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Inside Politics

Comey: Trump Admin Lied About Me and FBI. 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 08, 2017 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SEN. RICHARD BURR, R-NORTH CAROLINA: Senator McCain?

[12:30:00]

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZONA: In the case of -- Hillary Clinton, you made the statement that there wasn't sufficient evidence to bring a suit against her, although it had been very careless -- in their behavior. But you did reach a conclusion in that case that it was not necessary to further pursue her.

Yet, at the same time, in the case of Mr. Comey, you said that there was not enough information to make a conclusion. Tell me the different between your conclusion as far as former Secretary Clinton is concerned and -- and Mr. -- Mr. Trump.

COMEY: The Clinton investigation was a completed investigation that the FBI been deeply involved in. And so I had an opportunity to understand all the facts and apply those facts against the law as I understood them. This investigation was underway, still going when I was fired. So it's nowhere near in the same place. At least, it wasn't when I was...

MCCAIN: But it's still ongoing?

COMEY: ... correct, so far as I know. It was when I left.

MCCAIN: That investigation was going on. This investigation is going on. You reached separate conclusions.

COMEY: No, that one was done. The...

(CROSSTALK)

MCCAIN: That investigation of (ph) any involvement of Secretary Clinton or any of her associates is completed?

COMEY: Yes, as of July the 5th, the FBI completed its investigative work, and that's what I was announcing -- what we had done and what we had found.

MCCAIN: Well, at least in the minds of this member, there's a whole lot of questions remaining about what went on, particularly considering the fact that, as you mention, it's a, quote, "big deal" as to what went on during the campaign.

So I'm glad you concluded that part of the investigation, but I -- I think that the American people have a whole lot of questions out there, particularly since you just emphasized the role that Russia played.

And, obviously, she was a candidate for president at the time, so she was clearly involved in this whole situation where fake news -- as you just described it, "big deal," took place.

MCCAIN: And you're going to have to help me out here. In other words, we're complete -- the investigation of anything that former Secretary Clinton had to do with the campaign is over and we don't have to worry about it anymore?

COMEY: With respect to Secretary -- I'm not -- I'm a little confused, Senator. With respect to Secretary Clinton...

MCCAIN: Yeah.

COMEY: ... we investigated criminal investigation in connection with her use of a personal e-mail server...

MCCAIN: I understand.

COMEY: ... and that's the investigation I announced the conclusion of on July 5th.

MCCAIN: So -- but, at the same time, you made the announcement there would be no charges brought against then Secretary Clinton for any activities involved in the Russia involvement in our -- engagement in our election.

I -- I don't quite understand how you could be done with that, but not complete -- done with the whole investigation of their attempt to affect the outcome of our election.

COMEY: No. I'm sorry, we're not -- at least, when I left -- when I was fired on May the 9th, there was still an open, active investigation to understand the Russian effort, and whether any Americans work with them.

MCCAIN: But you reached the conclusion that there was no reason to bring charges again Secretary Clinton. So you reached a conclusion.

In the case of Mr. Comey, you -- President Comey (sic)...

COMEY: No, sir.

MCCAIN: ... I mean (ph) -- excuse me -- case of President Trump, you have an ongoing investigation.

So you got one candidate who you're done with and another candidate that you have a long way to go. Is that correct? COMEY: I don't know how far the -- the FBI has to go, but yes, that -- the Clinton e-mail investigation was completed. The investigation of Russia's efforts in connection with the election, and whether there was any coordination, and, if so, with whom, between Russia and the campaign...

(CROSSTALK)

MCCAIN: You just made it -- you just made it...

COMEY: ... was ongoing when I left.

MCCAIN: You just made it clear in what you said, this is a, quote, "big deal," unquote.

I think it's hard to reconcile, in once case you reach complete conclusion, and the other side, you have -- you have not, and you -- in fact, obviously, there's a lot there, as -- as we know -- as you called it a, quote, "big deal." She's one of the candidates. But in her case, you say there will be no charges, and in the case of President Trump, there -- the -- the investigation continues.

