James Comey testimony: What did we learn today?

Paul Singer | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Comey to Trump: ‘Release all the tapes’ Former FBI Director James Comey says he would welcome President Trump releasing recordings of their conversations.

1. Comey leaked his own memos, through a friend, as a way to instigate the appointment of a special counsel to take over the investigation of the Trump campaign's Russia ties.

2. That disclosure has infuriated Trump's team. Trump's lawyer issued a statement saying Thursday that Comey "unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president" and suggested perhaps this should be investigated alongside other national security leaks.

3. Comey really distrusted Trump. He said he wrote memos detailing his meetings with Trump because "I was honestly concerned that [Trump] might lie about the nature of our meeting."

4. Former attorney general Loretta Lynch made Comey "queasy" by urging him to refer to the Clinton email investigation as a "matter," not an "investigation." Comey said this language "tracked the way the campaign was talking about the FBI's work."

5. The former FBI director really hopes the president taped their conversations. "Lordy, I hope there are tapes," Comey said, suggesting they would vindicate his implication that Trump was trying to head off an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

6. Comey believed Trump was directing him to shut down the probe of Flynn, even though Trump never used those words. "I didn’t obey that," Comey told the committee. "But that’s what I thought."

But here is one thing we already knew: After the hearing, Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C, said "This is nowhere near the end of our investigation."

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