--- title: Comey Testimony: Trump Claims 'Complete Vindication' description: President Trump broke his silence on James Comey's congressional testimony, tweeting that he feels "complete vindication." canonical: https://time.com/4812412/comey-testimony-trump-vindication/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-09T11:41:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:21:09.403Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Claims 'Complete Vindication' After Comey's Testimony og:description: The president finally took to Twitter to share his thoughts og:url: https://time.com/4812412/comey-testimony-trump-vindication/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73dcf3555de53756/6988d0a0196cf4b26d040789/donald-trump-approval-rating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Departs White House En Route To Cincinnati, Ohio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Claims 'Complete Vindication' After Comey's Testimony twitter:description: The president finally took to Twitter to share his thoughts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73dcf3555de53756/6988d0a0196cf4b26d040789/donald-trump-approval-rating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Claims 'Complete Vindication' After James Comey's Testimony > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 9, 2017 11:41 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump departs the White House June 7, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump departs the White House June 7, 2017 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jun 9, 2017 11:41 AM UTC President Trump broke his silence on former FBI Director [James Comey](http://time.com/4811525/comey-testimony-capitol-hill-hearing/)‘s congressional testimony, tweeting that he feels “complete vindication.” “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication…and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” Trump tweeted around 6 a.m. ET Friday. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/873120139222306817) Trump’s tweet echoes key language from his lawyer’s Thursday afternoon [statement](http://time.com/4811712/comey-testimony-marc-kasowitz-transcript/), which said in part, “The President feels completely vindicated and is eager to continue moving forward with his agenda with this public cloud removed.” It also continues the trend of Trump and his allies selectively reading Comey’s multiple hours of testimony, trumpeting the parts they like (Comey confirmed that he told Trump that Trump was not under FBI investigation, and he admitted to having a friend [leak a memo](http://time.com/4811044/james-comey-testimony-media-leaks/) to the press) and [dismissing ](http://time.com/4811189/comey-testimony-marc-kasowitz-trump-lawyer/)the parts they don’t (Comey said Trump [asked him for loyalty](http://time.com/4809221/james-comey-testimony-donald-trump-loyalty/?iid=sr-link2), which may lead to an obstruction of justice investigation, among [other revelations](http://time.com/4811175/comey-testimony-donald-trump-highlights/?xid=homepage)). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4812412/comey-testimony-trump-vindication/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4812412/comey-testimony-trump-vindication/"},"headline":"President Trump Claims 'Complete Vindication' After James Comey's Testimony","datePublished":"2017-06-09T11:41:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:21:09.403Z","description":"The president finally took to Twitter to share his thoughts","url":"https://time.com/4812412/comey-testimony-trump-vindication/","keywords":["White House","Congress","James Comey","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73dcf3555de53756/6988d0a0196cf4b26d040789/donald-trump-approval-rating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73dcf3555de53756/6988d0a0196cf4b26d040789/donald-trump-approval-rating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Departs White House En Route To Cincinnati, Ohio","caption":"President Trump Departs White House En Route To Cincinnati, Ohio","creditText":"Win McNamee—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/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4812412/comey-testimony-trump-vindication/","name":"President Trump Claims 'Complete Vindication' After James Comey's Testimony"}}]}] ```