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A day before his scheduled public testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, what appears to be former FBI Director James Comey's prepared written "statement for the record" surfaced online Wednesday afternoon and was rapidly being shared among journalists and on social media.
As news outlets were combing through the document for salient details, the url address of the document indicated it was uploaded to the official website of the Intelligence Committee. NBC News reports the committee, chaired by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, released the testimony.
Speaking on MSNBC, chief legal correspondent Ari Melber described the statement as an "extraordinary piece of testimony" that includes "explicit" details about Comey's interactions with President Donald Trump.
In one of the most potentially damning moments recounted in the memos, Comey describes a private dinner with Trump at the White House on January 27 in which the president asked the director if he wanted to keep his job. "My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting," which he describes elsewhere as unusual compared to his relationship with President Obama, "and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant that the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some of patronage relationship."
Comey describes why he felt compelled to keep detailed notes of his interactions with president and how he came to feel so uncomfortable with the president's behavior that he ultimately asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to make sure he was no longer put in a situation of being alone with Trump or even have "direct communication" with him.
View the original testimony here.
And the 7-page written statement has been reproduced in full below:
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
A day before his scheduled public testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, what appears to be former FBI Director James Comey's prepared written "statement for the record" surfaced online Wednesday afternoon and was rapidly being shared among journalists and on social media.
As news outlets were combing through the document for salient details, the url address of the document indicated it was uploaded to the official website of the Intelligence Committee. NBC News reports the committee, chaired by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, released the testimony.
Speaking on MSNBC, chief legal correspondent Ari Melber described the statement as an "extraordinary piece of testimony" that includes "explicit" details about Comey's interactions with President Donald Trump.
In one of the most potentially damning moments recounted in the memos, Comey describes a private dinner with Trump at the White House on January 27 in which the president asked the director if he wanted to keep his job. "My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting," which he describes elsewhere as unusual compared to his relationship with President Obama, "and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant that the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some of patronage relationship."
Comey describes why he felt compelled to keep detailed notes of his interactions with president and how he came to feel so uncomfortable with the president's behavior that he ultimately asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to make sure he was no longer put in a situation of being alone with Trump or even have "direct communication" with him.
View the original testimony here.
And the 7-page written statement has been reproduced in full below:
A day before his scheduled public testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, what appears to be former FBI Director James Comey's prepared written "statement for the record" surfaced online Wednesday afternoon and was rapidly being shared among journalists and on social media.
As news outlets were combing through the document for salient details, the url address of the document indicated it was uploaded to the official website of the Intelligence Committee. NBC News reports the committee, chaired by Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, released the testimony.
Speaking on MSNBC, chief legal correspondent Ari Melber described the statement as an "extraordinary piece of testimony" that includes "explicit" details about Comey's interactions with President Donald Trump.
In one of the most potentially damning moments recounted in the memos, Comey describes a private dinner with Trump at the White House on January 27 in which the president asked the director if he wanted to keep his job. "My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting," which he describes elsewhere as unusual compared to his relationship with President Obama, "and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant that the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some of patronage relationship."
Comey describes why he felt compelled to keep detailed notes of his interactions with president and how he came to feel so uncomfortable with the president's behavior that he ultimately asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to make sure he was no longer put in a situation of being alone with Trump or even have "direct communication" with him.
View the original testimony here.
And the 7-page written statement has been reproduced in full below: