SEN. RICHARD BURR (R-NC): Director Comey, I appreciate your willingness to appear before the committee today, and more importantly, I thank you for your dedicated service and leadership to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Your appearance today speaks to the trust we have built over the years, and I'm looking forward to a very open and candid discussion today.BURR: I'd like to remind my colleagues that we will reconvene in closed session at 1 PM today and I ask that you reserve for that venue any questions that might get into classified information. The director has been very gracious with his time, but the vice chairman and I have worked out a very specific timeline for his commitment to be on the Hill, so we will do everything we can to meet that agreement.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence exists to certify for the other 85 members of the United States Senate and the American people that the intelligence community is operating lawfully and has the necessary authorities and tools to accomplish its mission and keep America safe. Part of our mission, beyond the oversight we continue to provide to the intelligence community and its activities, is to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. The committee's work continues. This hearing represents part of that effort.

Jim, allegations have been swirling in the press for the last several weeks, and today's your opportunity to set the record straight. Yesterday, I read with interest your statement for the record. And I think it provides some helpful details surrounding your interactions with the president.

Related: Nine Key Moments From the Comey Hearing

It clearly lays out your understanding of those discussions, actions you took following each conversation and your state of mind. I very much appreciate your candor, and I think it's helpful as we work through to determine the ultimate truth behind possible Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Your statement also provides texture and context to your interactions with the president, from your vantage point, and outlines a strained relationship. The American people need to hear your side of the story just as they need to hear the president's descriptions of events.

These interactions also highlight the importance of the committee's ongoing investigation. Our experienced staff is interviewing all relevant parties and some of the most sensitive intelligence in our country's possession.

We will establish the facts, separate from rampant speculation, and lay them out for the American people to make their own judgment. Only then will we as a nation be able to move forward and to put this episode to rest. There are several outstanding issues not addressed in your statement that I hope you'll clear up for the American people today. Did the president's request for loyalty -- your impression that -- that the one-on-one dinner of January 27th was, and I quote, "at least in part an effort to create some sort of patronage relationship," or his March 30th phone call asking what you could do to lift the cloud of Russia investigation in any way, alter your approach of the FBI's investigation into General Flynn or the broader investigation into Russia and possible links to the campaign?

In your opinion, did potential Russian efforts to establish links with individuals in the Trump orbit rise to the level we could define as collusion? Or was it a counterintelligence concern?

There's been a significant public speculation about your decision-making related to the Clinton e-mail investigation. Why did you decide publicly -- to publicly announce FBI's recommendations that the Department of Justice not pursue criminal charges? You have described it as a choice between a bad decision and a worse decision. The American people need to understand the facts behind your action.

This committee is uniquely suited to investigate Russia's interference in the 2016 elections. We also have a unified, bipartisan approach to what is a highly charged partisan issue. Russian activities during 2016 election may have been aimed at one party's candidate, but as my colleague, Senator Rubio, says frequently, in 2018 and 2020, it could be aimed at anyone, at home or abroad.

My colleague, Senator Warner, and I have worked in -- have worked to to stay in lockstep on this investigation. We've had our differences on approach at times. But I've constantly stressed that we need to be a team. And I think Senator Warner agrees with me.

We must keep these questions above politics and partisanship. It's too important to be tainted by anyone trying to score political points.

With that, again, I welcome you, Director.

And I turn to the vice chairman for any comments he might have.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And let me start by, again, absolutely (ph) thanking all the members of the committee for the seriousness in which they've taken on this task.WARNER: Mr. Comey, thank you for agreeing to come testify as part of this committee's investigation into Russia. I realize that this hearing has been, obviously, the focus of a lot of Washington in the last few days. But the truth is many Americans who may be tuning in today probably haven't focused on every twist and turn of the investigation.

So I'd like to briefly describe, at least from this senator's standpoint, what we already know and what we're still investigating. To be clear, this whole (ph) investigation is not about relitigating the election. It's not about who won or lost. And it sure as heck is not about Democrats versus Republicans.

We're here because a foreign adversary attacked us right here at home, plain and simple, not by guns or missiles, but by foreign operatives seeking to hijack our most important democratic process -- our presidential election.

Russian spies engaged in a series of online cyber raids and a broad campaign of disinformation, all ultimately aimed at sowing chaos to us to undermine public faith in our process, in our leadership and ultimately in ourselves.

And that's not just this senator's opinion, it is the unanimous determination of the entire U.S. intelligence community. So we must find out the full story, what the Russians did, and, candidly, as some other colleagues have mentioned, why they were so successful. And, more importantly, we must determine the necessary steps to take to protect our democracy and ensure they can't do it again.

Chairman mentioned elections in 2018 and 2020. In my home state of Virginia, we have elections this year, in 2017. Simply put, we cannot let anything or anyone prevent us from getting to the bottom of this.

Now, Mr. Comey, let me say at the outset we haven't always agreed on every issue. In fact, I've occasionally questioned some of the actions you've taken. But I've never had any reason to question your integrity, your expertise or your intelligence.

You've been a straight shooter with this committee, and have been willing to speak truth to power, even at the risk of your own career, which makes the way in which you were fired by the president ultimately shocking.WARNER: Recall, we began this entire process with the president and his staff first denying that the Russians were ever involved, and then falsely claiming that no one from his team was never in touch with any Russians.

We know that's just not the truth. Numerous Trump associates had undisclosed contacts with Russians before and after the election, including the president's attorney general, his former national security adviser and his current senior adviser, Mr. Kushner.

That doesn't even begin to count the host of additional campaign associates and advisers who've also been caught up in this massive web. We saw Mr. Trump's campaign manager, Mr. Manafort, forced to step down over ties to Russian-backed entities. The national security adviser, General Flynn, had to resign over his lies about engagements with the Russians.

