CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed the fired FBI director live, days after his new book was released.
Taking aim at Trump: Comey kicked off his media tour on Sunday with an interview with ABC where he called the President “morally unfit” for the office.
April 25: James Comey will appear before a CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked former FBI director James Comey about what the nation would be like if Hillary Clinton had won the election. Here’s how that exchange went down:
Tapper: “Do you think the nation would be better off if Hillary Clinton had won?
Comey: “I can’t answer that. That’s something, that hypothetical is too hard for me to go back and time and try to answer”
Tapper: “You paint a pretty dire picture of President Trump. It’s hard to imagine how you don’t think the nation is better off had Hillary Clinton won.”
Comey: “I don’t think about it in those terms, Jake. I think we have the current president who was, in my view, legitimately elected, is serving as president. The question is: Is he adhering to our values? He’s clearly not. So what do we do about it? I think the first thing we do is not get numb for it. When he calls for the jailing of private citizens in his tweets, don’t shrug. But realize that is not okay, that’s not normal.”
Fired FBI Director James Comey said he doesn’t feel like he was manipulative when he shared information from a memo to a friend, who then shared the contents with The New York Times last year.
“I was private citizen who saw it was something I could do,” he said. “I thought it was important. And I did it. And I obviously acknowledged it the moment – I was asked about it publicly. I thought it was something that needed to be done. And private citizens can talk about their unclassified conversations with the President.”
Comey said the average citizen doesn’t have a conversation with the President in which he’s asked to drop an investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.
Former FBI director James Comey said it’s possible — but unlikely — that Russia had derogatory information on President Trump
During an exchange with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Comey was asked about why he said it was “possible” that Trump was compromised by Russians.
Tapper pushed back: “Isn’t that kind of cute? Not saying that you have evidence of it. Just saying it’s possible. Do you have evidence that president trump is compromised by the Russians? Have you seen evidence of it?”
Comey answered: “No. I think I have said that throughout. Here’s why an honest answer has to be it’s possible. Now, I’m not saying it’s likely.”
Former FBI Director James Comey said he believes President Trump is “clearly not” adhering to this country’s values.
He called on Americans to scrutinize Trump’s behavior.
Former FBI Director James Comey said, despite everything they’ve been through, he doesn’t hate President Trump.
Former FBI director James Comey says he’s “fine” with Congress reading his memos on President Trump.
The Justice Department is expected to make Comey’s memos available to Congress later today, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
“It’s fine by me,” Comey said when asked if that’s the right decision.
“You don’t care?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked as a follow up question.
Fired FBI Director James Comey told CNN’s Jake Tapper he could be a witness for the prosecution in any potential case against former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
“I could well be a witness,” Comey told Tapper.
Earlier today, the Justice Department’s inspector general referred its findings on McCabe to the US attorney’s office in Washington for possible criminal charges associated with lying to internal investigators, according to a source familiar with the matter.
When exactly the referral was made to the US attorney’s office was not immediately clear, and prosecutors there may decline to prosecute.
Last week, the IG issued a report finding that McCabe “lacked candor” on four occasions with internal investigators when discussing a Wall Street Journal article about the FBI’s Clinton Foundation investigation, according to a copy of the report obtained by CNN.
In addition, the inspector general determined that McCabe was not authorized to disclose the existence of the investigation because it was not within the department’s “public interest” exception for disclosing ongoing investigations.
James Comey will return to CNN next week. The former FBI director is scheduled to appear before a CNN town hall with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on April 25.
The one-hour town hall will be held at Phi Beta Kappa Memorial Hall at William & Mary in Virginia, which is Comey’s alma mater. The event will be co-hosted by the Student Assembly at William & Mary.
The town hall will air at 8 p.m. ET.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that former FBI Director James Comey was not fired because of the Russia investigation – a statement directly at odds with the President’s own comments on Comey’s dismissal.
“Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!” Trump tweeted.
However, Trump had told NBC News last year that he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he decided to fire Comey.
When the President fired Comey last May, the White House initially cited a recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who sharply criticized Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.
A few days later, after Comey’s ouster, Trump told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an interview, “regardless of (Rosenstein’s) recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.”
Eyes were glued to televisions everywhere on June 8, 2017, as fired FBI Director James Comey detailed his interactions with President Trump before the Senate intelligence committee.
It was the first time he had spoken publicly since his firing nearly a month earlier.
These were some of the takeaways:
— Trump asked him to let an investigation go. He said Trump privately urged him to drop the probe into ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn.
— Comey testified that Lynch pressed him not to call the FBI’s Clinton email an “investigation,” but instead call it a “matter.”
— Trump’s tweeted implicit threat that he had taped their conversations prompted Comey to provide the content of the his memos to a friend, who disseminated it to the media.
— Comey hoped there were tapes of his interactions with Trump, adding that he wants them all released publicly. (Trump later said he never had any tapes of his conversations with Comey.)
— Comey’s testimony did not settle whether Trump committed obstruction of justice in asking him to drop the Flynn probe. He told lawmakers he simply would not draw any conclusions regarding obstruction of justice.
— Comey said Trump is liar, a lot. He said the entire reason he took notes of his meetings with Trump was because he believed Trump would lie about them.
Watch more:
President Trump’s firing of James Comey set into motion a cascading series of events that continue to complicate and cloud his presidency.
Here’s how it all started:
President Trump has been tweeting this week about former FBI Director James Comey, who’s been on publicity tour for his new book, “A Higher Loyalty.”
Comey hasn’t shied away from talking about Trump. The President has also thrown some verbal jabs back at Comey.
Here’s what he’s tweeted about Comey this week:
Sunday:
Monday:
Wednesday:
The Justice Department is expected to make former FBI Director James Comey’s memos available to Congress later today, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
It was not immediately clear whether they will be provided in redacted form, unredacted in a classified setting, or some combination of the two.
Sources told CNN on Wednesday that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte had planned to issue a subpoena to the Justice Department, demanding the memos.
What’s in the Comey memos
Comey, who was fired last May by Trump, has said he wrote the memos while still FBI director about meetings and conversations he had with Trump about the Russia investigation, which at that time the FBI led.
Comey has said he turned over his copies of the memos to the special counsel.
Former FBI Director James Comey has been on a media blitz this week, promoting his new book that details his life, career and thoughts on the Trump presidency.
Today, Comey, whose book, “A Higher Loyalty,” was released Tuesday, will sit down with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” at 4 p.m.
He will join CNN’s Anderson Cooper for a town hall on April 25.
Comey’s first sit-down interview since being fired by Trump in last May aired Sunday. He told ABC News that he believed Trump was “morally unfit” for office.
Since the interview, Comey has spoken out about the book in TV appearances with “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “The View.”
He also took questions from an audience at a New York book event on Wednesday.
