Comey Opening Statement

[n david]

PDF of statement

Media working overtime to frame Comey's prepared opening remarks.

What the media is saying:

Comey confirmed Trump asked him to "let go" of the Flynn investigation
Comey says Trump asked him to "lift the cloud" of the investigation
Comey confirmed Trump asked for his loyalty.

Now, what the media is largely ignoring and NOT reporting:

Comey felt the request by Trump to "let go" of the investigation was directed towards the Flynn investigation only, not the investigation of Russian interference.

From Comey's statement:
"""February 14 Oval Office Meeting
I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign. I could be wrong, but I took him to be focusing on what had just happened with Flynn’s departure and the controversy around his account of his phone calls."""

Comey's statement details four (4) times where Trump is said to not be personally under investigation.

"""prior to the January 6 meeting, I discussed with the FBI’s leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure President-Elect Trump that we were not investigating him personally. That was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him."""

"""January 27 Dinner
I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative."""

"""March 30 Phone Call
I explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those Congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump."""

"""April 11 Phone Call
On the morning of April 11, the President called me and asked what I had done about his request that I “get out” that he is not personally under investigation. I replied that I had passed his request to the Acting Deputy Attorney General, but I had not heard back."""