And we saw the candidate him -- himself, express an odd and unexplained affection for the Russian dictator, while calling for the hacking of his opponent. There's a lot to investigate. Enough, in fact that then Director Comey publicly acknowledged that he was leading an investigation into those links between Mr. Trump's campaign and the Russian government.

As the director of the FBI, Mr. Comey was ultimately responsible for conducting that investigation, which might explain why you're sitting now as a private citizen.

What we didn't know was, at the same time that this investigation was proceeding, the president himself appears to have been engaged in an effort to influence, or at least co-opt, the director of the FBI. The testimony that Mr. Comey has submitted for today's hearing is very disturbing.

For example, on January 27th, after summoning Director Comey to dinner, the president appears to have threatened the (ph) director's job while telling him, quote, "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty."WARNER: At a later meeting, on February 14th, the president asked the attorney general to leave the Oval Office so that he could privately ask Director Comey, again, quote, "to see way clear (ph) to letting Flynn go."

That is a statement that Director Comey interpreted as a -- as a request that he drop the investigation, connected to General Flynn's false statements. Think about it: the president of the United States asking the FBI director to drop an ongoing investigation.

And, after that, the president called the FBI director on two additional occasions, March 30th and April 11th, and asked him again, quote, "to lift the cloud" on the Russian investigation.

Now, Director Comey denied each of these improper requests. The loyalty pledge, the admonition to drop the Flynn investigation, the request to lift the cloud on the Russia investigation. Of course, after his refusals, Director Comey was fired.

The initial explanation for the firing didn't pass any smell test. So now Director Comey was fired because (ph) he didn't treat Hillary Clinton appropriately. Of course, that explanation lasted about a day, because the president himself then made very clear that he was thinking about Russia when he decided to fire Director Comey.

Shockingly, reports suggest that the president admitted as much in an Oval Office meeting with the Russians the day after Director Comey was fired, disparaging our country's top law enforcement official as a, quote/unquote, "nut job." The president allegedly suggested that his firing relieved great pressure on his feelings about Russia.

This is not happening in isolation. At the same time the president was engaged in these efforts with Director Comey, he was also, at least allegedly, asking senior leaders of the intelligence community to downplay the Russia investigation or to intervene with the director.

Yesterday, we had DNI Director Coats and NSA Director Admiral Rogers, who were offered a number of opportunities to flatly deny those press reports. They expressed their opinions, but they did not take that opportunity to deny those reports. They did not take advantage of that opportunity. In my belief, that's not how the president of the United States should behave.

Regardless of the outcome of our investigation into the Russia links, Director Comey's firing and his testimony raise separate and troubling questions that we must get to the bottom of.

Again, as I said at the outset, I've seen firsthand how seriously every member of this committee is taking his work. I'm proud of the committee's efforts so far. Let me be clear: This is not a witch hunt. This is not fake news. It is an effort to protect our country from a new threat that, quite honestly, will not go away any time soon.

So, Mr. Comey, your testimony here today will help us move towards that goal. I look forward to that testimony.WARNER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BURR: Thank you, Vice Chairman.

Director, as discussed, when you agreed to appear before the committee, it would be under oath. I'd ask you to please stand. Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

JAMES COMEY: (OFF-MIKE)

BURR: Please be seated.

Director Comey, you're now under oath.

And I would just note to members, you will be recognized by seniority for a period up to seven minutes. And again, it is the intent to move to a closed session no later than 1 p.m.

With that, Director Comey, you are recognized. You have the floor for as long as you might need.

14:40 — COMEY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ranking Member Warner, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here to testify today. I've submitted my statement for the record and I'm not going to repeat it here this morning. I thought I would just offer some very brief introductory remarks and then I would welcome your questions.

When I was appointed FBI director in 2013, I understood that I served at the pleasure of the president. Even though I was appointed to a 10 year term, which Congress created in order to underscore the importance of the FBI being outside of politics and independent, I understood that I could be fired by a president for any reason, or for no reason at all.

And on May the 9th, when I learned that I had been fired, for that reason, I immediately came home as a private citizen. But then, the explanations -- the shifting explanations, confused me and increasingly concerned me.

COMEY: They confused me because the president and I had had multiple conversations about my job, both before and after he took office. And he had repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and he hoped I would stay. And I had repeatedly assured him that I did intend to stay and serve out the remaining six years of my term.

He told me repeatedly that he had talked to lots of people about me, including our current attorney general, and had learned that I was doing a great job and that I was extremely well-liked by the FBI workforce.

So it confused me when I saw on television the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation and learned, again, from the media that he was telling, privately, other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation.

I was also confused by the initial explanation that was offered publicly, that I was fired because of the decisions I had made during the election year. That didn't make sense to me for a whole bunch of reasons, including the time and all the water that had gone under the bridge since those hard decisions that had to be made. That didn't make any sense to me.

And although the law required no reason at all to fire an FBI director, the administration then chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader.

Those were lies, plain and simple, and I am so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them and I'm so sorry that the American people were told them.

I worked every day at the FBI to help make that great organization better. And I say "help" because I did nothing alone at the FBI. There are no indispensable people at the FBI. The organization's great strength is that its values and abilities run deep and wide.

The FBI will be fine without me. The FBI's mission will be relentlessly pursued by its people, and that mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.COMEY: I will deeply miss being part of that mission, but this organization and its mission will go on long beyond me and long beyond any particular administration.

I have a message before I close for the -- my former colleagues at the FBI. But first, I want the American people to know this truth: The FBI is honest. The FBI is strong. And the FBI is, and always will be, independent.

And now to my former colleagues, if I may. I am so sorry that I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to you properly. It was the honor of my life to serve beside you, to be part of the FBI family. And I will miss it for the rest of my life.

