08/06/2017 100 Days+

James Comey says Donald Trump lied about his firing and he feared he'd

But the former director of the FBI does not accuse the President

of obstructing justice - he says he'll leave that

At a Senate hearing, Mr Comey says he believes

he was fired in order to alter the course of the Russia

It is my judgement that is was fired because of the russia investigation.

I was fired in some way to change or the endeavour was to change

the way the russia investigation was being conducted.

At a rally for evangelicals President Trump chose

to ignore the hearings - it's not what he wants his

I have one goal as President, to fight for the American people and to

fight for America and America first. Is all this diverting from the

Russian investigation? James Comey testifies there was no doubt they

were meddling in the investigation. He says it's about as unfake as you

can get. This was appointment viewing and such a crowd-puller this

morning in Washington. The bars even opened early.

Welcome to 100 Days Plus, I'm Katty Kay in Washington.

The fired director of the FBI doesn't think the current President

of the United States tells the truth.

James Comey told Senators at a block buster hearing today that

Donald Trump lied about his firing - Mr Comey also said he was

worried Mr Trump would lie about other things too.

Mr Comey confirmed much of what we already knew

from his testimony - the President asked for his loyalty,

he asked him to drop the investigation into former

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and he did it repeatedly.

But Mr Comey would not say whether he thought the President

was guilty of obstructing justice in the Russia investigation.

Although the law required no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the

administration chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI, by

saying the organisation was in disarray, that it was poorly led,

that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those were

lies, plain and simple. A lot of testimony focused

on a February 14th discussion about Mike Flynn when James Comey

was left alone in the Oval Office Here's Diane Feinstein asking

about how he handled Why didn't you stop and say Mr

President, this is wrong, I cannot discuss this with you? It's a great

question. Maybe if I were stronger I would have. I was so stunned by the

conversation that I just took it in and the only thing I could think to

say because I was playing it over in my mind because I remember

everything he said, I was playing in my mind, what should my response be.

That's why I very carefully chose the words. Look, I've seen the tweet

about the tapes, Lordy I hope there are tapes.

This was an important day politically but a sideshow

And in the view of James Comey - the Russian interference

was driven with purpose, sophistication and right

The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle. They

did it with purpose and sophistication. They did it with

overwhelming technical efforts and it was an active measures campaign

driven from the top of that Government. There is no fuzz on

that. It is a high confidence judgment of the entire intelligence

community and the members of this committee have seen the

intelligence. It's not a close call. Did the President in any of those

interactions you have shared with us today ask you what you should be

doing or what our government should be doing or the intelligence

community to protect America against Russian interference in our election

system? I don't recall a conversation like that. Never? No.

It's interesting; while James Comey says the president didn't ask him

about the Russia investigation, he does say it's the reason

It's my judgment I was fired because of the Russian investigation.

I was fired in some way to change or the endeavour was to change

the way the investigation was being conducted.

That is a very big deal, not just because it involves me,

the nature of the FBI and the nature of its work requires

that it not be the subject of political consideration.

Perhaps most remarkably we haven't seen a tweet

He has just spoken to a group of evangelicals telling them

they were under siege and he would continue

You fought hard for me and now I'm fighting hard for you. I have one

goal as President, to fight for the American Prime Minister people and

to fight for America and America first. .

