WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Director James Comey’s prepared testimony was released on June 7. He is scheduled to testify before the Senate intelligence committee the next day.
Comey’s testimony will be his first public comments since Trump abruptly fired him on May 9. At the time of his firing, Comey had been overseeing the federal investigation into possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia’s election meddling. Democrats were outraged and claimed the president was interfering in an active probe.
The former director’s testimony details several meetings and phone calls he had with Trump following the election. Comey describes at length a Feb. 14 meeting in the Oval Office in which he and Trump discussed the investigation of fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.
“He then said, ‘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,'” Comey says, according to the prepared remarks. “I replied only that ‘he is a good guy.'”
Some Republicans are expected to press Comey on why he did not raise his concerns publicly or resign.
In March, after Comey had publicly revealed the existence of a federal counterintelligence investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, Trump complained that the probe had left a “cloud” that was “impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country.”
