June 8 (UPI) — James Comey on Thursday said he was blindsided when President Donald Trump fired him as FBI director, adding he was confused by the administration’s explanations, which he characterized as “lies — plain and simple.”
Comey testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday, where he was expected to face questioning about his termination, the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election and encounters he had with Trump.
Comey did not read his lengthy prepared remarks, which were released on Wednesday, and instead gave a brief and direct statement in which he discussed the circumstances prior to and after his termination.
“When I was appointed FBI director in 2013, I understood that I served at the pleasure of the president. Even though I was appointed to a 10-year term, which Congress created in order to underscore the importance of the FBI being outside of politics and independent, I understood that I could be fired by a president for any reason or for no reason at all,” Comey told the committee. “And on May the 9th when I learned that I had been fired, for that reason I immediately came home as a private citizen. But then the explanations, the shifting explanations, confused me and increasingly concerned me.”
Trump initially said he fired Comey following “clear” advice from Sessions and Rosenstein, who, among other reasons, cited Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton‘s emails as the reason he should be dismissed.
Comey said that Trump assured him he was serving well as the FBI director, suggesting the termination blindsided him and the following explanations confused him.
“They confused me because the president … repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and he hoped I would stay. And I had repeatedly assured him that I did intend to stay and serve out the remaining six years of my term,” Comey told the committee. “He told me, repeatedly, that he had talked to lots of people about me, including our current attorney general, and had learned that I was doing a great job, and that I was extremely well liked by the FBI workforce. So it confused me when I saw on television the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation, and learned again from the media, that he was telling privately other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation.”
Comey agreed to testify before the Senate panel, which is conducting one of three U.S. investigations related to Russia, last week after receiving clearance from special investigator Robert Mueller.
In prepared remarks released Wednesday, Comey said Trump suggested for him to end the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
In his statement, Comey recalls several one-on-one conversations he had with Trump over four months — three in person and six over the phone. He met privately with Trump in the Oval Office on February 14, one day after Flynn was fired.
“‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,'” Comey quoted Trump as saying in his statement. “‘He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.'”
During the committee hearing, which was open but will transition to a closed hearing at about 1 p.m., Comey said he was also confused about the initial explanation by the Trump administration for firing him, referring to the Clinton case.
“I was also confused by the initial explanation that was offered publicly that I was fired because of the decisions I had made during the election year. That didn’t make sense to me for a whole bunch of reasons, including the time and all the water that had under the bridge since those hard decisions had had to be made. That didn’t make any sense to me,” Comey added on Thursday.
“And although the law required no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were lies — plain and simple. And I’m so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them and I’m so sorry that the American people were told them.”