And joining us now from Capitol Hill is Democratic Senator Chris Coons

who sits on both the Foreign Relations and the

Are we any closer to understanding whether there was anything criminal

in what the President did during the course of the last three months,

whether it was to do with the Russian investigation or to do with

obstructing justice in that investigation? Katty, we heard a

couple of important things today. Former FBI director Jim Comey, a

senior federal law enforcement official testified under oath that

he's convinced he was fired in order to interfere with the ongoing

investigation into Russian interference in our election and

that when he met with the President, he felt directed to drop at that

point an ongoing investigation into the former National Security Advisor

general Mike Flint. -- Flynn. There were other things. I do think some

significant new developments happened today with regard to the

ongoing investigation. But was there anything actually criminal do you

think in what the President did? Katty, that is not a conclusion for

me to make. I'm going to be careful about reaching a conclusion like

that. That's why we have special counsel. One thing that was

important to hear from the former FBI director who has I think fairly

good knowledge into what that ongoing investigation into potential

criminal activity by folks in the administration looks like is that

Jim Comey said he thought it was appropriate and possible for the

senate to continue its investigations and for the special

counsel to conduct his investigation that they could move forward at the

same time without interfering with each other. Just coming back to the

Attorney General. Mr Comey said in his written testimony which he

supplied to the senate that he hadn't informed him after The Oval

office meeting because, in his view, he was likely to have to accuse

himself and it would be problematic for him to carry on with the Russian

investigation. When asked about that today, he said he couldn't speak

about it in a public open hearing. Does that create another mushroom

cloud for the house? Yes, I think that was one of the most intriguing

potentially explosive things that was raised today is the suggestion

that there is some reason that the FBI director at the time knew that

the Attorney General would almost certainly recruise himself and that

whatever evidence or information there was that led him to believe

that was of a type that he couldn't share in an open hearing. That was a

significant disclosure today by the former FBI director. Senator, you

have just concern returned from a trip to Asia. You were at a meeting

with NATO members, easternian countries recently too. What impact

is this Russian investigation having on the White House's reputation

abroad and on America's pasty to lead abroad? Well, I think it

continues to raise a significant concern amongst our European allies,

our Asia-Pacific allies. First that we are distracted, that the

administration isn't going to be able to focus on pushing back on

Russian aggression or on engaging effectively with North Korea and

with China in a way that would help keep them safe. There is a question

about our continued leadership role in the world. Some is based on

things that President Trump said as a candidate, some of this is based

on things he's said as President and some is based on the general

observation that this ongoing investigation is taking up more and

more of the time and energy and space here in Washington. I will say

that in both places in Singapore at the regional security conference

there and at Halifax at a North Atlantic security conference, all of

our allies with whom I spoke were eager for the States to continue its

strong role and to continue to invest in alliances and

partnerships. I was part of a bipartisan delegation to reinforce

our thanks for the long and special relationship we have with the United

Kingdom and with many other important allies around the world.

Senator, it's really good to have you on the show again, thank you for

being with us on such a busy day. Joining us with his analysis is our

North America Editor Jon Sopel. Oh, he is not here. If I said I hope

you are going to join us for 100 Days next week, you would know what

I meant? I will try and channel Jon Sopal for you. My take from this was

partly that, as you are suggesting, he said against he said and this

issue of how strength the coercion was or the pressure was, was this an

order from the President to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn.

But this is not a bad day for President Trump. It could have been

a lot worse. James Comey didn't say that he thought there was

obstruction of justice, he said he'd leave that to others. He was silent

on the whether there was the issue of collusion. He said that in closed

session and he could have done a lot more damage to the President. On the

character issue, it was pretty damning. He said he thinks this

President is prone to lying. That's a problem for President Trump. But

it's not criminal. I think that was what the White House was mostly

concerned about, that James Comey would stand up there, take this

investigation further and we'd be getting further to the idea that

there was some kind of obstruction of justice. That did not happen

today in that respect and this is not such a bad day for the White

House or at least not as bad as it might have been. Jon Sopal really is

here now. I've been here all along. I know, but we had to chat amongst

ourselves. Yes. I think the White House might have hoped that Comey

would have come unstuck a bit more, that he will have looked a bit

flakey, not sure of the detail and I thought that Comey came across as

extremely poised, humane, grasping all the details very clear and I

think his credibility is intact, except for one or maybe two specific

areas. There was the Feinstein question. Why if you thought

something terrible was going on didn't you do something about it.