Thank you for standing watch. Thank you for doing so much good for this country. Do that good as long as ever you can.

And, Senators, I look forward to your questions.

BURR: Director, thank you for that testimony, both oral and the written testimony that you provided to the committee yesterday and made public to the American people.

The chair would recognize himself, first, for 12 minutes, vice chair for 12 minutes, based upon the agreement we have.

Director, did the Special Counsel's Office review and/or edit your written testimony?

COMEY: No.

19:13 — BURR: Do you have any doubt that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 elections?

COMEY: None.

BURR: Do you have any doubt that the Russian government was behind the intrusions in the DNC and the DCCC systems, and the subsequent leaks of that information?

COMEY: No, no doubt.

BURR: Do you have any doubt that the Russian government was behind the cyber intrusion in the state voter files?

COMEY: No.

BURR: Do you have any doubt that officials of the Russian government were fully aware of these activities?

COMEY: No doubt.

BURR: Are you confident that no votes cast in the 2016 presidential election were altered?

COMEY: I'm confident. By the time -- when I left as director, I had seen no indication of that whatsoever.

BURR: Director Comey, did the president at any time ask you to stop the FBI investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. elections?

COMEY: Not to my understanding, no.

BURR: Did any individual working for this administration, including the Justice Department, ask you to stop the Russian investigation?COMEY: No.

20:25 — BURR: Director, when the president requested that you, and I quote, "let Flynn go," General Flynn had an unreported contact with the Russians, which is an offense. And if press accounts are right, there might have been discrepancies between facts and his FBI testimony.

In your estimation, was General Flynn, at that time, in serious legal jeopardy? And in addition to that, do you sense that the president was trying to obstruct justice, or just seek for a way for Mike Flynn to save face, given he had already been fired?

COMEY: General Flynn, at that point in time, was in legal jeopardy. There was an open FBI criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the Russian contacts and the contacts themselves. And so that was my assessment at the time.

I don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that's a conclusion I'm sure the special counsel will work towards, to try and understand what the intention was there, and whether that's an offense.

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BURR: Director, is it possible that, as part of this FBI investigation, the FBI could find evidence of criminality that is not tied to -- to the 2016 elections -- possible collusion or coordination with Russians?

COMEY: Sure.

BURR: So there could be something that just fits a criminal aspect to this that doesn't have anything to do with the 2016 election cycle?

COMEY: Correct. In any complex investigation, when you start turning over rocks, sometimes you find things that are unrelated to the primary investigation, that are criminal in nature.

BURR: Director Comey, you have been criticized publicly for the decision to present your findings on the e-mail investigation directly to the American people. Have you learned anything since that time that would've changed what you said, or how you chose to inform the American people?

COMEY: Honestly, no. I mean, it caused a whole lot of personal pain for me, but, as I look back, given what I knew at the time and even what I've learned since, I think it was the best way to try and protect the justice institution, including the FBI.BURR: In the public domain is this question of the Steele dossier, a document that has been around, now, for over a year. I'm not sure when the FBI first took possession of it, but the media had it before you had it and we had it.

At the time of your departure from the FBI, was the FBI able to confirm any criminal allegations contained in the Steele document?

COMEY: Mr. Chairman, I don't think that's a question I can answer in an open setting because it goes into the details of the investigation.

BURR: Director, the term we hear most often is "collusion." When people are describing possible links between Americans and Russian government entities related to the interference in our election, would you say that it's normal for foreign governments to reach out to members of an incoming administration?

COMEY: Yes.

BURR: At what point does the normal contact cross the line into an attempt to recruit agents or influence (ph) or spies?

COMEY: Difficult to say in the abstract. It depends upon the context, whether there's an effort to keep it covert, what the nature of the requests made of the American by the foreign government are. It's a -- it's a judgment call based on a whole lot of facts.

BURR: At what point would that recruitment become a counterintelligence threat to our country?

COMEY: Again, difficult to answer in the abstract. But when -- when a foreign power is using especially coercion or some sort of pressure to try and co-opt an American, especially a government official, to act on its behalf, that's a serious concern to the FBI and at the heart of the FBI's counterintelligence mission.

BURR: So if you've got a -- a -- a 36-page document of -- of specific claims that are out there, the FBI would have to, for counterintelligence reasons, try to verify anything that might be claimed in there. One, and probably first and foremost, is the counterintelligence concerns that we have about blackmail. Would that be an accurate statement?

COMEY: Yes. If the FBI receives a credible allegation that there is some effort to co-opt, coerce, direct, employ covertly an American on behalf of the foreign power, that's the basis on which a counterintelligence investigation is opened.

BURR: And when you read the dossier, what was your reaction, given that it was 100 percent directed at the president-elect?

COMEY: Not a question I can answer in an open setting, Mr. Chairman.

BURR: OK. When did you become aware of the cyber intrusion?COMEY: The first cyber -- it was all kinds of cyber intrusions going on all the time. The first Russia-connected cyber intrusion, I became aware of in the late summer of 2015.

BURR: And in that timeframe, there were more than the DNC and the DCCC that were targets.

COMEY: Correct. There was a massive effort to target government and nongovernmental -- near-governmental agencies like nonprofits.

BURR: What would be the estimate of how many entities out there the Russians specifically targeted in that timeframe?

COMEY: It's hundreds. I suppose it could be more than 1,000, but it's at least hundreds.

BURR: When did you become aware that data had been exfiltrated?

COMEY: I'm not sure, exactly. I think either late '15 or early '16.

BURR: And did -- did you, the director of the FBI, have conversations with the last administration about the risk that this posed?

COMEY: Yes.

BURR: And share with us, if you will, what actions they took.

