Former FBI Director James Comey confirmed Thursday during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that President Trump never explicitly asked him to drop the FBI’s investigation on former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn.
Sen. James Risch (R-R.I.) asked Comey if Trump had ever actually asked him to let Flynn go.
“Not in his words, no,” Comey conceded.
That account aligns with his prepared remarks for the hearing released the day before, which shows that Trump never asked Flynn to drop the investigation, and he did not respond to the “request.”
According to Comey’s prepared remarks:
The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, “He is a good guy and has been through a lot.” He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. 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.” I replied only that “he is a good guy.” (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would “let this go.” The President returned briefly to the problem of leaks. I then got up and left out the door by the grandfather clock, making my way through the large group of people waiting there, including Mr. Priebus and the Vice President.
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