--- title: Comey Testimony: White House Says President Trump Not a Liar description: The White House broke its silence on James Comey's testimony Thursday to defend President Trump's truthfulness. canonical: https://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-08T16:43:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:06:23.441Z article:section: Politics og:title: The White House Just Said Trump Is 'Definitively' Not a Liar og:description: "It's frankly insulting that that question would be asked." og:url: https://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63020a8c13be35bb/6988d0c4ab6d7771ce6ae763/gettyimages-667783388.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Donald Trump And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Hold Joint News Conf. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The White House Just Said Trump Is 'Definitively' Not a Liar twitter:description: "It's frankly insulting that that question would be asked." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63020a8c13be35bb/6988d0c4ab6d7771ce6ae763/gettyimages-667783388.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A White House Spokeswoman Just Said President Trump Is 'Definitively' Not a Liar > 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=fb757396-4048-49d8-bd42-13cc10a7ab28&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: James Comey Was "Concerned" Trump Would Lie About Their Meetings [Watch (HLS stream): James Comey Was "Concerned" Trump Would Lie About Their Meetings](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gJs3tv2k.m3u8) (1:16)  _Published 2017-06-08. Former FBI Director James Comey spoke in public for the first time about his relationship with President Donald Trump and the circumstances that led to his firing, in the most hotly anticipated congressional testimony in years._ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jun 8, 2017 4:43 PM UTC Former FBI Director James Comey spoke in public for the first time about his relationship with President Donald Trump and the circumstances that led to his firing, in the most hotly anticipated congressional testimony in years. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jun 8, 2017 4:43 PM UTC The White House broke its silence on [James Comey’s testimony](http://time.com/4810345/james-comey-testimony-real-time-transcript/) Thursday to defend President Trump’s truthfulness, but couldn’t offer certitude about the potential existence of a secret taping system in the Oval Office. With the must-see testimony filling television screens across the country and throughout the West Wing, the Administration decided to outsource its response to the Republican National Committee and Trump’s outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz. But White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders pushed back on the several times Comey asserted that the [president had lied](http://time.com/4809186/comey-testimony-white-house-lies-plain-simple/). “No, I can definitively say the president is not a liar,” Sanders said during an off-camera briefing. “It’s frankly insulting that that question would be asked.” Comey testified that Trump’s spin that he was fired because of reduced morale and turmoil at the bureau amounted to [“lies, plain and simple.”](http://time.com/4809186/comey-testimony-white-house-lies-plain-simple/) He also testified that Trump had initiated all conversations with him, but Trump has previously stated publicly that Comey had called him about his job security. Sanders could not explain the discrepancy. “I’m not aware of the ins-and-outs of those interactions,” Sanders said. Asked if Trump, whose tweet about the potential existence of secret White House tapes motivated Comey to leak his memos about his private conversations with the president, maintains a taping system in the Oval Office, Sanders replied, “I have no idea.” When pressed by reporters for a more definitive answer, she answered, “Sure, I’ll try to look under the couches.” ## Transcript [00:00] Let's start with the January 6th meeting in Trump [00:02] Tower. Where you went up with a series of officials, to [00:06] brief the President Elect on the Russia investigation. My [00:10] understanding is, you remained afterwards to brief [00:12] him on again, quote, some personally sensitive aspects [00:16] of the information you relayed. Now you said after that [00:20] briefing, You felt compelled to document [00:24] that conversation that you actually started documenting [00:27] it soon as you got into the car. What was it about that [00:31] meeting that led you to determine that you needed to [00:35] start putting down a written record. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [00:39] A combination of things. I think that the circumstances, [00:42] the subject matter, and the person I was interacting [00:45] with. Circumstances, first I was alone with the President [00:49] of the United States, or the President Elect, soon to be [00:51] president. The subject matter I was talking about, [00:54] matters that touch on the FBI's core responsibility, and [00:57] it relate to the President Elect. Personally and then the [01:01] nature of the person. I was honestly concerned that he [01:04] might lie about the nature of our meeting and so I [01:07] thought it really important to document. That [01:09] combination of things I'd never experienced before but [01:11] it led me to believe I got to write it down and I got to [01:13] write it down in a very detailed way. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/"},"headline":"A White House Spokeswoman Just Said President Trump Is 'Definitively' Not a Liar","datePublished":"2017-06-08T16:43:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:06:23.441Z","description":"\"It's frankly insulting that that question would be asked\"","url":"https://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/","keywords":["White House","Congress","FBI","Donald Trump","James Comey"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63020a8c13be35bb/6988d0c4ab6d7771ce6ae763/gettyimages-667783388.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt63020a8c13be35bb/6988d0c4ab6d7771ce6ae763/gettyimages-667783388.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Hold Joint News Conf.","caption":"Donald Trump And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Hold Joint News Conf.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—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":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/","name":"A White House Spokeswoman Just Said President Trump Is 'Definitively' Not a Liar"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"James Comey Was \"Concerned\" Trump Would Lie About Their Meetings","description":"Former FBI Director James Comey spoke in public for the first time about his relationship with President Donald Trump and the circumstances that led to his firing, in the most hotly anticipated congressional testimony in years.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gJs3tv2k/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-06-08T15:10:59.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gJs3tv2k.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/","duration":"PT1M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4811198/comey-testimony-donald-trump-liar-taping/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```