The other thing I'm sure which will be part of the narrative from the

White House. He showed himself to be a politician as well in trying toe

leak that information that would build up pressure for a special

counsel to be appointed. The White House is going to say, you're one of

the leakers, Comey, how can we trust you. I think that that would be

something that the White House will seize upon and will choose not to

make too much of the other stuff because in some ways he'll see it as

confirming what the President had said. I wasn't under investigation -

confirmed. I didn't order the Russian investigation to be stopped

- confirmed. I asked about Flynn but I didn't order him to stop it, it

wasn't a direction even though that's what Comey might have

thought. John for me, the most extraordinary thing about today was

really the main event, that's the Russian investigation and he set out

very clearly that the Russians had attacked lots of organisations, it

came right from the top of the Kremlin, it's going to happen again

he said and when people, even within Mr Trump's base find it

extraordinary that the Commander in Chief, and that's what he is, and

he'd not at any point it seemed said to James Comey, what are you doing

to protect America and future American elections? I think this is

one of the areas where there is a huge disjunction. A lot of the Trump

base get ever that he -- everything that he said about administration

and health care. He's cosying up to Moscow and that was problematic and

remains so. That said, now that Donald Trump is elected President

and there hasn't been evidence produced that the Russian

interference led to ballot boxes being interfered with, I think

people think, oh, I'm sick of the Russian stuff, let's get on with

making America great again, to use the Trump language. There are big

problems still. If you use the Trump language, he wanted the cloud lifted

on Russia. Has the cloud been lifted today? No, we have got to the end of

act one and we are going to see the start of act two now with the

special counsel taking this over this investigation. And Katty is

right, James Comey did not say that he had obstructed justice but he

didn't say that he hadn't either. He left it ambiguous. Act one, act two,

this is going to go on for ever. Thank you very much.

This hearing has legal implications but it will also have political

implications for a President already suffering from low approval ratings.

So how will Republicans react to these hearings?

Let's bring in Bradley Blakeman, he's a Republican political

consultant who was a senior staff member for President George W Bush.

Mr Blakeman, Paul Ryan today said that the reason that the President

had put pressure on Donald Trump to drop the investigation into Mike

Flynn was because "he's new at this". Frankly, if that is the best

defence that Republicans can come up with, it suggests the bar is pretty

low, doesn't it? No, it does not. The President did

not order the FBI director or anybody else to stop an

investigation. What he said to the... He asked him... He said at

the time, it was an expression of frustration, if anything, that it's

respect that he had for Flynn, a decorated general, he thought he'd

been through enough and it would hope -- he'd hope there would not be

a criminal liability. That's in the a direction to do anything and Comey

didn't do anything based on that conversation.

It was not a direction, you are quite right, but it was an ask or a

request and they got into that. I want to get into the question of how

Republicans respond to this President whose approval ratings are

down 36-37, 38%. At what point do Republicans decide that this

President is no longer doing the Republican Party and their cause any

favours and that this Russian investigation is too much of a

liability. This Russian investigation's not a liability. The

President didn't do anything wrong. If anything, the Russians did

something wrong. If anything that the President is guilty of is maybe

hurting Comey's feelings which I'm not sure is a crime in America. As

far as the Republicans are concerned, we all rise and fall

together, promises remain. It's incumbent upon us, the President and

the Republicans to make good on the promises by passing legislation. We

have to start winning in legislation.

Mr Blakeman, the best thing you can say about the President if you were

listening to this testimony and you were in his camp is that he's

inexperienced and naive and he doesn't understand that it's

inappropriate to be talking to an independent FBI director in this

way. But the problem is he does it repeatedly. We have got the written

testimony here. On nine -cations he's having one-on-one conversations

with the FBI director. Will people draw conclusions from that? If

anything, Donald Trump is unorthodox and new to government. There is a

fiction. And I'm talking as a lawyer now, as somebody that served in the

White House, an FBI director cannot have personal conduct with the

President on a professional level one-on-one. Comey testified that he

had a personal professional conversation with the President

alone when he talked about the Russian dossier on Trump? He's the

one who requested a personal meeting with the then President-elect. Why

is it OK when he requests a one-on-one meeting but not the

President? You are talking about tradition, there's nothing illegal,

immoral, in the FBI director meeting with the President one-on-one, it's

a subject matter that matters and nothing criminal occurred. I can

tell you this, democrats were chomping at the bit from the time

the President was I elected for impeachment and I'm sorry to burst

their bubble but there's nothing impeachable about what the President

did with the FBI director. Thank you very much for joining us.