MCCAIN: What has been brought out in this hearing is -- is more and more emphasis on the Russian engagement and involvement in this campaign. How serious do you think this was?

COMEY: Very serious. But -- I want to say some -- be clear. It was -- we have not announced, and there was no predication to announce, an investigation of whether the Russians may have coordinated with Secretary Clinton's campaign.

Secretary Clinton's...

(CROSSTALK)

MCCAIN: ... No, but -- they may not have been involved with her campaign. They were involved with the entire presidential campaign, obviously.

COMEY: Of course. Yes, sir. And that is an investigation that began last summer, and, so far as I'm aware, continues.

MCCAIN: So both President Trump and former Candidate Clinton are both involved in the investigation. Yet one of them, you said there's going to be no charges, and the other one, the -- the investigation continues.

Well, I think there's a double standard there, to tell you the truth. Then, when the president said to you -- you talked about the April 11th phone call, and he said, quote, "Because I've been very loyal to you, very loyal. We had that thing, you know," did that arouse your curiosity as what, quote, "that thing" was?

COMEY: Yes.

MCCAIN: Why didn't you ask him?

COMEY: It didn't seem to me to be important for the conversation we were having, to understand it. I took it to be some -- an effort to -- to communicate to me this -- that there is a relationship between us where I've been good to you, you should be good to me.

MCCAIN: Yeah, but I -- I think it would intensely arouse my curiosity if the president of the United States said "We had that thing, you know" -- I'd like to know what the hell that thing is, particularly if I'm the director of the FBI.

COMEY: Yeah, I -- I get that, Senator. Honestly, I'll tell you what -- this is speculation, but what I concluded at the time is, in his memory, he was searching back to our encounter at the dinner, and was preparing himself to say, "I offered loyalty to you, you promised loyalty to me," and all of a sudden his memory showed him that did not happen, and I think he pulled up short.

That's just a guess, but I -- I -- a lot of conversations with humans over the years.

MCCAIN: I think I would have had some curiosity if it had been about me, to be honest with you. So are you aware -- anything that would believe you (ph) -- to believe that the president or the members of the administration or members of the campaign could potentially be used to coerce or blackmail the administration?

COMEY: That's a subject for investigations, not something I can comment on, sitting here.

MCCAIN: But you've reached that conclusion as far as Secretary Clinton was concerned. But you're not reaching a conclusion as far as this administration is concerned. Are you aware of anything that would lead you to believe that information exists that could coerce members of the administration or blackmail the administration?

COMEY: That's not a question I can answer, Senator.

BURR: Senator's time has expired.

(UNKNOWN): Thank you.

BURR: All time's expired for the hearing. Can I say, for members -- we'll reconvene promptly at 1 p.m. in the hearing room. We have a vote scheduled for 1:45. I would suggest that all members promptly be there at 1 o'clock. We have about three minutes.

I'd like to have order. Photographers -- photographers, return to where you were, please. This hearing's not adjourned yet. Either that, or we'll remove you.

To members, we have about three minutes of updates that we would love to cover as soon as we get into the closed session, before we have an opportunity to spend some time with Director Comey.

Based on our agreement, it would be my intentions to adjourn that closed hearing between 2 and 2:10, so that members can go vote, and I would urge you to eat at that time.

Jim, several of us on this committee have had the opportunity to work with you since you walked in the door. I want to say, personally, on behalf of all this -- all the committee members, we're grateful to you for your service to your country, not just in the capacity as FBI director, but as prosecutor, and more importantly, being somebody that loves this country enough to tell it like it is.

BURR: I want to say to your workforce that we're grateful to them -- with the level of cooperation that they have shown us, with the trust we've built between both organizations, the Congress and -- and the bureau. We couldn't do our job if it wasn't for their willingness to share candidly with us the work that we need to see.

