI has accused president Donald Trump and his administration of pressuring him to ease off part of his investigation into campaign links to Russia before sacking him and then lying about the reasons.
James Comey’s testimony to the senate’s intelligence committee on Thursday marks the first time he has spoken publicly since he was fired last month.
And, with details of nine phone calls and meetings, it paints a picture of a president growing increasingly frustrated that he cannot shake the cloud of suspicion that his aides had colluded with Russia during the election campaign.
Mr Comey said he was so troubled by the conversations that he started noting down what took place.
"I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so I thought it really important to document," he said of his first meeting with the president. "I knew there might come a day when I might need a record of what happened not only to defend myself but to protect the FBI."
After being praised for his work by the president, he said he learnt of his dismissal on television.
He was angered, he said, by White House statements that he was not up to the job and had lost the support of staff.
"The administration then chose to defame me and more importantly the FBI, by saying the organisation was poorly led," he said. "Those were lies, plain and simple."
Mr Trump later admitted that the Russia investigation was part of his reasoning.
Mr Comey told the senate committee he had leaked his notes on his meetings with Mr Trump through a friend "because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel" to investigate the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russian meddling in the presidential election.
At the end of last year US intelligence agencies said they believed Moscow’s intelligence agencies had used hackers to try to sway the election in Mr Trump’s favour and against his rival Hillary Clinton.
Although there is no evidence that anyone from Mr Trump’s circle knew about Russia’s efforts, the non-stop stream of revelations has sparked accusations of a cover-up.
That was heightened last month when the president fired the man leading the investigation.
Mr Comey’s testimony will only add to the sense that the president tried to pressure his FBI director before sacking him.
In a written opening statement he described a one-to-one dinner in January, during which he feared the independence of the FBI was being threatened by a president trying to establish a "patronage relationship".
"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," he said.
The awkwardness lifted only when the stunned FBI director agreed to show "honest loyalty".
The president’s personal lawyer responded to the testimony, saying he had never asked Mr Comey for his loyalty and accused him of leaking privileged conversations. Marc Kasowitz said: "Mr Comey has now confirmed publicy what he repeatedly told the president privately: The president was not under investigation as part of any probe in Russian interference."
Mr Comey also described a February meeting in the Oval Office during which he believed Mr Trump asked him to drop any investigation of Michael Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser when it emerged he misled officials over meetings with Russia’s ambassador to the US.
"He 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,’" said Mr Comey. "I replied only that ‘he is a good guy’."
Opponents are scouring his words for evidence that the president is guilty of obstructing justice — one of the charges that forced Richard Nixon to resign over the Watergate scandal.
At the least they say it shows Mr Trump is running the White House like a personal fiefdom, using pressure tactics to get what he wants with little understanding of the constitution.
Mark Warner, the most senior Democrat on the committee, summed up the concerns, pointing to Mr Trump’s repeated admiration for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, during the campaign and the continuing federal investigation.
"What we didn’t know was, at the same time that this investigation was proceeding, the president himself appears to have been engaged in an effort to influence, or at least co-opt, the director of the FBI," he said. "The testimony that Mr Comey has submitted for today’s hearing is very disturbing."
Democrats have tried to talk down the prospect of impeachment. Removing the president from office, they say, is difficult when Republicans control Congress.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said nothing he heard in Mr Comey’s statement so far convinced him that the president violated the law by interfering with a federal investigation.
"Sounding like Tony Soprano does not make you Tony Soprano," he said. "We do not indict people for being boorish or clueless."
Mr Trump’s allies tried to undermine Mr Comey’s credibility ahead of his testimony, suggesting he enjoyed the limelight, and paying for TV adverts that questioned his record.
Mr Comey’s testimony proved to be the biggest show in town as Washington ground to a halt for the hearings, bars opened early and TV networks cleared their schedules to broadcast the event live.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
* With reporting from Associated Press
