Thread: Source: Comey to testify publicly about Trump confrontations

Source: Comey to testify publicly about Trump confrontations

By Eric Lichtblau, CNN Investigates
Updated 4:26 PM ET, Wed May 31, 2017

Story highlights

Mueller and Comey have discussed parameters to avoid conflicts with criminal probe.
Comey is likely to confirm for the first time accounts of pressure from Trump over Russia investigations.

(CNN)Fired FBI director James Comey plans to testify publicly in the Senate as early as next week to confirm bombshell accusations that President Donald Trump pressured him to end his investigation into a top Trump aide's ties to Russia, a source close to the issue said Wednesday.

Final details are still being worked out and no official date for his testimony has been set. Comey is expected to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia during last year's presidential election.

Comey has spoken privately with Special Counsel Robert Mueller III to work out the parameters for his testimony to ensure there are no legal entanglements as a result of his public account, a source said. Comey will likely sit down with Mueller, a longtime colleague at the Justice Department, for a formal interview only after his public testimony.

When he testifies, Comey is unlikely to be willing to discuss in any detail the FBI's investigation into the charges of possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign -- the centerpiece of the probe, this source said. But he appears eager to discuss his tense interactions with Trump before his firing, which have now spurred allegations that the president may have tried to obstruct the investigation. If it happens, Comey's public testimony promises to be a dramatic chapter in the months-long controversy, and it will likely bring even more intense scrutiny to an investigation that Trump has repeatedly denounced as a "witch hunt."

The appointment of Mueller as a special counsel in the Russia investigation had raised concerns among some members of Congress that his probe could scuttle the chance for Congress and the public to hear directly from Comey. That appears less likely now that Mueller and Comey have discussed the limits of his testimony.

Since his firing last month, dramatic accounts have emerged in the New York Times, CNN, and elsewhere about the tense confrontations with Trump that Comey memorialized in memos afterward. A week after he took office in January, Trump allegedly demanded Comey's "loyalty" if he kept him on as FBI director, and he urged Comey to drop his ongoing investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump's fired national security adviser, in a separate, one-on-one meeting.

The source said that Comey is expected to stand by those accounts in his testimony.

"The bottom line is he's going to testify," the source close to the issue said. "He's happy to testify, and he's happy to cooperate."
Officials with the Justice Department and Mueller's office declined to comment.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/31/politi...omey-testimony
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The President of the United States has every right and obligation to discuss any case, any investigation, any "probe", or anything else the FBI is up to or involved in. He has the duty to ensure that good people aren't victims of Witch Hunts by the FBI and DOJ. He has every authority to ask that the Flynn Witch Hunt be stopped or resolved. This Witch Hunt has produced no evidence of wrong-doing, no violations of laws and nothing worth reporting or spending a cent or a minute on.

If you want to collaborate on testimony with a Special Counsel, then well, that's highly suspicious. Why would Jim Comey be fine with discussing his testimony with an outside lawyer but not "comfortable" discussing the Flynn case with the elected President of the United States who is ultimately responsible for it?