WASHINGTON: Former FBI director James Comey accused US President Donald Trump on Wednesday of asking him to drop an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn as part of a probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In dramatic written testimony, Comey said Trump told him at a meeting in the White House in February, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”
The testimony from Comey, who was fired by Trump last month, puts more pressure on the Republican whose presidency has been overshadowed by allegations that Moscow helped him win last year’s election.
Trump fired Flynn in February in a controversy over contacts between the retired general and the Russian ambassador to the United States. The FBI has been investigating Flynn as it looks into allegations of links between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Comey’s statement, posted on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s website, said Trump also called him on March 30 to say he had nothing to do with Russia and asked what “we could do to lift the cloud” of the FBI’s Russia investigation.
During that phone call, Comey said he told Trump the FBI was not investigating the president personally. “He repeatedly told me, ‘We need to get that fact out’,” Comey said.
Comey said he had told Trump on three occasions he was not being investigated, confirming an earlier account from the president.
Several congressional committees, as well as the FBI and a special counsel, are looking into reports that Russia tried to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, using means such as hacking into the e-mails of senior Democrats. Trump and the Kremlin have separately denied any collusion.
Some legal experts said that Comey’s statement could be used to show that Trump engaged in obstruction of justice.
“It shows the president was doing everything he could to shut down the Flynn investigation,” said Andrew Wright, a professor of criminal law at Savannah Law School.
’I need loyalty’
Comey said Trump told him at a one-on-one dinner on Jan. 27, a week after the president took office, that: “I need loyalty. I expect loyalty.”
Comey is to deliver his testimony in person at a much-anticipated hearing by the intelligence committee on Thursday.
During the dinner, the president asked him if he wanted to stay on as FBI director, Comey said. The former FBI head said he became concerned that Trump was trying to create “some sort of patronage relationship.”
After a Feb. 14 meeting on counter-terrorism in the Oval Office, Trump dismissed all the participants except Comey, according to the testimony.
The president then initiated a conversation about Flynn.
Comey quoted Trump as telling him: “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.”
(Additional reporting by Tim Ahmann)
Ex-FBI head Comey accuses Trump of pressure on Russia probe
Ex-FBI head Comey accuses Trump of pressure on Russia probe
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