COMEY: Well, the FBI had already undertaken an effort to notify all the victims -- and that's what we consider the entities that were attacked as part of this massive spear phishing campaign. And so we notified them in an effort to disrupt what might be ongoing.

Then there was a series of continuing interactions with entities through the rest of '15 into '16, and then, throughout '16, the administration was trying to decide how to respond to the intrusion activity that it saw.

BURR: And the FBI, in this case, unlike other cases that you might investigate -- did you ever have access to the actual hardware that was hacked? Or did you have to rely on a third party to provide you the data that they had collected?

COMEY: In the case of the DNC, and, I believe, the DCCC, but I'm sure the DNC, we did not have access to the devices themselves. We got relevant forensic information from a private party, a high-class entity, that had done the work. But we didn't get direct access.

BURR: But no content?

COMEY: Correct.

BURR: Isn't content an important part of the forensics from a counterintelligence standpoint?

COMEY: It is, although what was briefed to me by my folks -- the people who were my folks at the time is that they had gotten the information from the private party that they needed to understand the intrusion by the spring of 2016.BURR: Let me go back, if I can, very briefly, to the decision to publicly go out with your results on the e-mail.

Was your decision influenced by the attorney general's tarmac meeting with the former president, Bill Clinton?

COMEY: Yes. In -- in an ultimately conclusive way, that was the thing that capped it for me, that I had to do something separately to protect the credibility of the investigation, which meant both the FBI and the Justice Department.

BURR: Were there other things that contributed to that that you can describe in an open session?

COMEY: There were other things that contributed to that. One significant item I can't, I know the committee's been briefed on. There's been some public accounts of it, which are nonsense, but I understand the committee's been briefed on the classified facts.

Probably the only other consideration that I guess I can talk about in an open setting is, at one point, the attorney general had directed me not to call it an investigation, but instead to call it a matter, which confused me and concerned me.

But that was one of the bricks in the load that led me to conclude, I have to step away from the department if we're to close this case credibly.

BURR: Director, my last question: You're not only a seasoned prosecutor, you've led the FBI for years. You understand the investigative process. You've worked with this committee closely, and we're grateful to you because I think we've -- we've mutually built trust in what your organization does and -- and what we do.

Is there any doubt in your mind that this committee can carry out its oversight role in the 2016 Russian involvement in the elections in parallel with the -- now -- special counsel that's been set up?

COMEY: No -- no doubt. It can be done. It requires lots of conversations, but Bob Mueller is one of this country's great, great pros. And I'm sure you all will be able to work it out with him to run it in parallel.

BURR: I want to thank you once again, and I want to turn to the vice chairman.WARNER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And, again, Director Comey, thank you for your service.

And your comments to your FBI family, I know, were heartfelt. Know that, even though there are some in the administration who've tried to smear your reputation, you had Acting Director McCabe, in public testimony a few weeks back and in public testimony yesterday, reaffirm that the vast majority of the (ph) FBI community had great trust in your leadership and, obviously, trust in your integrity.

I want to go through a number of the meetings that you referenced in your testimony. And let's start with the January 6th meeting in Trump Tower, where you went up with a series of officials to brief the president-elect on the Russia investigation. My understanding is you remained afterwards to brief him on, again, quote, "some personally sensitive aspects" of the information you relayed.

Now, you said, after that briefing, you felt compelled to document that conversation, that you actually started documenting it soon as you got into the car.

Now, you've had extensive experience at the Department of Justice and at the FBI. You've worked under presidents of both parties. What was it about that meeting that led you to determine that you needed to start putting down a written record?

COMEY: A combination of things, I think -- the circumstances, the subject matter and the person I was interacting with. Circumstances first: I was alone with the president of the United States -- or the president-elect, soon to be president.

The subject matter: I was talking about matters that touch on the FBI's core responsibility and that relate to the president -- president-elect personally.

And then the nature of the person: I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, and so I thought it really important to document.

That combination of things, I'd never experienced before, but it led me to believe I've got to write it down, and I've got to write it down in a very detailed way.

33:00 — WARNER: I think that's a very important statement you just made. And my understanding is that then, again, unlike your dealings with presidents of either parties in your past experience, in every subsequent meeting or conversation with this president, you created a written record.

Did you feel that you needed to create this written record or (ph) these memos because they might need to be relied on at some future date?

COMEY: Sure. I created records after conversations, and I think I did it after each of our nine conversations. If I didn't, I did it for nearly all of them, especially the ones that were substantive.

I knew that there might come a day when I would need a record of what had happened, not just to defend myself, but to defend the FBI and -- and our integrity as an institution and the independence of our investigative function. That's what made this so -- so difficult, is it was a combination of circumstances, subject matter, and the particular person.

WARNER: And so, in all your experience, this was the only president that you felt like, in every meeting, you needed to document, because at some point, using your words, he might put out a non-truthful representation of that meeting?

Now...

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: That's right, Senator.

And I -- I -- as I said in my written testimony, as FBI director, I interacted with President Obama. I spoke only twice in three years, and didn't document it. When I was deputy attorney general, I had one one-on-one meeting with President Bush about a very important and difficult national security matter.

I didn't write a memo documenting that conversation either -- sent a quick e-mail to my staff to let them know there was something going on, but I didn't feel, with President Bush, the need to document it in that way, again (ph), because of -- the combination of those factors just wasn't present with either President Bush or President Obama.

WARNER: I -- I think that is very significant. I think others will probably question that.

Now, our chairman and I have requested those memos. It is our hope that the FBI will get this committee access to those memos so that, again, we can read that contemporaneous rendition, so that we've got your side of the story.

Now, I know members have said, and press has said, that if you were -- a great deal's been made of whether the president -- you were asked to, in effect, indicate whether the president was the subject of any investigation.

