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
UN human rights chief urges US to uphold international law in immigration crackdown
- US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has seen some 3,000 heavily armed masked federal officers deployed to the city of Minneapolis
GENEVA: The UN human rights chief urged the Trump administration on Friday to ensure that its migration policies respect individual rights and international law, citing concerns over arbitrary and unlawful arrests and detentions.
“Individuals are being surveilled and detained, sometimes violently including at hospitals, churches, mosques, courthouses, markets, schools, and even within their own homes, often solely on mere suspicion of being undocumented migrants,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has seen some 3,000 heavily armed masked federal officers deployed to the city of Minneapolis, rounding up suspects they say are dangerous criminal immigration violators, while sometimes ensnaring law-abiding US citizens and immigrants.
The city is on edge after an immigration officer shot and killed Renee Good, 37, a US citizen and mother of three on January 7. Vice President JD Vance delivered a broad defense on Thursday, saying that “far-left agitators” and uncooperative local officials were to blame for chaos on the streets.
US immigration enforcement operations have used what appears to be unnecessary or disproportionate force, Turk said. Such measures should only be used as a last resort if an individual posed an immediate threat to life, he added.
Turk said the US must comply with international law and that migration enforcement must respect due process, voicing concern that, in some cases, people arrested or detained had not been granted timely access to legal advice.
He called for an independent investigation into the rising number of deaths in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. He cited 30 deaths reported in 2025 and six recorded so far this year.
Turk condemned what he called the routine denigration of migrants and refugees in the United States that portrays them as criminals or a burden on society, saying it increased their “exposure to xenophobic hostility and abuse.”