This is interesting because it gets to the democratic process, so what

extent are democracies built on laws and norms and customs. Blakeman is

right, there is nothing in the law that says the conversations that the

President had with the FBI director shouldn't have taken place but it

has in modern American history become the norm, the custom that FBI

directors should be independent from the President and therefore this was

the kind of inappropriate conversation that the President was

trying to have and the kind of pressure he was putting on Comey was

seen therefore as inappropriate? Yes. I think the problem he's going

to have certainly from the Republican perspective is the

acquiesce sense that he'd been approached by the President

countless times and he didn't flag it up to the DoJ, the Department of

Justice. There was an interesting bit, he was invited to the White

House dinner in February and he'd never been invited to dinner with

the President before. This was the first time. He fully expected to be

going there, among others, sitting down for dinner with the President.

In fact it turns out he's there one-on-one with the President with

two Navy stewards. Yes. I think this slightly gets to the argument about

whether the President didn't know what he was doing and didn't know

that he shouldn't put pressure on Jim Comey because, on two occasions,

that dinner and then on February 14th in The Oval office, Mr Trump

clearly makes a concerted effort to be alone with the Director of The

FBI. He doesn't want other people around listening in on those

conversations. It suggests to me that the President did know exactly

what he was doing. OK let's look at that critical legal question. Is Mr

Trump guilty of any sort of crime? US Constitutional scholars are

divided. Some think Mr Comey's testimony points to a possible

obstruction of justice. Others are equally convinced the case falls

short. Mr Comey himself refused to pass judgment today. But we got news

from his special counsel and we'll look at this issue. I don't think

it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the

President was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a disturbing,

concerning thing, but that's a conclusion I'm sure the special

counsel will work towards to try to understand what the intention was

and to decide whether that was an offence.

Let's get a little more on this - Barak Cohen is a former

Whether a President can be investigated and prosecuted for a

federal crime, other questions aside it rises to the level of something

that warrants a criminal investigation. But I don't think

right now it brings us to the level of an offence. Mr Comey made it

clear as the President that on three occasions he reassured him that he

wasn't directly under investigation. When asked today where the President

might be under investigation now, he said he couldn't answer that in a

public open hearing. Does that suggest that Robert Muller might be

looking at the President on the back of what was said about Flynn? It

certainly does. Again without being party to whatever Mr Comey says or

said during the closed session, it's hard to say for sure what he was

alluding to. I should bring in that we are waiting for the Donald

Trump's personal lawyer. As soon as he starts speaking, we'll go to that

because that will be the first reaction. That is the press waiting

for him to start speaking. We'll go to that. On one point, on the issue

of who we should believe Mr Cohen, Mr Comey said on the issue he was

asked about, should we believe you or should we believe the President,

who's said that he never tried to put pressure on you to stop the

investigation into Michael Flynn, Mr Comey said, when it comes to

witnesses, you leek at a host of things, consistency, demeanour and

temperament. I guess what he was trying to say was that he had the

better case for being a reliable witness than the President on those

fronts? I definitely agree with that. Mr Comey is a former

prosecutor himself and he was touching on the precise things that

prosecutors look at when trying to assess the credibility of a witness.

When you said there should be some kind of criminal investigation into

whether this mounts to some sort of obstruction of justice and you

couldn't tell that from this hearing, are you suggesting that

that would then put the President under investigation himself? That's

not precisely what I said. What I said was that all other questions

aside, in particular whether a sitting President can be prosecuted,

this would particularly warrant opening an investigation. So if this

investigation into a sitting conditioning grossman or Governor or

other person, the evidence that we have now would probably be enough

for the government to open a grand jury and start serving subpoenas and

talking to witnesses. Thank you very much for being with us. Katty, we

are going to hear from the outside counsel for the President shortly.

But by all accounts he was in a hotel last night at the Trump

international hotel in Washington handing out cigars telling people

they'd won and they'd been vindicated by the written testimony.