This hearing's the ninth public hearing this committee has had this year. That is twice the historical year-long average of this committee. I think the vice chairman and my's (ph) biggest challenge, when this investigation has concluded, is to return our hearings to the secrecy of a closed hearing, to encourage our members not to freely talk about intelligence matters publicly and to respect the fact that we have a huge job.

And that's to represent the entire body of the United States Senate and the American people, to make sure that we work with the intelligence community to provide you the tools to keep America safe, and that you do it within the legal limit, or those limits that are set by the executive branch.

We could not do it if it wasn't for a trusted partnership that you have been able to lead, and others before you. So as -- as we depart from this, this is a pivotal hearing in our investigation. We're grateful to you for the professionalism you've shown, and your willingness.

I will turn to the vice chairman.

WARNER: I simply want to echo, one, again the thanks for your appearance. And there clearly still remain a number of questions.

And the one thing I want to commit to you, and more importantly, I think, Chairman, I want to commit to all those who are still potentially watching and following -- there's still a lot of unanswered questions, and we're going to get to the bottom of this.

We're going to get the facts out. The American people deserve to know. There's the questions around implications of Trump officials and the Russians, but there's also the macro issue of what the Russians did and continue to do.

And I think it is very important that all Americans realize that threat is real. It is continuous. It is not just towards our nation. It is all -- towards all Western democracies. And we have to come to a solution set (ph).

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BURR: Director Comey, thank you once again on behalf on the committee.

This hearing's adjourned.

[12:42: 12] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Wolf Blitzer along with Anderson Cooper. Explosive testimony for more than two and a half hours from the former FBI Director James Comey speaking publicly for the first time since being fired by President Trump. Comey calling the President and his White House team liars on several occasions and saying that he felt President Trump's words about Michael Flynn, the fired National Security adviser, represented a directive or order to him. Comey also revealed that he deliberately had a friend leak details of his memos of his conversations with the president in order to create a ground swell for a Special Counsel, the Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who has been named.

We're standing by to hear, to get official response. The president's private outside attorney will be speaking over at the White House. We'll of course have coverage of that. In the meantime, let's get quick reaction from all of our reporters and analysts who are with us.

And Dana Bash, the White House did not waste any time. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy White House press secretary telling reporters, quote, I can definitely say the president is not a liar.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Not exactly a statement you ever want a White House press secretary to have to say but she did have to say that to defend the President of the United States. Because as you said, James Comey called the president -- used the actual word like lie or lying or liar multiple times. And in times he didn't use that word certainly suggested that the president wasn't telling the truth.

And that that was the feeling that he had in that sort of dramatic moment that describe many times on Valentines Day earlier this year in the Oval Office when he asked to clear the room, had the discussion with him, and he said he just had the feeling that this was going to be big which is why remembered everything. But look, I think at the end of the day, this is still one person's word against another. And certainly he took contemporaneous notes and that is incredibly important.

But when it comes to the political jury of public opinion, the people who are predisposed to believing President Trump probably are still going to do that. The other thing that I found and you also mentioned is, extraordinary isn't just that James Comey admitted that he asked a friend of his to give the contents of his memos to the New York Times, but that he said that he did it because he wanted to spur a Special Counsel. We've said before, he might not be a Democrat, he might not be Republican, but boy, is this guy political to sort of have the wherewithal to do that and to sort of think 10 steps ahead and want that to be the end goal.

[12:45:04] That just gives you a sense that he's not just a Pollyanna boy scout. He wants to affect something, and he wants to get to the point of something like that, and he knows exactly how to do it and use the institutions of Washington and the media to make that happen.

BLITZER: Yes, he certainly understands, Gloria Borger, how things work in Washington. And it worked for him. There is a Special Counsel. GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. Well, he wasn't born yesterday. He's been around Washington a long time as Dana point out. And he chose his words carefully today.

I mean, when he said in his opening that the president -- they were defaming him and he said those were lies, plain and simple. And then he went on to describe these meetings, Wolf, in which he made it very clear that when the president said I hope you can get rid of this investigation, whatever the quote was, that he said I took it as a direction. This is what he wants me to do.

