Trump drew attention to Comey\u2019s testimony, which revealed that the FBI was investigating members of his campaign as early as July 2016.<\/b>
\nPresident Donald Trump lashed out at James Comey on Twitter on Sunday morning, dismissing the former FBI director\u2019s Friday testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees as \u201cuntruthful\u201d and calling the Russia investigation he discussed a \u201cRigged Fraud.\u201d
The closed-door testimony \u2014 which was released as a redacted transcript on Saturday following a legal dispute over the private nature of the interview \u2014 appears to have upset the president, who tweeted that \u201cLeakin\u2019 James Comey must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day. His Friday testimony was so untruthful!\u201d
Trump claimed that Comey \u201ctold House investigators he didn\u2019t know, didn\u2019t recall, or couldn\u2019t remember things when asked\u201d on 245 occasions \u2014 a number he might have picked up from watching one Republican committee member\u2019s appearance on Fox News.
While there was plenty of Clinton\/email content for Trump to draw upon (as Comey told reporters after the hearing, \u201cWhen you read the transcript, you will see that we are talking again about Hillary Clinton\u2019s emails, for heaven\u2019s sakes\u201d), the president drew attention instead to Comey\u2019s statements that he opened investigations into four Americans affiliated with the Trump campaign in summer 2016. Trump tweeted that was \u201call lies!\u201d (Comey had publicly confirmed the FBI was looking into possible collusion back in March 2017 .)
\u201cThis whole deal is a Rigged Fraud headed up by dishonest people who would do anything so that I could not become President,\u201d the president added. \u201cThey are now exposed!\u201d
In his congressional testimony, Comey revealed that the FBI\u2019s investigation into campaign staffers\u2019 possible collusion with Russia to sway the presidential election, which began as early as July 2016, launched with probes into four Americans affiliated with the Trump campaign. Comey did not name the individuals, but noted that Trump was not among them, telling Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy:
\u201cWe opened investigations on four Americans to see if there was any connection between those four Americans and the Russian interference effort. And those four Americans did not include the candidate.\u201d
When pushed for details, Comey said the FBI \u201chad some reason to suspect that there were Americans who might have assisted the Russians.\u201d
Comey was unwilling to answer questions relating to the ongoing investigation, saying he did not want to compromise it. On Friday, Trump tweeted that he wanted Comey to be allowed to answer questions freely.
It appears Comey may also be a witness in special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s probe, with a lawyer for the FBI telling Gowdy that Comey was a \u201cwitness\u201d or \u201cpotential witness\u201d into an obstruction of justice investigation, something Trump may have brought upon himself by firing Comey.
The pair have had an antagonistic relationship ever since the president fired the FBI director in May 2017 over his handling of the various election-related investigations. His firing led to Mueller\u2019s appointment as special counsel. Comey has since written a book, and called the president \u201cmorally unfit\u201d for office.
The former FBI director, who in June 2017 testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee in a very public and widely-watched hearing, was apparently reluctant to testify under closed-door conditions this time, fearing his words would be used to \u201cpeddle a distorted, partisan political narrative about the Clinton and Russian investigations through selective leaks.\u201d
As Elena Sheppard explained for Vox, Comey even filed a lawsuit trying to quash a GOP subpoena that required him to sit for a closed-door deposition, causing a confusing, \u201cmelodramatic\u201d controversy:
Lawyers for the Republican-majority House committee dismissed the lawsuit as \u201cextraordinary and frivolous,\u201d and Comey ultimately dropped it. As a compromise, the committee agreed to release a transcript of the hearing, which they did Saturday afternoon.
With only a few minor revelations inside, it\u2019s mostly flown under the radar in the wake of new developments in the special counsel investigation, not to mention news of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly\u2019s imminent departure .
Comey\u2019s concerns about partisan leaking may have been assuaged (there\u2019s less of an appetite for selective leaks with a 235-page transcript available) but Trump is certainly still taking his best shot at making it part of a political narrative.<\/p>\n