Do you think he'll be so confident today? I do think they are going to

carry on saying they were vindicated and I've spoken to people who're

surrogates of the White House who've had their talking points and that's

going to be the official line, that they were vindicated because they

are going to be able to say the President was never under

investigation and that is what the President's said, they are not

really addressing the question of whether James Comey was put under

some kind of pressure to drop the investigation under Michael Flynn.

Interestingly, nobody in the White House since Comey testified has come

out and disputed Comey's facts. I think that is an important point on

this question of credibility. They are not trying to say Comey is

lying, this is fake news, none of this happened, but my snap judgment

is that this won't be felt to be such a bad day for the Trump

administration it could have been a lot worse. I was looking at

Watergate inquiry and people have talked about that and whether there

are comparisons. It ran for some 900 days, if you take it from the

initial reports to the end of the court cases. We are very early in

the process and as you have said, the real main event is the Russian

investigation. There will be a bit of a part of that investigation?

This is going to two and two, we are going to have a lot more of this

investigation. Bob Muller has an awful lot to go to, if he expands it

into justice, it's going to go on and on. One thing James Comey said

he cancelled din we are his wife to have din we are the President. The

main take-away from this hearing, don't cancel dinner with your wife,

do not dare. I never would. You've not met my wife, especially not to

meet Donald Trump in a one-on-one. You are watching 100 Days Plus.

Hello. We have seen more sunshine this afternoon and have continued to

see rain. One area of the country that's been plagued is this area

near Wigan. Those are the showers coming in. The

wettest weather has been across Northern Ireland. That weather

warning should be fading away as the wetter weather works its way

northwards into the north-west corner of Scotland. Some showers

running across other parts of the UK, some clearer skies around as

well. Not too cold despite the temperatures being disappointing for

many of us today. Let us move things on to 8 o'clock in the morning

heading off to work perhaps into the rush hour. A few showers in South

Wales up to the Bristol channel towards Bristol and Gloucester. The

odd shower further east and in n the Midlands.

Moving north, much drier weather by the morning across Northern Ireland.

Bright sunny starts after the downpours of earlier on. Some rain

for Scotland north of the central belt. That rain not as heavy and it

will continue to peter out a bit through the day. A mixture of

sunshine and showers across the UK. We'll see the main shower risk

transferring from the west into the east by the afternoon with more

sunshine following on. For a good part of the day it should be dry

with sunny spells and temperatures a little bit higher for most than they

were today. A brief respite though because we have a big low pressure

coming in from the Atlantic. These weather fronts will be spilling our

way. Not everywhere will catch rain on Saturday. It's mainly going to be

running north away from Northern Ireland up into Scotland and then

the rain getting stuck across northern England, Midlands, Wales

and the south-west. For the south-east, it may stay dry. It will

be humid again. Pleasant enough when the sun is out.

That band of rain runs east and fades. Should be clear by Sunday

morning then we are left with sunshine and showers. By for the

more frequent showers towards the north-west of the UK where the winds

are stronger. A mixed bag then with rain and a breeze on Saturday, on

Sunday, sunshine and showers. We are going to go to the Washington

press club where Donald Trump's lawyer is speaking. Ladies and

Edelmann, I am president Trump's personal lawyer. -- ladies and

gentlemen. Contrary to numerous press accounts leading up to the

hearing, Mr Comey has confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told

president Trump privately, that is that the president was not under

investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference. The

president... Mr Comey admitted that there is no evidence that a single

vote changed as a result of any Russian interference. Mr Comey's

testimony makes clear that the president never sought to impede the

investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election.

In fact, according to Mr Comey, the president told Mr Comey" it would be

good to find out" in that investigation if there was "Some

satellite associates of his who did something wrong". And he, president

Trump, did not exclude anyone from that statement. Consistent with that

statement, the president did not direct or suggest that Mr Comey stop

investigating anyone, including the president never suggested that Mr

Comey" let Flynn go". As the president 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 general Flynn is doing". Testimony today

said that the president never directed him to do anything illegal,

immoral, unethical or inappropriate, and never, never" pressured him to

do so." Director Coates said the same thing. The president, likewise,

never pressured Mr Comey. The president also never told Mr Comey"