Now, it's up to the Special Counsel to decide whether, in fact, you know, that constitutes obstruction and perhaps it's up to the Congress in a political sense. But he also said, and he intimated this, quid pro quo that he thought was going on, on the part of the president which is, you asked Comey to stay and you didn't get anything for it. And he said, he asked for his loyalty in terms of the context of getting him to do what he wanted.

In other words, you get to stay in your job if you behave the way I want you to behave. And I think that's pretty damming. He wouldn't comment specifically on obstruction because he did not want to do that. But I think when he said that that he took this as direction and outlined this kind of quid pro quo, I think it's very damming.

BLITZER: He said that the words from the president and other White House officials about why he had been fired were lies, plain and simple, and he wanted to get the record straight. He also said that Michael Flynn, the fired National Security adviser, was in legal jeopardy.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Was in legal jeopardy and later on he said -- he was asked specifically about his statements to the FBI, do you have any reason to believe he gave false statements to the FBI and he said that's one of the reasons he was under criminal investigation. A number of significant things. One, this won't get much attention because it's in the rearview mirror but a pretty damming account from Jim Comey there about Loretta Lynch, the former attorney general in the Obama administration and her handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation.

It won't get much attention but that was pretty damming. Number two --

BLITZER: He said that Loretta Lynch told him don't call it an investigation --

KING: Call it a matter.

BLITZER: -- call it a matter.

KING: Call it a matter and he said he was confused by that and concerned by that. Number two, he also made clear he has turned overall of his documents to the Special Counsel which tells you -- we don't where it goes but it tells you as we speak today, an investigation that was about behavior in 2016, Russian meddling, did anybody in the Trump campaign circle collude or coordinate in any way with the Russians is now about the conduct of the president of the United States in 2017 in the Oval Office. When the Special Counsel investigation starts in its early week, as we know from past history, you don't know where it's going to go.

The other thing I found interesting is the Republicans did not challenge Jim Comey's account. Nobody said you are not telling the truth. Nobody said this didn't happen. What they tried to say was well, could you take it in a different context, that this is President Trump, he had fired Michael Flynn, he's a friend, he's a loyalist. Cut some guys some slack, not obstruct justice, just sort of be kind.

But it is interesting. They didn't say Jim Comey is lying. They essentially said, can we try to interpret this in a way that's much more kind to the president. But they did not challenge the basic facts that he asked for loyalty.

That he pulled him aside in the Oval Office after kicking everyone else out of the room and said, can you go easy or do something. And again, this is in a legal context now, people have to investigate this. Even as they tried to give a kinder view of this for the president, they didn't challenge the facts. They did not say at any point we don't think you're telling the truth. And a matter of fact they accepted what he was saying.

BLITZER: And it's going to be a he said versus he said on several of these sensitive points, Nia-Malika Henderson. And at one point, Comey said, quote, Lordy, I hope there are tapes.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. And of course the tapes have come up because Donald Trump said that Comey should hope there weren't tapes. He put tapes in quotation marks in Twitter. Sarah Huckabee Sanders who is gadding (ph) today for the President essentially said she didn't know if there were tapes, that you should talk to the Secret Service. So that's I think going to remain a mystery.

And we will see going forward what this White House's strategy is on here. We'll hear of course from the president's personal attorney. This is a -- you know, something this is a new kind of wrinkle in strategy that this White House has because it's mainly been through Twitter.

And there were sort of suggestions that the president might tweet his way through this hearing, live tweet it. That would have been something. I don't think he's tweeted at all, so we'll see this official statement from the lawyer at some point.

[12:50:02] What was interesting I think from the Republicans is they very much wanted to focus on Jim Comey's behavior, why didn't he resign for instance. Cotton talked about that because at one point in Comey's career he did threaten to resign.

