--- title: Comey Testimony: Mueller Will Consider Trump Obstruction description: James Comey said he is "sure" the special counsel will examine whether or not President Donald Trump obstructed justice. canonical: https://time.com/4810883/comey-testimony-donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice/ author: Jennifer Calfas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-08T15:22:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:20:04.293Z article:section: Politics og:title: Comey Just Said the Special Counsel Will Look at Whether Trump Obstructed Justice og:description: He is "sure" Robert Mueller will look into it og:url: https://time.com/4810883/comey-testimony-donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab5931ddaaf860b7/6988d0cb0b72e307c06ee277/jame-comey-fbi-testimony-washington-dc-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5124 og:image:height: 2882 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-INTELLIGENCE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Comey Just Said the Special Counsel Will Look at Whether Trump Obstructed Justice twitter:description: He is "sure" Robert Mueller will look into it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab5931ddaaf860b7/6988d0cb0b72e307c06ee277/jame-comey-fbi-testimony-washington-dc-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # James Comey Just Said the Special Counsel Will Look at Whether Trump Obstructed Justice > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=c79a2161-7458-440c-9a17-890b0e827748&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 8, 2017 3:22 PM UTC  Former FBI Director James Comey takes the oath before he testifies during a US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 8, 2017. Former FBI Director James Comey takes the oath before he testifies during a US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, June 8, 2017. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [Jennifer Calfas](https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/) ## Jennifer Calfas Jun 8, 2017 3:22 PM UTC Former FBI Director [James Comey](http://time.com/4809186/come-testimony-white-house-lies-plain-simple/) said Thursday that he is “sure” the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election will examine whether or not [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4810770/comey-testimony-donald-trump-loyalty/) obstructed justice. During his highly anticipated testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey said that [Robert Mueller](http://time.com/4804010/donald-trump-investigation-robert-mueller-paul-manafort/), a former FBI director who was appointed to run the investigation into Russian election-meddling, will consider Comey’s assertion, [denied by Trump](http://time.com/4810770/comey-testimony-donald-trump-loyalty/?xid=homepage), that the President asked him to drop the investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. When asked if Trump was “trying to obstruct justice,” Comey did not offer his own judgement on Trump’s intent, but said he was “sure” Mueller would look into it. “I don’t think it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct,” Comey said. “I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that’s a conclusion I’m sure the special counsel will work towards to try to understand what the intention was there and whether that’s an offense.” Mueller has wide-ranging authority to investigate whether there was collusion, but also possible offenses that arose in the course of the investigation. Comey has confirmed that while he was still FBI Director he told Trump the President himself was not under investigation at the time. But Comey’s assertions since then, which emerged in news reports in the weeks following his firing by Trump and were confirmed for the first time by him in prepared testimony released Wednesday, have raised the specter that Trump obstructed justice. It was unclear whether Comey had firsthand knowledge of Mueller’s intent when he made the comment. But multiple reports have also indicated that Comey vetted his testimony with Mueller to make sure it would not interfere with the investigation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4810883/comey-testimony-donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4810883/comey-testimony-donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice/"},"headline":"James Comey Just Said the Special Counsel Will Look at Whether Trump Obstructed Justice","datePublished":"2017-06-08T15:22:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:20:04.293Z","description":"Robert Mueller has wide-ranging authority to investigate","url":"https://time.com/4810883/comey-testimony-donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice/","keywords":["Congress","White House","Law Enforcement","Donald Trump","James Comey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab5931ddaaf860b7/6988d0cb0b72e307c06ee277/jame-comey-fbi-testimony-washington-dc-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Calfas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-calfas/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab5931ddaaf860b7/6988d0cb0b72e307c06ee277/jame-comey-fbi-testimony-washington-dc-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-INTELLIGENCE","caption":"US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-INTELLIGENCE","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/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/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4810883/comey-testimony-donald-trump-obstruction-of-justice/","name":"James Comey Just Said the Special Counsel Will Look at Whether Trump Obstructed Justice"}}]}] ```