Comey Confirms He Told Trump Three Times That He Wasn’t Under Investigation

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Former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday will confirm that he told President Donald Trump three times that he was not personally under investigation.

The first confirmation came during a one-on-one at Trump Tower, the statement says that “prior to the January 6 meeting, I discussed with the FBI’s leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure President-Elect Trump that we were not investigating him personally. That was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him.”

“We agreed I should do so if circumstances warranted. During our one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, based on President Elect Trump’s reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking the Intelligence chiefs won’t say if Trump asked them to downplay Russia probe question, I offered that assurance,”  the prepared opening statement continues.

Comey again told the president that he was not under FBI investigation at a dinner on January 27, in the Green Room at the White House.

“During the dinner, the President returned to the salacious material I had briefed him about on January 6, and, as he had done previously, expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them,” the statement says. “He said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn’t happen. I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative. He said he would think about it and asked me to think about it.”

The third confirmation took place during a phone call on March 30, when he was informing the president that he had briefing Congressional leaders about who the agency was investigating.

“I explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those Congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump. I reminded him I had previously told him that. He repeatedly told me, ‘We need to get that fact out,’” Comey’s statement asserts.

The remarks add that, “I did not tell the President that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change.”

In Trump’s letter to Comey regarding his termination, the president had asserted that he was told three times by the then-FBI director that he was not under investigation.

“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau,” Trump’s letter to Comey stated.

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