Former FBI Director James Comey’s opening statements includes Trump asking him to drop the investigation into Mike Flynn, a part of the Trump Russia investigation, “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.”
Comey’s statement is based on his notes, which details a list of witnesses to Trump asking to speak to him alone and speaking to him alone, including the Vice President, Deputy Director of the CIA, Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, Reince Priebus, and a large group of people waiting outside of the office.
“February 14 Oval Office Meeting” (I’ve put potential witnesses to this seeming obstruction of justice in italics, bold is for the important points/moments leading to possible obstruction of justice charges):
“On February 14, I went to the Oval Office for a scheduled counter-terrorism briefing of the President. He sat behind the desk and a group of us sat in a semi-circle of about six chairs facing him on the other side of the desk. The Vice President, Deputy Director of the CIA, Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and I were in the semi-circle of chairs. I was directly facing the President, sitting between the Deputy CIA Director and the Director of NCTC. There were quite a few others in the room, sitting behind us on couches and chairs.
“The President signaled the end of the briefing by thanking the group and telling them all that he wanted to speak to me alone. I stayed in my chair. As the participants started to leave the Oval Office, the Attorney General lingered by my chair*, but the President thanked him and said he wanted to speak only with me. The last person to leave was Jared Kushner, who also stood by my chair and exchanged pleasantries with me. The President then excused him, saying he wanted to speak with me.”
Note that Comey says Sessions lingered, not wanting to leave Comey alone with the President. This dovetails with reports published in the New York Times that Comey had reportedly asked Sessions not to leave him alone with the President after a meeting in the Oval in February. Sessions had been unable to provide assurances on this as he couldn’t guarantee that Trump wouldn’t try to talk to Comey, which effectively translates to Sessions wasn’t able to assure that he could keep the President from interfering in the Trump Russia investigation and/or keep Comey independent as he is supposed to be. The inability to provide this basic firewall is a huge red flag.
Comey’s opening statement continues, “When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the President began by saying, ‘I want to talk about Mike Flynn.’ Flynn had resigned the previous day. The President began by saying Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice President. He added that he had other concerns about Flynn, which he did not then specify.
“The President then made a long series of comments about the problem with leaks of classified information – a concern I shared and still share. After he had spoken for a few minutes about leaks, Reince Priebus leaned in through the door by the grandfather clock and I could see a group of people waiting behind him. The President waved at him to close the door, saying he would be done shortly. The door closed.
“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.”
This part of the statement is damning evidence of the President asking the then FBI Director to drop an investigation into Mike Flynn, a part of the Trump Russia investigation. Comey’s statement clarifies that during this encounter, he took the President’s demand to drop it to be about dropping the Flynn part of the investigation, not the entire Russia investigation.
Witnesses to President Trump’s plan to get Comey alone so that he could interfere in the Trump Russia investigation on this ONE instance include Vice President Pence, Reince Priebus, Deputy Director of the CIA, Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General and a large group of people waiting outside of the office.
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