I need loyalty, I expect loyalty." He never said it is in substance. Of

course the office of the president is entitled to expect loyalty from

those who are serving the administration and from before this

president took office, to this day, it is overwhelmingly clear that

there had been and continue to be those in government who are actively

attempting to undermine this administration with selective and

illegal leaks of classified information and privileged

communications. Mr Comey has now admitted that he is one of these

leakers. Forced today, Comey admitted that he unilaterally and

surreptitiously made disclosures to the press of privileged medication

is with the president. The leaks of this privileged information began no

later than March, 2017, when friends of Mr Comey have stated that he

disclosed to them the conversations that he had with the president

during their January 27, 2017 dinner, and February 14, 2017 White

House meeting. Today, Mr Comey admitted that helix to friends of

his purported Mermoz of those privileged communications -- he

leaked to friends of his purported Memos. They were leaked to the press

in order to "Prompt the appointment of a special counsel." Although Mr

Comey testified that he only leaked these memos in response to a tweet,

the New York Times was quoting from them the day before the referenced

tweet, which belies Mr Comey's excuse for this unauthorised

disclosure of privileged information, and appears to be

entirely retaliatory. We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to

determine whether these leaks should be investigated, along with all of

the others that are being investigated. In sum, it is now

established that the president was not being investigated for colluding

with or attempting to obstruct any investigation, as the committee

pointed out today. These are facts for the country to know, virtually

the only facts that have not been leaked during the course of these

events. As he said yesterday, the president feels completely

vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda, the

business of this country, and with this public cloud removed. Thank

you. That was Marc Kasowitz, outside

counsel for president Trump. A couple of interesting things there,

most particularly this idea that James Comey, and we heard this in

the testimony in the Senate today, handed on information from his memos

to a friend who worked at Columbia University, and authorised him to

lick the details to the press and the outside counsel Marc Kasowitz

say that they want an investigation into that for four potentially

leaking classified information. The other takeaway I had from that, they

are clearly going to hammer him on the idea that he was leaking. They

are disputing James Comey. I said before the break that the White

House had not disputed that what James Comey said was true but he

just did it, they are saying that Comey is effectively not telling the

truth, that this is a case of he said, he said and the president does

not agree with Comey's recollection. Well sitting right behind

James Comey throughout today's testimony was

Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman from California and he was tweeting

during the precedings. It looks like the White House is

going to say that James Comey was not telling the truth on two issues,

one, letting Flynn go and secondly, being asked for loyalty by the

president. They'll welcome to dispute that, he has raised the

possibility that there may be tapes. Interesting to hear them if they

exist. The fact is that Comey's testimony was very convincing. If

his testimony is true, the president said, let Flynn go and fight and

Comey with losing his job if he failed to do so. That is obstruction

of Justice, a high crime and misdemeanour under the Constitution.

On the question of whether there was criminal activity on behalf of the

president, James Comey effectively didn't pass any judgment on that at

all, did he? He didn't talk about collusion and he said it wasn't up

to him to talk about obstruction of justice. What we learned in

Watergate is that it isn't the crime, it's the cover-up. Now, Comey

has declined to act as a lawyer and say how the facts apply to the law

and whether they constitute a violation of the US criminal law.

The even bigger question is, do they constitute high crimes and

misdemeanours? Comey is a lawyer but he wasn't there as a lawyer, he was

explaining the facts. The facts are that if you threaten someone with

losing their job, with halting an investigation... That is obstruction

of justice. In this case, it may have nothing to do with collusion

with the Kremlin before the election or affecting the election and may

have everything to do with Flynn's decision not to reveal accurately

his discussions after the election with the Russian ambassador or the

money he got from Russia and Turkey. But whether it's obstructing justice

regarding collusion or Comey violating the law after the

election, the answer is still the same. Obstruction of justice is a

high crime. This has been a two-day hearing, we have had some of the top

intelligence officials before the Senate Intelligence Committee

yesterday. The Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, was asked

whether the president had asked him to get Mr Comey to back off and he

refused to answer the questions in an open hearing. So is it possible

that the Democrats will start to go after these top security officials

to find out if that happened, as was reported in the Washington Post? It

would be somewhat difficult for us to call the shots, with a minority

in the house and then at, but yes, indeed, we should get first,

classified and then, unclassified information from Dan Coats and

others about what Donald Trump tried to do or didn't try to do to stop

the investigation. We have the key element already, the threat to

Comey's job if he doesn't stop the investigation of Michael Flynn. We

don't have to show that there were innumerable acts of obstruction of

justice. One is enough. Thank you for joining us.