And my understanding is, prior to your meeting on January 6th, you discussed with your leadership team whether or not you should be prepared to assure then President-Elect Trump that the FBI was not investigating him personally.

Now, my understanding is your leadership team agreed with that. But was that a unanimous decision? Was there any debate about that?COMEY: Was it unanimous? One of the members of the leadership team had a view that, although it was technically true, we did not have a counterintelligence file case open on then-President-elect Trump.

His concern was, because we're looking at the potential -- again, that's the subject of the investigation -- coordination between the campaign and Russia, because it was President Trump -- President-elect Trump's campaign, this person's view was, inevitably, his behavior, his conduct will fall within the scope of that work.

And so he was reluctant to make the statement that I made. I disagreed. I thought it was fair to say what was literally true: There is not a counterintelligence investigation of Mr. Trump. And I decided, in the moment, to say it, given the nature of our conversation.

WARNER: At that moment in time, did you ever revisit that as a -- in -- in these subsequent sessions?

COMEY: With the FBI leadership team?

WARNER: With the team -- with your (ph) team.

COMEY: Sure, and -- and the -- the leader who had that view -- it didn't change. His view was still that it was probably -- although literally true, his concern was it could be misleading, because the nature of the investigation was such that it might well touch -- obviously, it would touch the campaign, and the person at the head of the campaign would be the candidate. And so that was his view throughout.

39:45 — WARNER: Let me move to the January 27th dinner, where you said, quote, "The president began by asking me whether I wanted to stay on as FBI director. He also indicated that lots of people" -- again, your words -- "wanted the job."

You go on to say that the dinner itself was seemingly an effort to, quote, "have you ask him for your job," and create some sort of, quote/unquote, "patronage relationship."

The president's (ph) -- seems, from my reading of your memo, to be holding your job, or your possibility of continuing in your job, over your head in a fairly direct way. What was your impression, and what did you mean by this notion of a patronage relationship? COMEY: Well, my impression -- and, again, it's my impression. I could always be wrong. But my common sense told me that what was going on is either he had concluded, or someone had told him, that you didn't -- you've already asked Comey to stay, and you didn't get anything for it, and that the dinner was an effort to build a relationship -- in fact, he asked specifically -- of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay.

And, as I said, what was odd about that is we'd already talked twice about it by that point. And he'd said, I very much hope you'll stay, I hope you'll stay.

In fact, I just remembered, sitting here, a third one. When -- you've seen the picture of me walking across the Blue Room. And what the president whispered in my ear was, "I really look forward to working with you." So, after those encounters...

WARNER: And that was just a few days before you were fired.

COMEY: ... yeah, that was on the 20 -- the Sunday after the inauguration.

The next Friday, I have dinner, and the president begins by wanting to talk about my job. And so I'm sitting there, thinking, wait a minute, three times, we've already -- you've already asked me to stay, or talked about me staying.COMEY: And my common sense -- again, I could be wrong, but my common sense told me what's going on here is that he's looking to get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job.

WARNER: And again, we all understand -- I was a governor, I had people work for me. But this constant request -- and, again, quoting you, him saying that he -- despite you explaining your independence, he kept coming back to "I need loyalty." "I expect loyalty."

Had you ever had any of those kind of requests before, from anyone else you'd worked for in the government?

COMEY: No, and what made me uneasy was I'm, at that point, the director of the FBI. The reason that Congress created a ten-year term is so that the director is not feeling as if they're serving at -- with political loyalty owed to any particular person.

The -- the statue of Justice has a blindfold on because you're not supposed to be peeking out to see whether your patron is pleased or not with what you're doing.

It should be about the facts and the law. That's why I was -- that's why I became FBI director: to be in that kind of position. So that's why I was so uneasy.

WARNER: Well, let me -- let me move on. My time's running out. February 14th -- again, it seems a bit strange. You were in a meeting. And your direct superior, the attorney general, was in that meeting, as well.

Yet the president asked everyone to leave, including the attorney general -- to leave, before he brought up the matter of General Flynn. What was your impression of that type of action? Had you ever seen anything like that before?

COMEY: No. My impression was, something big is about to happen. I need to remember every single word that is spoken. And, again, I could be wrong, but I'm 56 years old. I've been -- seen a few things.

My sense was the attorney general knew he shouldn't be leaving, which is why he was lingering. And I don't know Mr. Kushner well, but I think he picked up on the same thing. And so I knew something was about to happen that I needed to pay very close attention to.WARNER: And I -- I found it very interesting that, in the memo that you wrote after this February 14th pull-aside, you made clear that you wrote that memo in a way that was unclassified.

If you affirmatively made the decision to write a memo that was unclassified, was that because you felt, at some point, the facts of that meeting would have to come clean and come clear and actually be able to be cleared in a way that could be shared with the American people?

40:50 — COMEY: Well, I remember thinking, this is a very disturbing development, really important to our work. I need to document it and preserve it in a way -- and -- and this committee gets this, but sometimes when things are classified, it tangles them up. It's hard...

WARNER: Amen.

COMEY: ... to share it within an investigative team. It's -- you have to be very careful about how you handle it, for good reason.

So my thinking was, if I write it in such a way that I don't include anything that would trigger a classification, that'll make it easier for us to discuss, within the FBI and the government, and to -- to hold on to it in a way that makes it accessible to us.

WARNER: Well, again, it's our hope, particularly since you're a pretty knowledgeable guy and you wrote this in a way that was unclassified, that this committee will get access to that unclassified document. I think it'll be very important to our investigation.

Let me just ask this in closing: How many ongoing investigations, at any time, does the FBI have going on?

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: Tens of thousands.