Why didn't you, you know, alert someone that this was happening? Essentially saying it must not have been such a big deal if you didn't call the president out on the spot even, and Dianne Feinstein got to that too. And she tried to suggest, well maybe it was because of the Oval Office and it was this grand setting and he was sort of cowed by that setting. So that was really interesting to see what the Republicans were doing.

BORGER: Well, it's kind of disheartening because he says, I wish I'd been more courageous maybe (ph) and that he was in the Oval Office.

BASH: He wasn't Captain Courageous.

BORGER: He wasn't Captain Courageous but maybe he should have been more forthright and stormed down and said you can't possibly do this. But he admitted, you know, I didn't do that. The other thing that was so interesting was he kept giving us these little bread crumbs today about areas that perhaps the Special Counsel will be looking at. And in terms of the Attorney General Sessions, he said, you know, that his role in the Russia probe may be more problematic than we know, but he could not discuss it publicly. So --

KING: But it was also clear that to the point about why didn't he go to other people. Remember, earlier on, Barack Obama was still president of the United States, to start under president-elect Trump and then he said there was nobody confirmed. It was all acting so that Trump doesn't charge so he decided he would keep this to himself until maybe use it down the road. This is again an early chapter.

BASH: Can I say really quickly, big picture? The irony of this whole thing is that the president of the United States over and over again was trying to get James Comey to tell the American people that he's not under investigation. And in this hearing, James Comey purposely or not made clear that since the Special Counsel has the memos about these conversations that perhaps it wasn't that -- that wasn't so at the time, that the president wasn't a part of the investigation or under investigation. But now he might be because of his attempts to get the FBI director to say publicly that he wasn't.

BLITZER: Comey repeatedly said release the memos. I have no problems if the public sees those memos. This Columbia University law professor currently has those memos. We'll see if they're going be released.

BORGER: I'm surprised they weren't angrier about that actually but --

BLITZER: Yes. Anderson, we're standing by. The hearing is about to resume behind closed doors. We're also awaiting a statement from the president's private outside attorney.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's listen in to Senator Burr.

SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: -- and the Russian involvement in the 2016 elections. It also enabled the American people to understand the massive amounts of stories that's been out there and to sort through those and to have an individual that can lay some factual context to it. This is nowhere near the end of our investigation.

And I think it's safe to say today that next week we hope to work with Special Counsel Mueller to workout clear pathways for both investigations. His and ours to continue, to work on deconfliction of witnesses and potential testimony. But we're more confident today that we can, through this process, work through a very bipartisan and thorough investigation. That at the end of it answers many of the questions that the American people might have today.

MARK WARNER (D), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I want to simply add I was very proud of how all of the members conducted themselves today. I thought it was very important that the American people get a chance to hear Jim Comey's statements about what all has transpired. The one thing, even if we may have different views on where some of these questions may lead, the one message that I hope all Americans will take home is recognizing how significant the Russian interference in our electoral process was. How it goes to the core of our democracy, and that we've got to be prepared to make sure that we are in a better defensive position in 2018, 2019 and frankly in my home state as early as next week where we have a primary. Thank you all.

COOPER: Senator Burr and Senator Warner. We're back now with the panel here in Washington. So many key points today to go over that the Jim Comey took what Donald Trump said about Michael Flynn as a directive, that he did not go to Jeff Sessions he said because he knew or assumed that Jeff Sessions would have to recuse himself. And Jeff Sessions did some two weeks later.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: And I think the February 14th meeting remains the focus and the crucial issue in this whole investigation. Because that is the most incriminating act that the president took in terms of a possible obstruction of justice case telling Jim Comey, and Comey clearly felt he was ordered to stop this investigation.

COOPER: Even though the president said I hope.

[12:55:13] TOOBIN: Yes. There was a very interesting exchange with -- I'm trying to remember, it was a senator from Maine, Angus King, who they both -- the famous line about Thomas Becket, "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest." You don't tell someone but you know you send the message. It is also the point where there is the clearest conflict between Comey and Trump.

