WASHINGTON — President Trump asked the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo that Mr. Comey wrote shortly after the meeting.
”I hope you can let this go," the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.
The existence of Mr. Trump's request is the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump's associates and Russia.
Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo. The memo was part of a paper trail Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president's improper efforts to influence an ongoing investigation. An F.B.I. agent's contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible evidence of conversations.
Mr. Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo, which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey's associates read parts of the memo to a Times reporter.
”I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. ”He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."
Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.
Mr. Comey did not say anything to Mr. Trump about curtailing the investigation, only replying: ”I agree he is a good guy."
In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo.
”While the president has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the president has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn," the statement said. ”The president has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey."
It really bums me out to see McMaster go on stage and do his best Spicer/Coneyway/Huckabee impersonation.
Spicer doing off camera interviews atm:
Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1)
Sean Spicer says people should trust administration officials to tell truth on meeting, pivots to calling people who leak info "dangerous."
So the Russia leak is now old news lol
So the Russia leak is now old news lol
Senator Risch on @CNN right now. The person who leaked Trump's blabbing of classified information to the Russians is a "traitor."
I really, really fucking hate these people.
Fucking hell!
I mean I just don't know if anything matters. GOP isn't going to stop supporting Trump.
Fucking hell!
That is beyond Comey. What I mean is that while Trump was within his rights as president for fire Comey for any reason he wants, but asking him to "let this go" is way beyond the pale.
Fucking Congress - what will it take for you to impeach this dangerous motherfucker!
Donald Trump said:I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.
Comey firing and Trump revealing stuff to Russia seems to have pushed the IC over the edge.So we're going to have at least one major revelation every day from now on?
It really makes me wonder what living through Watergate was like.
Comey firing and Trump revealing stuff to Russia seems to have pushed the IC over the edge.
They're gonna leak until Trump is done
When democrats get back in power (and, at this rate, they will soon) they need to go all out. Pass everything they want however they can. Republicans had power and used it to not only give all favor to the rich but also ignored blatant crimes by the president. Democrats need to throw all semblance of mutual respect for republicans out the window.
I really have to wonder if the GOP fully understands the situation or what their thinking is. Just hold the line, pack the court while we can, and suffer what's coming eventually? Surely they can't be expecting all of this to be a passing storm at this point.
As expected, Burr is already like, NYT needs to get the memo.
I mean, NYT probably will have the memos by end of business day.And Burr was supposed to be the "moderate" Republican. LOL
As expected, Burr is already like, NYT needs to get the memo.