U.S. President Donald Trump punched back Friday against James Comey, accusing the ousted FBI director of lying about their private conversations \u2014 and saying he is \u201c100 percent\u201d willing to testify under oath.<\/p>\n
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Comey delivered scathing testimony a day earlier in a highly anticipated Senate hearing, saying Trump sought to derail a probe into onetime national security advisor Michael Flynn \u2014 at best, a political miscalculation, and at worst a criminal obstruction of justice.<\/p>\n
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Trump was addressing reporters at the White House for the first time since Comey\u2019s explosive appearance, in which he branded the president a liar and said he believed he was fired over his handling of the FBI probe into Russian election meddling.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYesterday showed no collusion, no obstruction,\u201d Trump said in reference to the twin controversies dogging his administration \u2014 accusations his aides colluded with the Russian effort to tilt the vote, and that he sought to block the related Flynn probe.<\/p>\n
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Trump lashed out at Comey, dubbing him a \u201cleaker\u201d for indirectly providing reporters with the contents of his memos summarizing their private conversations in the weeks before he was sacked. A person close to Trump\u2019s legal team has said a complaint would be filed with the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSome of the things that he said just weren\u2019t true,\u201d added the president, who \u2014 when asked if he would be willing to speak under oath to special prosecutor Robert Mueller about the encounters \u2014 responded: \u201c100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cI would be glad to tell him exactly what I just told you,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
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The White House has seized on Comey\u2019s confirmation that Trump personally was not under investigation over his ties to Russia to declare a victory of sorts.<\/p>\n
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The Republican president took to twitter earlier in the day, claiming \u201ctotal and complete vindication.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Trump administration has also highlighted the fact Comey stopped short of accusing the president of obstructing justice \u2014 a potentially impeachable offense. The former FBI chief has said the decision was now in the hands of special counsel Mueller.<\/p>\n
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Questioned about Comey\u2019s central claim that Trump told him to lay off Flynn, the president responded: \u201cI didn\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cAnd there would be nothing wrong if I did say it, according to everybody that I read today.\u201d<\/p>\n
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During almost three hours of statements Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey described himself as \u201cstunned\u201d by Trump\u2019s \u201cvery disturbing\u201d and \u201cvery concerning\u201d behavior toward him.<\/p>\n
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Detailing one-on-one talks with a sitting president \u2014 which under normal circumstances are private \u2014 Comey said he took painstaking notes for fear Trump might \u201clie\u201d about the unusual encounters.<\/p>\n
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And Comey admitted that he asked a friend to leak those notes to a reporter, correctly betting that the details would prompt the appointment of a special prosecutor.<\/p>\n
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Comey said he did so after Trump suggested in a tweet that their conversations may have been recorded.<\/p>\n
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Trump demurred when asked whether tapes of his talks with Comey actually exist.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ll tell you about that maybe in the very near future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee, which is also probing Russian election meddling, wrote Comey requesting his notes memorializing his conversations with Trump.<\/p>\n
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They separately wrote the White House counsel Don McGahn asking whether the recordings exist, and if so, that they be produced to the committee by June 23.<\/p>\n
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Pundits and legal experts were divided about whether Trump\u2019s actions rose to the level of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense.<\/p>\n
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But while Republicans have generally continued to back the president, some have begun openly questioning and criticizing his actions.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt was clear that the president asked Mr. Comey to do an inappropriate action, and that was to drop the investigation of General Michael Flynn,\u201d Senator Susan Collins told CNN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S. President Donald Trump punched back Friday against James Comey, accusing the ousted FBI director of lying about their private conversations — and saying he is “100 percent” willing to testify under oath. Comey delivered scathing testimony a day earlier in a highly anticipated Senate hearing, saying Trump sought to derail a probe into onetime national security advisor Michael Flynn — at best, a political miscalculation, and at worst a criminal obstruction of justice. Trump was addressing reporters at the White House for the first time since Comey’s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7663,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7661\/revisions\/7663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}