COOPER: Because the president has denied --

TOOBIN: Trump has said, I didn't make any sort of order. There was that question at the press conference that we played. So I think, you know, that remains the most important point of conflict.

And the other point I think Dana alluded to this, but I think it's very important is, there was a -- you know, in the letter that Trump wrote firing Comey, he said three times, you told me that I was not under investigation and that was in May. Well, here we know in June Donald Trump is under criminal investigation, and that's a big deal and that's important.

COOPER: Jim Acosta. JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: He's a smart guy too. I just want to focus on what we learned about the various investigations underway from Comey today. One, as Jeffrey said and John King said earlier, that the Flynn hope comment is clearly under investigation now. Comey said as much.

He said one, he's immediately of investigative interest which is one reason he didn't go to the attorney general. Two, he says that something the Special Counsel will look into. And we know because the Special Counsel has the memos that he is looking into that.

COOPER: He also said that he did not inform the investigative team about it because he thought it would have an impact on the investigation.

ACOSTA: Exactly, exactly. On the dossier, the famous dossier, which has been dismissed by Republicans and now it's been discredited factors (ph) and I've been asking folks involved in this investigation for weeks now, it is not completely dismissed and Comey said today -- in fact he said, one, I can't comment on open session regarding the dossier. It would been very easy for him to say, yes, that's all garbage.

But two, towards the end, he said that the issue of whether the Russians have compromising information on the president still under investigation. Still an open question. Towards the end as well, he said that whether members of the Trump team c colluded with Russia then there's a Trump team not Trump himself still an open investigation. On the issue of whether the president himself colluded with Russia, he said, he's not under investigation for it but when Cotton, the Republican senator asked him about it, he said I can't answer it definitely in open session.

So again, there's still something there that he can't comment on. So to some degree it remains an open question. And that's important here because you're going to hear a lot of interpretations from this because people always take from these hearings what they want to hear. This issue is closed, that issue is closed.

There are a lot of open questions still and it may not involve the president today. And to be clear we should be fair. Comey said that when he left the job, there weren't open investigations of the president. That is key, but, if the dossier question is opened, if compromising information is open, if Trump team collusion is still an open investigation, there are things that could touch the president that are still open questions.

COOPER: Laura?

LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, that's exactly right. The open investigation, if he wasn't aware of one at the time he was fired, certainly that raises the interest level of saying well, maybe that was part of the now investigation as to why Trump was so adamant about having him no longer in office. What this really did to me somatically for Comey is, reiterate I think what's going to raise some pretty fair criticism once again which is, he's so interested in being the last sign of defense for the credibility of the FBI and inherently himself that I think at times it undermines his own arguments he's trying to make to show his object activity.

Now, I think what he said was very important today. It illuminated a lot of issues. It did raise other issues. But that will be a question he'll continue to get particularly because the obstruction issue cannot foreseeable go away.

It is the beginning of an investigative inquiry. It's not the end of one. But he has positioned himself in a manner that he dons a cape to say I alone -- he started his argument talking about I was insulted and the FBI was defamed by what happened here. And he goes on to talk about these things.

So I think he's going to get the same amount of criticism again, but I did really -- from a perspective as a prosecutor, I thought to myself, well, that illuminates an issue and it shows there's an open door here and perhaps the president's efforts to deflect attention, created road blocks that will now become into a mountable (ph) hurdles for his administration.

COOPER: Well, Carl, just to Laura's point about criticisms of Comey, the criticism that we've heard from Republicans is obviously going to continue which is that Comey at no point either said look, this is obstruction of justice or at no point seemed to say to the president this is inappropriate, you should not be doing this. And even to then Attorney General Loretta Lynch when she was saying you should call the Clinton investigation a Clinton matter, he seemed to accede to when he clearly felt uncomfortable with and knew was an inappropriate suggestion.

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He did not come off as a strong man in the instances that you cite. At the same time he seems to have engineered the appointment of a Special Counsel which is quite extraordinary. And why did he do it? Because he thought the president was trying to --