WARNER: Tens of thousands. Did the president ever ask about any other ongoing investigation?

COMEY: No.

WARNER: Did he ever ask about you trying to interfere on any other investigation?

COMEY: No.

WARNER: I think, again, this speaks volumes. This doesn't even get to the questions around the -- the phone calls about lifting the cloud. I know other members will get to that, but I really appreciate your testimony and appreciate your service to our nation.

COMEY: Thank you, Senator Warner.

You know, I just -- I'm sitting here, going through my contacts with him. I had one conversation with the president that was classified, where he asked about our -- an ongoing intelligence investigation. It was brief and entirely professional.

WARNER: But he didn't ask you to take any specific action on that...

COMEY: No, no.

WARNER: ... unlike what he had done vis-a-vis Mr. Flynn and the overall Russia investigation?

COMEY: Correct.

WARNER: Thank you, sir.

BURR: Senator Risch?

SEN. JAMES RISCH (R-Idaho): Thank you very much.

Mr. Comey, thank you for your service. America needs more like you, and we really appreciate it.

RISCH: Yesterday, I got, and everybody got, the seven pages of your direct testimony that's now a part of the record, here. And the first -- I read it, then I read it again, and all I could think was, number one, how much I hated the class of legal writing when I was in law school.

And you were the guy that probably got the A, after -- after reading this. So I -- I find it clear, I find it concise and, having been a prosecutor for a number of years and handling hundred -- maybe thousands of cases and read police reports, investigative reports, this is as good as it gets.

And -- and I really appreciate that -- not only -- not only the conciseness and the clearness of it, but also the fact that you have things that were written down contemporaneously when they happened, and you actually put them in quotes, so we know exactly what happened and we're -- and we're not getting some rendition of it that -- that's in your mind. So...

COMEY: Thank you, Senator.

RISCH: ... so you're -- you're to be complimented for that.

COMEY: I had great parents and great teachers who beat that into me.

(CROSSTALK)

RISCH: That's obvious, sir.

The -- the chairman walked you through a number of things that -- that the American people need to know and want to know. Number one, obviously we're -- all know about the active measures that the Russians have taken.

I think a lot of people were surprised at this. Those of us that work in the intelligence community didn't -- it didn't come as a surprise. But now, the American people know this, and it's good they know this, because this is serious and it's a problem.

I -- I think, secondly, I gather from all this that you're willing to say now that, while you were director, the president of the United States was not under investigation. Is that a fair statement?

COMEY: That's correct.

RISCH: All right. So that's a fact that we can rely at this...

COMEY: Yes, sir.

RISCH: ... OK.

On -- I remember, you -- you talked with us shortly after February 14th, when the New York Times wrote an article that suggested that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians. You remember reading that article when it first came out?

COMEY: I do. It was about allegedly extensive electronic surveillance...

RISCH: Correct.

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: ... communications. Yes, sir.

RISCH: And -- and that upset you to the point where you actually went out and surveyed the intelligence community to see whether -- whether you were missing something in that. Is that correct?

COMEY: That's correct. I want to be careful in open setting. But...

RISCH: I -- I'm -- I'm not going to any further than that with it.

COMEY: OK.

RISCH: So thank you.

In addition to that, after that, you sought out both Republican and Democrat senators to tell them that, hey, I don't know where this is coming from, but this is not the -- this is not factual. Do you recall that?

COMEY: Yes.

RISCH: OK. So -- so, again, so the American people can understand this, that report by the New York Times was not true. Is that a fair statement?COMEY: In -- in the main, it was not true. And, again, all of you know this, maybe the American people don't. The challenge -- and I'm not picking on reporters about writing stories about classified information, is that people talking about it often don't really know what's going on.

And those of us who actually know what's going on are not talking about it. And we don't call the press to say, hey, you got that thing wrong about this sensitive topic. We just have to leave it there.

I mentioned to the chairman the nonsense around what influenced me to make the July 5th statement. Nonsense, but I can't go explaining how it's nonsense.

RISCH: Thank you.

All right. So -- so those three things, we now know, regarding the active measures, whether (ph) the president's under investigation and the collusion between the -- the Russian -- the Trump campaign and the Russians.

I -- I want to drill right down, as my time is limited, to the most recent dust-up regarding allegations that the president of the United States obstructed justice. And, boy, you nailed this down on page 5, paragraph 3. You put this in quotes -- words matter.

You wrote down the words so we can all have the words in front of us now. There's 28 words there that are in quotes, and it says, quote, "I hope" -- this is the president speaking -- "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

Now those are his exact words, is that correct?

COMEY: Correct.

RISCH: And you wrote them here, and you put them in quotes?

COMEY: Correct.

RISCH: Thank you for that. He did not direct you to let it go.

COMEY: Not in his words, no.

RISCH: He did not order you to let it go.

COMEY: Again, those words are not an order.

RISCH: He said, "I hope." Now, like me, you probably did hundreds of cases, maybe thousands of cases charging people with criminal offenses. And, of course, you have knowledge of the thousands of cases out there that -- where people have been charged.

Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or, for that matter, any other criminal offense, where this -- they said, or thought, they hoped for an outcome?

COMEY: I don't know well enough to answer. And the reason I keep saying his words is I took it as a direction.

RISCH: Right.

COMEY: I mean, this is the president of the United States, with me alone, saying, "I hope" this. I took it as, this is what he wants me to do.

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: Now I -- I didn't obey that, but that's the way I took it.

RISCH: You -- you may have taken it as a direction, but that's not what he said.

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: Correct. I -- that's why...

RISCH: He said -- he said, "I hope."

COMEY: Those are exact words, correct.

RISCH: OK, do you (ph) -- you don't know of anyone that's ever been charged for hoping something. Is that a fair statement?

