WASHINGTON—Former FBI director James Comey accused President Donald Trump on Wednesday of allegdly asking him to drop an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn as part of a probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In dramatic written testimony, Comey claimed Trump told him at a meeting in the White House in February, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”
Trump fired Flynn in February in a controversy over contacts between the retired general and the Russian ambassador to the United States. The FBI has been investigating Flynn as it looks into allegations of links between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Comey’s statement, posted on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s website, said Trump also called him on March 30 to say he had nothing to do with Russia and asked what “we could do to lift the cloud” of the FBI’s Russia investigation.
During that phone call, Comey said he told Trump the FBI was not investigating the president personally. “He repeatedly told me, ‘We need to get that fact out’,” Comey said.
Comey said he had told Trump on three occasions he was not being investigated, confirming an earlier account from the president.
