Donald Trump has accused fired Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey of being a "leaker" after his dramatic appearance at a Senate hearing in which he bluntly accused the White House of spreading "lies, plain and simple".
During his more than two hours of testimony yesterday, the 56-year-old former FBI chief said he was sacked by Trump "because of the Russian Federation investigation".
"Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he leaked to friends of his purported memos of those privileged communications", he said, although Trump said previously that he would not claim executive privilege when it comes to keeping his communications with Comey private.
Comey gave ammunition to the president's side, too, particularly by admitting that he had orchestrated the leak of his account of his most critical meeting with Trump with the express objective of spurring the appointment of a special counsel, which he accomplished. Trump tweeted shortly after 6 a.m. Friday.
Though Republicans worked to discredit Mr Comey and to blunt the impact of his testimony, the ex-director's statement deepened questions about the basis for his May 9 dismissal and about whether President Trump's actions constituted obstruction of justice.
Comey admitted to the committee that he chose to ask "close friend" Columbia law school professor Daniel Richman to leak contents of his notes detailing discussions with Trump to a reporter, in the hopes that it would prompt the appointment of a special counsel to probe the administration. Mr Comey also revealed that he had orchestrated the public release of information about his private conversations with the president in an effort to further the investigation.
The former FBI director said he interpreted that "as a direction to get rid of this investigation".
Wittes, who is also the editor of the influential Lawfare blog, has said he and Comey are meet-now-and-then-for-lunch friends, but not close friends.
Comey told a Senate committee Thursday that he believes Trump fired him over the Russian Federation probe, and he accused the White House of lying about the details of the dismissal. With a few equivocal affirmations but generally more "perhaps", and "could be", the exact consequences of Comey's testimony are still to be fully determined.
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Mr. Trump, according to Mr. Comey, defended Mr. Flynn, saying "he is a good guy".
Comey said he made a written record of many of those conversations, due to "circumstances, subject matter, and the person I was interacting with", in apparent reference to President Trump. Not enough to prove Donald Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors warranting impeachment, as the president's most strident opponents were hoping.
Trump stopped short of saying that Comey lied under oath at the hearing, which took place a month after Trump fired him.
Comey put himself squarely at odds with Trump in characterizing their conversations over a three-month period. The president's new at this.
The White House and Trump's lawyers expressed vindication over some parts of Comey's testimony and lashed out at others.
Comey, a longtime Washington insider, has proved expert at shaping the narrative surrounding the controversy, and never more so than when it comes to the investigation into ties between Trump's first national security adviser, James Flynn, and the Russians.
He said that while he found the February exchange in the Oval Office disturbing, "that's a conclusion I'm sure the special counsel will work towards, to try and understand what the intention was there, and whether that's an offense".
Trump has begrudgingly accepted that assessment. "We also were aware of facts that I can't discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic".
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