Former FBI chief Comey says he was fired to stop Russia inquiry, and accuses Trump of 'lies, plain and simple' - latimes

In an explosive hearing, former FBI Director James B. Comey told Congress on Thursday he believed President Trump fired him to impede the FBI’s Russia investigation, and described the president’s claims that the FBI was poorly led and in disarray as “lies, plain and simple.”

“It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee during a three-hour hearing broadcast live on every major TV network. “I was fired in some way to change — or the endeavor was to change — the way the Russia investigation was being conducted.”

Comey also said he decided to write memos for the FBI after his meetings and phone calls with Trump because he didn’t trust the president to tell the truth.

“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meetings,” said Comey, a registered Republican most of his life who previously served under Presidents George W. Bush and Obama.

Comey’s charges provided riveting political drama but no new bombshells about Russian meddling in the 2016 election or improper contacts by the Trump campaign or the White House with Russian authorities. It concluded with the certainty that what Trump has called the “cloud” of criminal and congressional investigations will not lift anytime soon.

The White House denied Trump was a liar, and Trump’s personal lawyer declared that Comey’s testimony “completely vindicated” the president by affirming that he wasn’t personally under investigation.

Trump “never, in form or substance, directed or suggested” that Comey halt an FBI investigation, the lawyer added, and never demanded Comey’s loyalty, as the former FBI chief alleges. - More

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Former FBI chief Comey says he was fired to stop Russia inquiry, and ...