COMEY: I don't, as I sit here.

RISCH: Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BURR: Senator Feinstein?

48:45 — SEN. DIAnNE FEINSTEIN (D-Calif.): Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Comey, I just want you to know that I have great respect for you. Senator Cornyn and I sit on the Judiciary Committee, so we have occasion to have you before us. And I know that you're a man of strength and integrity, and I really regret the situation that we all find ourselves in. I just want to say that.

Let me begin with one overarching question. Why do you believe you were fired?

COMEY: Guess I don't know for sure. I believe the -- I take the president at his word, that I was fired because of the Russia investigation. Something about the way I was conducting it, the president felt, created pressure on him that he wanted to relieve.

Again, I didn't know that at the time, but I watched his interview, I've read the press accounts of his conversations. So I take him at his word there.

Now, look, I -- I could be wrong. Maybe he's saying something that's not true. But I take him at his word, at least based on what I know now.

FEINSTEIN: Talk for a moment about his request that you pledge loyalty, and your response to that and what impact you believe that had.

COMEY: I -- I don't know for sure, because I don't know the president well enough to read him well. I think it was -- because our relationship didn't get off to a great start, given the conversation I had to have on January 6th, this was not -- this didn't improve the relationship, because it was very, very awkward.

He was asking for something, and I was refusing to give it. But again, I don't know him well enough to know how he reacted to that, exactly.

FEINSTEIN: Do you believe the Russia investigation played a role?

COMEY: In why I was fired?

FEINSTEIN: Yes. COMEY: Yes, because I've seen the president say so.

FEINSTEIN: OK. Let's -- let's go to the Flynn issue.

Senator Risch outlined a -- "I hope you could see your way (sic) to letting Flynn go. He's a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

But you also said, in your written remarks, and I quote, that you had "understood the president to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December," end quote.FEINSTEIN: Please go into that with more detail.

COMEY: Well, the -- the context and the president's words are what led me to that conclusion.

As I said in my statement, I could be wrong, but Flynn had been forced to resign the day before, and -- and the controversy around General Flynn at that point in time was centered on whether he had lied to the vice president about the nature of his conversations with the Russians, whether he had been candid with others in the course of that.

And so that happens on the day before. On the 14th, the president makes specific reference to that. And so that's why I understood him to be saying that what he wanted me to do was drop any investigation connected to Flynn's account of his conversations with the Russians.

51:40 — FEINSTEIN: Now, here's the question: You're big. You're strong. I know the Oval Office, and I know what happens to people when they walk in. There is a certain amount of intimidation. But why didn't you stop and say, "Mr. President, this is wrong. I cannot discuss this with you"?

COMEY: It's a great question. Maybe if I were stronger, I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that I just...

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: ... took it in. And the only thing I could think to say, because I was playing in my mind, because I could (ph) remember every word he said -- I was playing in my mind, what should my response be? And that's why I very carefully chose the words.

And, look, I -- I've seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes. I -- I remember saying, "I agree he's a good guy," as a way of saying, "I'm not agreeing with what you just asked me to do."

Again, maybe other people would be stronger in that circumstance but that -- that was -- that's how I conducted myself. I -- I hope I'll never have another opportunity. Maybe if I did it again, I would do it better.

FEINSTEIN: You described two phone calls that you received from President Trump, one on March 30 and one on April 11, where he, quote, "described the Russia investigation as a cloud that was impairing his ability," end quote, as president, and asked you, quote, "to lift the cloud," end quote.

What -- how did you interpret that? And what did you believe he wanted you to do?

COMEY: I interpreted that as he was frustrated that the Russia investigation was taking up so much time and energy, I -- I think he meant, of the executive branch, but in the -- in the public square in general, and it was making it difficult for him to focus on other priorities of his. But what he asked me was actually narrower than that.COMEY: So I think what he meant by the cloud, and again, I could be wrong, but what I think he meant by the cloud was the entire investigation is -- is taking up oxygen and making it hard for me to focus on the things I want to focus on.

The ask was to get it out that I, the president, am not personally under investigation.

FEINSTEIN: After April 11th, did he ask you more, ever, about the Russia investigation? Did he ask you any questions?

COMEY: We never spoke again after April 11th.

FEINSTEIN: You told the president, I -- I would see what we could do. What did you mean?

COMEY: Well, it (ph) was kind of a slightly cowardly way of trying to avoid telling him, we're not going to do that -- that I would see what we could do. It was a way of kind of getting off the phone, frankly. And then I turned and handed it to the acting deputy attorney general, Mr. Boente.

FEINSTEIN: So I wanted to go into that. Who did you talk with about that -- lifting the cloud, stopping the investigation -- back at the FBI, and what was their response?

COMEY: Well, the FBI, during one of the two conversations -- I'm not remembering exactly. I think the first -- my chief of staff was actually sitting in front of me, and heard my end of the conversation, because the president's call was a surprise.

And I discussed the lifting the cloud and the request with the senior leadership team, who in -- in -- typically, and I think in all these circumstances, was the deputy director, my chief of staff, the general counsel, the deputy director's chief counsel and, I think, in a number of circumstances, the number three in the FBI, and a few of the conversations included the head of the national security branch, so that group of us that lead the FBI when it comes to national security.

FEINSTEIN: OK. You have the president of the United States asking you to stop an investigation that's an important investigation. What was the response of your colleagues?COMEY: I think they were as shocked and troubled by it as I was. Some said things that led me to believe that. I don't remember exactly, but the reaction was similar to mine. They're all experienced people who had never experienced such a thing. So they were very concerned.

And then the conversation turned to about, so what should we do with this information? And that was a struggle for us, because we are the leaders of the FBI. So it's been reported to us, in that I heard it and now I've shared it with the leaders of the FBI -- our -- our conversation was, should we share this with any senior officials at the Justice Department?

