Former FBI Director James Comey believes President Donald Trump was trying to influence his thinking about the investigation into alleged ties between members of Trump’s campaign and Russian officials, CNN reported on Saturday.
CNN reported, citing a source familiar with Comey’s thinking, that the fired FBI head now thinks Trump was trying to influence his judgment regarding the investigation.
The source told CNN that “intent is hard to prove” with regard to Trump’s motivation for doing so, since “you have to have intent in order to obstruct justice in the criminal sense.”
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that in February, Trump asked Comey to shut down his bureau’s investigation into Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a request that Comey documented in a memo.
On Thursday, Benjamin Wittes, the editor of the blog Lawfare and a self-described “friend” of Comey, said the former FBI director described two instances when Trump attempted “personally to compromise him or implicate him with either shows of closeness or actual chumminess.”
One of those instances took place during a January meeting of law enforcement officials at the White House, when Trump called Comey over from across the room — where Wittes said the FBI director was trying to “blend into” the drapes — and tried to pull Comey in for a hug.
Trump himself revealed earlier in May that he was thinking about “this Russia thing” when he decided to fire Comey. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Trump told Russian officials he was relieved to be rid of Comey, who he called a “real nut job,” and said the investigation had put him under “great pressure.”
On Friday, the chair and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that Comey agreed to testify in an open session.