Opinion poll: What do you think of Comey’s testimony?

Last month, Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Comey had “lost the confidence” of the FBI’s rank-and-file agents, which Comey, among others, dispute.

Comey offered a similar conclusion regarding vote totals.

The Trump administration has been subject to various embarrassing leaks, including Mr Comey’s allegations that the President had asked him to drop the Flynn investigation. When asked why he shared the memo with a friend, Comey bluntly stated “I thought that might prompt appointment of a special counsel”. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go”.

“Why did he kick everybody out of the Oval Office?”

“He described the Russian Federation investigation as “a cloud” that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country”, Comey wrote.

In the House, aides to the chairmen of the Intelligence, Judiciary, Oversight and Government Reform Committees said they had nothing to say about whether Comey’s testimony might reshape their investigations.

If there’s one takeaway from James Comey’s Senate committee testimony on Thursday, it’s that the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director doesn’t appear to have anything to hide. But there was no rest for partisan spinners.

“I was honestly concerned that he would lie about the nature of our meeting”, Comey said.

His concerns were realized nearly immediately.

On whether he believes Trump committed obstruction of justice, Comey said, “That’s (special investigator) Bob Mueller’s job to sort out”. The FBI director is generally appointed to a 10-year term to avoid political influence.

“If he did, my feelings aren’t hurt”.

In his testimony, Comey said he deliberately avoided putting classified information in his memos so he could share them widely.

“It’s not good stuff to have said on national television”.

Comey said he made a decision to use a go-between because he was anxious about the increased media scrutiny the memo was likely to bring.

“That’s a great question”, Comey said.

Comey was not sure if Sessions knew about those concerns before he was sworn in, four days before Flynn resigned.

Now, I’m not here to judge anyone’s personal preferences, but you can’t run around invoking the spirit of hotness where it does not reside, alright?

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“My mother raised me not to say things like this about myself.”

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Still, the fired director described a troubled relationship with a president he appeared to distrust from the beginning – one reason why he began to take notes of his interactions with Mr. Trump.

James Comey characterized President Donald Trump as untrustworthy and intent on slowing the investigation into his campaign ties to Russian Federation – but Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions also emerged as potential targets.

“Because what I won’t want to do is in the middle of a House Intelligence Committee investigation, a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation, now an independent counsel, is to speculate on the day-to-day intrigue of all of these issues”, he said.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) refused to join his Republican colleagues in dismissing the notion that there was anything in James B. Comey’s public testimony before the Intelligence Committee this morning suggesting President Trump tried to obstruct justice.

Comey about Donald Trump’s threat to release recordings of their meetings. “It doesn’t matter whether it was an order or not”.

“The president’s new at this”.

Comey’s testimony left some lawmakers wanting more.

But Comey’s assessment of the situation, he said, was critically important.