James Comey today accused the Trump administration of telling lies

about him and the FBI to the American people.

In the hearing, he said the administration

Much of the testimony focused on the discussions the former FBI

director had with the president, with claims that Trump demanded

loyalty from James Comey and that the president asked him

to drop an investigation into his former national security

Let's take a listen to what he had to say about those conversations.

I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of the

meeting so I thought it important to document them. That, nation of

things I've never experienced below but -- experience before but I felt

I had to write it down in a detailed way. Dinner was an attempt to build

a relationship, specifically of loyalty, in the context of asking me

to stay. What was odd about it, we had spoken twice about it by then

and he said, I very much hope you'll stay. My impression was that

something big was going to happen and that I have to remember every

word that is spoken. I could be wrong, I'm 56 years old and I've

seen a few things. My sense is that the Attorney General knew that he

shouldn't be leaving, which is why he lingered and I think Jared

Kushner picked up on the same thing. I think what he meant by the cloud,

I could be wrong, but the entire investigation is taking up oxygen

and making it hard for me to focus on the things I want to focus on.

The asked was to get it out that I come at the president, and not under

investigation. You get the impression that there were several

attempts by Donald Trump to get in the ear of Donald Trump. He had

21-on-1 conversations with President Obama and only had one with

President Bush and found it unusual that he found himself invited to

dinner for this one on one conversation. We just heard from

outside counsel for Donald Trump that these documents had been leaked

to his friend at Columbia University. Do you think he

orchestrated the special counsel because James Comey didn't have any

faith in the Department of Justice? That's what it sounded like. You

were asking a senator earlier about Jeff Sessions and whether he felt

there was something about Jeff Sessions' links to Russia that

compromised him. PCs to have anticipated that Jeff Sessions would

have two recuse himself from the Russian investigation -- he seemed

to anticipate. He didn't feel he could go to the White House and the

Department of Justice because he didn't quite trust them. He told

people in the FBI, each time he had encounters with the presidency told

close associates in the FBI that he was concerned about what the

president said but he said he wanted to protect the investigation and

investigators, so he didn't want the content and uncomfortable nature of

the conversations to get out too far in the FBI, that is Comey's view.

We are used to the attack ad's that appear during the elections here.

But rarely do we see them targeted at a private citizen.

But this week a pro-Trump ad targeting James Comey has been

It has been paid for by the Great America Alliance pac.

Newt Gingrich who is close to the President is their chair.

And it picks up on a theme the President had used himself.

That in his view his former FBI director - is a "showboat".

As head of the FBI, James Comey put politics over protecting America.

After the FBI banned terms like radical Islam for political

correctness, Comey allowed the dangerous practice to continue. When

terror attacks were on the rise last year, Comey was consumed with

election meddling and after he testified before the Senate, Comey's

staff admitted that some of his answers were wrong. James Comey,

just another Washington insider only in it for himself. Paid for by Great

American Alliance. Such a cosy world!

We can bring in Matt Schlapp - the Chair of the American

Thanks for joining us. You heard that at that the White House has put

out, how sensible is this from the White House, to try and take a shot

at James Comey's credibility like this? I am all for Mr Comey having

to answer for his record and a lot of us worked with Jim Comey in the

Bush administration and a lot of people who supported Hillary Clinton

for President who are really disappointed with that record, a lot

of Hillary Clinton people think that he acted in a strange way in the

election and may have helped Donald Trump to win the race and for a lot

of us who worked with Comey in the Bush administration, he has a

reputation for being a grandstand, all about him, someone who was

focused on his own reputation, polishing his halo, so a lot of us

think that both sides need to be told. But he doesn't have a

reputation, as far as I know, for being a liar, and yet, effectively,

Donald Trump's outside counsel Marc Kasowitz has just said that Jim

Comey is not telling the truth. Yes, and I think that is a perfectly fair

response. Like I said, the scores of people I've spoken to who worked

closely with Jim Comey tell me that if it comes between the truth and

burnishing his own reputation, his own reputation always comes first.

