After former FBI Director James Comey’s three-hour testimony in Congress, President Trump’s personal attorney gave a public statement disputing parts of his account.
Marc Kasowitz said two parts of Comey’s sworn testimony, in which he claims Trump asked him to for full loyalty and, on a separate occasion, asked him to “let go” of any investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, are not true.
Kasowitz also lambasted Comey for testifying that he had asked a friend to read one of his memos of an encounter with Trump to a New York Times reporter.
Read Kasowitz’s statement below.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am Marc Kasowitz, President [sic] Trump’s personal lawyer.Contrary to numerous false press accounts leading up to today’s hearing, Mr. Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told President Trump privately: That is , that the President was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference. The President – Mr. Comey, he also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference.Mr. Comey’s testimony also makes clear that the President never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election and in fact, according to Mr. Comey, the President told Mr. Comey quote “it would be good to find out” closed quote in that investigation if there was quote “some satellite associates of his who did something wrong,” closed quote. And he, President Trump, did not exclude anyone from that statement.Consistent with that statement, the President never in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including the President never suggested that that Mr. Comey quote “let Flynn go” closed quote. As the President publicly stated the next day, he did say to Mr. Comey, quote “General Flynn is a good guy, he has been through a lot” quote and also quote “asked how General Flynn is doing” closed quote Admiral Rogers testified that the President never quote “directed [him] to do anything …. illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate” closed quote and never never quote “pressured [him] to do so” closed quote. Director Coates said the same thing. The President likewise never pressured Mr. Comey.The President also never told Mr. Comey, quote “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty” closed quote. He never said it in form and he never said it in substance.Of course, the Office of the President is entitled to expect loyalty from those who are serving the administration, and from before this President took office to this day, it is overwhelmingly clear that there have been and continue to be those in government who are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications.Mr. Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers.Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the President. The leaks of this privileged information began no later than March 2017 when friends of Mr. Comey have stated he disclosed to them the conversations he had with the President during their January 27, 2017 dinner and February 14, 2017 White House meeting.Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he leaked to friends of his purported memos of those privileged conversations, one of which he testified was classified. Mr. Comey also testified that immediately after he was terminated he authorized his friends to leak the contents of those memos to the press in order to, in Mr. Comey’s words, quote “prompt the appointment of a special counsel.” Closed quote.Although Mr. Comey testified he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet, the public record reveals that the New York Times was quoting from these memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies Mr. Comey’s excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to entirely retaliatory. We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated along with all the others that are being investigated.In sum, it is now established that the President was not being investigated for colluding with or attempting to obstruct any investigation. As the Committee pointed out today, these important facts for the country to know are virtually the only facts that have not leaked during the course of these events. As he said yesterday, the President feels completely vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda, with the business of this country, and with the public cloud removed.
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Write to Alana Abramson at Alana.Abramson@time.com