--- title: James Comey: Paul Ryan Calls Loyalty Pledge Inapproriate description: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said that it was "obviously" inappropriate for President Donald Trump to ask James Comey for loyalty canonical: https://time.com/4810196/paul-ryan-james-comey-donald-trump-loyalty/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-07T23:00:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:19:01.655Z article:section: Politics og:title: Paul Ryan: 'Obviously' Inappropriate for Trump to Ask Comey for Loyalty og:description: He added that FBI directors need to be independent og:url: https://time.com/4810196/paul-ryan-james-comey-donald-trump-loyalty/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5afeadc3c7a86ecc/6988cef8fb4eace5818922e2/cbo-report-obamacare-repeal.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: House Speaker Paul Ryan Holds Weekly News Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul Ryan: 'Obviously' Inappropriate for Trump to Ask Comey for Loyalty twitter:description: He added that FBI directors need to be independent twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5afeadc3c7a86ecc/6988cef8fb4eace5818922e2/cbo-report-obamacare-repeal.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Ryan: It Was 'Obviously' Inappropriate for President Trump to Ask James Comey for Loyalty ## Video: Paul Ryan on Comey Memo: 'We Need to Look at the Facts' [Watch (HLS stream): Paul Ryan on Comey Memo: 'We Need to Look at the Facts'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TW4QMuj4.m3u8) (0:44)  _Published 2017-05-17. Speaker Paul Ryan argued that Congress doesn't yet have all the facts on a report that President Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop an investigation into National Security Advisor Michael Flynn._ by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jun 7, 2017 11:00 PM UTC  U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke about the Congressional Budget Office's scoring of the GOP's health-care legislation and the outlook for raising the U.S. debt ceiling. U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke about the Congressional Budget Office's scoring of the GOP's health-care legislation and the outlook for raising the U.S. debt ceiling.Zach Gibson—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Jun 7, 2017 11:00 PM UTC Speaker of the House [Paul Ryan](http://time.com/4792490/paul-ryan-donald-trump-james-comey-nut-job/) (R-Wis.) said that it was “obviously” not appropriate for President Donald Trump to ask James Comey, former director of the FBI — an independent, nonpartisan agency — [for loyalty.](http://time.com/4809221/james-comey-testimony-donald-trump-loyalty/) “Obviously I don’t think that is,” Ryan said when asked by MSNBC host Greta Van Susteren if Trump’s alleged request for Comey’s loyalty was appropriate. Speaking to Van Susteren on _For the Record_ Wednesday following the release of Comey’s [prepared testimony statement](http://time.com/4809570/james-comey-donald-trump-senate-intelligence-committee/), Ryan said, “I think that Director Comey will get a lot of questions about that tomorrow, would be my guess. But I don’t that that’s new — I that that’s already been reported on. I think that was something in the New York _Times_, gosh, a month or two ago.” “I think the big difference here is that we’re not hearing it from anonymous sources but from the former FBI director,” Van Susteren responded. “Yes, that’s right,” Ryan said. “Tomorrow you’ll have it in live and in person, so it’s not different in substance but it’s different we’re hearing it straight from the director himself. “And yes, FBI directors are supposed to be independent,” Ryan added. “That’s something that’s very, very critical.” > [](https://twitter.com/greta/status/872577918529970177) Comey’s statement released ahead of his testimony with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Thursday sent shockwaves throughout Washington, as Comey’s remarks confirmed several accounts of Trump’s interactions with the former FBI chief. “A few moments later, the President said, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’ I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed,” Comey wrote of a January 27 dinner with Trump. “We simply looked at each other in silence.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4810196/paul-ryan-james-comey-donald-trump-loyalty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4810196/paul-ryan-james-comey-donald-trump-loyalty/"},"headline":"Paul Ryan: It Was 'Obviously' Inappropriate for President Trump to Ask James Comey for Loyalty","datePublished":"2017-06-07T23:00:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:19:01.655Z","description":"He added that FBI directors need to be independent","url":"https://time.com/4810196/paul-ryan-james-comey-donald-trump-loyalty/","keywords":["James Comey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5afeadc3c7a86ecc/6988cef8fb4eace5818922e2/cbo-report-obamacare-repeal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5afeadc3c7a86ecc/6988cef8fb4eace5818922e2/cbo-report-obamacare-repeal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Speaker Paul Ryan Holds Weekly News Conference","caption":"House Speaker Paul Ryan Holds Weekly News Conference","creditText":"Zach Gibson—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/james-comey/","name":"James Comey"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4810196/paul-ryan-james-comey-donald-trump-loyalty/","name":"Paul Ryan: It Was 'Obviously' Inappropriate for President Trump to Ask James Comey for Loyalty"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Paul Ryan on Comey Memo: 'We Need to Look at the Facts'","description":"Speaker Paul Ryan argued that Congress doesn't yet have all the facts on a report that President Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop an investigation into National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TW4QMuj4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-05-17T23:21:15.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TW4QMuj4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4810196/paul-ryan-james-comey-donald-trump-loyalty/","duration":"PT44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4810196/paul-ryan-james-comey-donald-trump-loyalty/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```