Earlier Mr Trump had his silence on Twitter, tweeting he'd been vindicated and derided Comey as a "leaker".
The truth is more complex.
In referring to Comey, Trump was citing the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director's acknowledgment that he had asked a friend to leak his memos about his conversations with the president.
As he publicly stated the next day, he did say to Mr. Comey, "General Flynn is a good guy, he has been through a lot" and also "asked how is General Flynn is doing". "If the election were on October 27, I would be your president", Clinton said last month. Under questioning Thursday, Comey reaffirmed the intelligence community's conclusion that Russian Federation meddled in the election.
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.
In fact, I would imagine that should he be asked to testify under oath the narrative would shift into "Why should I be asked to testify when Hillary Clinton used a private server for classified emails?!" In the broadest terms, either Comey perjured himself in front of Congress or his characterization of those conversations is accurate.
"The time had come to call on Qatar to end its funding", Trump said.
'Dead woman walking': UK's Theresa May clings to power
Hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition against a Tory pact with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party . Even a looser tie-up with the anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage party will worry Tories who fear being tarred by association.
In a Capitol Hill hearing room, the astonishing tableau unfolded of a former FBI director accusing the White House of "lies, plain and simple" and asserting that when the president suggested dropping an investigation into his former national security adviser, "I took it as a direction". The president also expressed a desire to focus on foreign policy issues, such as North Korea's missile and nuclear arms program, as well as the Middle East. Trump either talked to Comey about Flynn (whether it was in a way that made Comey feel he was being directed by the president to drop the FBI investigation is another matter). Barring new evidence, it arguably does not.
Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the information policy committee at the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, dismissed Comey's testimony as a "big bubble", adding that it "will not help Trump's adversaries to start impeachment proceedings".
The DOJ statement did not mention Sessions's contacts with Moscow's ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, which he did not disclose during his confirmation hearing. I don't think we would, actually. Comey had just two conversations with Barack Obama in three years and felt no need to document them.
For Trump, the battle with Comey now overshadows much of what he wants to do. I hardly know the man. "I was so stunned by the conversation I just took it in".
Comey also said he took steps to ensure he wrote the memos in a way that it would not be necessary to label them as classified.
Comey said he refused on all points, told senators of the detailed memos he had written after his conversations with Trump and said he hoped those conversations were taped because he is confident of their veracity.
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