United States President Donald Trump’s personal attorney has denied allegations made by former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey, saying it has now become clear that the expelled lawman was one of the leakers of ‘privileged information’ and should be investigated.
"Contrary to numerous false press accounts leading up to today’s hearing, Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told President Trump privately,” Mac Kasowitz, personal attorney of Trump told reporters at a news conference after the conclusion of Comey’s testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“That is that the President was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference,” Kasowitz said.
Kasowitz said Comey also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference. His testimony also makes clear that the President never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election, he said.
“In fact, according to Comey, the president told 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. He, President Trump, did not exclude anyone from that statement,” the attorney said.
“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 Mr Comey, quote, ‘Let Flynn go’, close 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’, close quote. And also, quote, ‘asked how General Flynn is doing’, closed quote,” he said.
“Admiral Rogers (Director of National Security Agency) testified today 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’, close quote. Director (of National Intelligence, Dave) Coats said the same thing. The president likewise never pressured Comey,” he added.
“The President also never told Comey, quote, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty’, closed quote. He never said it in for and he never said it in substance,” he said.
“Of course, the Office of the President is entitled to expect loyalty from those who are serving the administration and from before this president -- 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,” he added.
“Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers. Today, Comey, admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorised disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president,” Kasowitz said.
The attorney said the leaks of this privileged information began no later than March 2017 when friends of Comey have stated that he disclosed to them the conversations that he had with the president during their January 27, 2017 dinner and February 14, 2017 White House meeting.
“Today, Comey admitted that he leaked to friends of his purported memos of those privileged communications. One of which, he testified, was classified,” he said.
He alleged that ‘Comey also testified that immediately after he was terminated he authorised his friends to leak the contents of those memos to the press in order to, in Comey’s words, quote, ‘prompt the appointment of a special counsel’, closed quote’.
“Although Comey testified that he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet, the public record reveals that The New York Times was quoting from those memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies Comey’s excuse for this unauthorised disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory,” he said.
“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,” Kasowitz said.
“As the committee pointed out today, these important facts for the country to know are virtually the only facts that have not been leaked during the course of these events,” he said.