Does that mean he lies about everything? Of course not, but I

take everything he says with a grain of salt, I want to find current

rating information. This voice in Washington, DC believes that there

is another side to him. People keep saying he is the nation's top cop,

and even many cops around the country have been disgruntled with

how James Comey acted as FBI director so I'm cynical of people

who say that he is a saint. But doesn't he speaks of the nervousness

that are the -- that the RNC are about James Comey that you are

running this advert about him? They say in the advert that terrorist

attacks surged 600% but that was worldwide, that isn't James Comey's

responsibility, it is a false fact. An alternative fact! There is a

question of his character and I can speak to that, and my friends from

the Bush administration and my Democratic friends who are

disappointed with how he treated Hillary Kenton can speak to the Jim

Comey that they know. I have nothing to do with the advert -- how he

treated Hillary Clinton. There is an investigation, the American people

and the world are going to learn a lot of things but it is fair for

people to learn that people who worked with Jim Comey find him less

than always truthful. I think we might see Mr Comey in the Senate

again! Thank you for joining us. Our correspondent Rajini

Vaidyanathan was in the hearing You've got one of the rare seats? It

is no surprise that it was a hot ticket today. Just to get into the

building there was a long queue and security but when I got inside I saw

hundreds of people queueing through the corridors to try and get one of

the public seats. Most of them were interns. A group of them managed to

get in and I asked them how long they had been queueing for and they

said that they started at 4am, so they could witness history. Another

young man who wasn't as Lucky said that the last time he had queued up

like this was to get an iPhone and he was successful on that count. In

the room I was struck by how composed James Comey was when he was

taking questions. I was about three rows behind him. He didn't seem to

hesitate when he was asked questions, he seemed relaxed, there

were no notes on the table in front of him. Even though he had to talk

for a couple of hours, answering questions, but he barely drank any

of the glasses of water in front of him. That is impressive, I think I

would have drunk the whole lot and perhaps the jug of water as well!

Thank you for joining us. We've been watching Donald Trump's Twitter

feed, there has been nothing from him, I think his phone has been

confiscated today. But knowing people around him, we've been

checking on his son, and Donald Trump Junior has been on Twitter and

this is what he has had to say. "Knowing My father for 39 years,

when he orders or tells you to do something, there is no ambiguity,

you know exactly what he means." I'm guessing James Comey which say that

there is no ambiguity, seeing your way through to dropping it against

Mike Flynn, and that was pretty clear for me at least. We heard a

little bit there and from Republicans in the programme that

they are going to push back against the idea that this was some kind of

order that James Comey was given, it was gently asking. That doesn't seem

to be how James Comey took it. We are in this rather and such --

unsatisfying position where we will have days of litigation over who is

telling the truth. Our previous gassed said that he thought James

Comey was not always truthful -- our previous gassed. I suspect you will

have a couple of days of James Comey supporters saying that it happened

-- previous guest. If there are those tapes that come out... Lordy,

I hope that there are tapes come I think he said. Jeff Sessions, it has

taken the White House 48 to say that the president has faith in Jeff

Sessions, the Attorney General. He is clearly frustrated about the

Russian investigation which is hanging over him and he sees a

direct line between Jeff Sessions rig using himself from the Russian

investigation and the special counsel, Robert Mueller. What he's

really annoyed about is the fact that Jeff Sessions tenth WWE himself

in the first place, this is a president who does not think you

should back down -- that Jeff Sessions recused himself in the

first place. That is where his irritation with the Attorney General

comes in so we will see how long Jeff Sessions is in the White House.

We will have it all here on 100 Days. We will see you next week.

For those of us staying on the BBC News Channel, we have a big event

coming up, the results of the general election. Pollit stations

opened at Devon AM and you have