Our -- our absolute primary concern was, we can't infect the investigative team. We don't want the agents and analysts working on this to know the president of the United States has -- has asked -- and when it comes from the president, I took it as a direction -- to get rid of this investigation, because we're not going to follow that -- that request.

And so we decided we gotta keep it away from our troops. But is there anybody else we ought to tell at the Justice Department? And, as I laid out in my -- in my statement, we considered whether to tell the attorney general, decided that didn't make sense because we believed, rightly, that he was shortly going to recuse.

There were no other Senate-confirmed leaders in the Justice Department at that point. The deputy attorney general was Mr. Boente, who was acting and going to be shortly in that seat. And we decided the best move would be to hold it, keep it in a box, document it as we'd already done, and then this investigation's going to go on -- figure out what to do with it down the road.

Is there way to corroborate this? Our view, at the time, was, look, it's your word against the president's. There's no way to corroborate this. That -- my view of that changed when the prospect of tapes was raised, but that's how we thought about it then.

FEINSTEIN: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BURR: Senator Rubio.

SEN MARCO RUBIO (R-Florida): Thank you.

Director Comey, the meeting in the Oval Office where he made the request about Mike Flynn -- was that the only time he asked you to hopefully let it go?

COMEY: Yes.

RUBIO: And in that meeting, as you understood it, that was -- he was asking not about the general Russia investigation, he was asking very specifically about the jeopardy that Flynn was in himself?

COMEY: That's how I understood it, yes, sir.

RUBIO: And as you perceived it, while it was a request that -- he hoped you did away with it, you perceived it as an order, given his position, the setting and the like, and some of the circumstances?

COMEY: Yes.

RUBIO: At the time, did you say anything to the president about -- that is not an appropriate request, or did you tell the White House counsel, that is not an appropriate request, someone needs to go tell the president that he can't do these things?

COMEY: I didn't, no.

RUBIO: OK. Why?

COMEY: I don't know. I think the -- as I said earlier, I think the circumstances were such that it was -- I was a bit stunned, and didn't have the presence of mind.

And I don't know -- you know, I don't want to make you -- sound like I'm Captain Courageous. I don't know whether, even if I had the presence of mind, I would have said to the president, "Sir, that's wrong." I don't know whether I would have.

RUBIO: OK.

58:20 — COMEY: But in the moment, it -- it didn't -- it didn't come to my mind. What came to my mind is, be careful what you say. And so I said, "I agree Flynn is a good guy."RUBIO: So, on the cloud -- we keep talking about this cloud -- you perceived the cloud to be the Russian investigation in general, correct?

COMEY: Yes, sir.

RUBIO: But the specific ask was that you would tell the American people what you had already told him, what you had already told the leaders of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans: that he was not personally under investigation.

COMEY: Yes, sir, that's how I...

RUBIO: In fact (ph), he was asking you to do what you have done here today.

COMEY: ... correct. Yes, sir.

RUBIO: OK. And again, at that setting, did you say to the president that it would be inappropriate for you to do so, and then talk to the White House counsel or anybody so hopefully they would talk to him and tell him that he couldn't do this?

COMEY: First time, I said, "I'll see what we can do." Second time, I explained how it should work, that the White House counsel should contact the deputy attorney general.

RUBIO: You told him that?

COMEY: The president said, OK, then I think that's what I'll do.

RUBIO: And just to be clear, for you to make a public statement that he was not under investigation would not have been illegal, but you felt it made no sense because it could potentially create a duty to correct, if circumstances changed?

COMEY: Yes, sir. We wrestled with it before my testimony where I confirmed that there was an investigation. And there were two primary concerns. One was it creates a duty to correct, which I've lived before, and you want to be very careful about doing that.

And second, it's a slippery slope, because if we say the president and the vice president aren't under investigation, what's the principled basis for -- for stopping?

RUBIO: OK. COMEY: And so the leadership at -- at justice, Acting Attorney General Boente, said, "You're not going to do that."

RUBIO: Now, on March 30th, during the phone call about General Flynn, you said he abruptly shifted and brought up something that you call, quote, unquote, "the McCabe thing." Specifically, the McCabe thing, as you understood it, was that McCabe's wife had received campaign money from what I assume means Terry McAuliffe...

COMEY: Yes, sir.

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: ... who (ph) was very close to the Clintons. And -- and so why did you -- had the president at any point in time expressed to you concern, opposition, potential opposition to McCabe? "I don't like this guy because he got money from someone this close to Clinton?"COMEY: He had asked me, during previous conversations, about Andy McCabe, and said, in essence, "How's he going to be with me as president? I was pretty rough on them (ph) on the campaign trail." And...

RUBIO: He was rough on McCabe?

COMEY: ... he was -- by his own account, he said he was rough on McCabe and Mrs. McCabe on the campaign trail -- how's he going to be? And I assured the president, Andy is a total pro. No issue at all. You got to know the people of the FBI, they are not...

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: So -- so, when the president turns to you and says, "Remember, I never brought up the McCabe thing because you said he was a good guy," did you perceive that to be a statement that -- I took care of you, I -- I didn't do something because you told me he was a good guy. So now, you know, I'm asking you, potentially, for something in return? Is that how you perceived it?

COMEY: I wasn't sure what to make of it, honestly. That's possible, but it -- it was so out of context that I didn't have a clear view of what it was.

RUBIO: Now, on a number of occasions here, you bring up -- let's talk (ph) now about the general Russia investigation, OK? In page 6 of your testimony, you say -- the first thing you say is, he asked what we could do to, quote/unquote, "lift the cloud," the general Russia investigation.

And you responded that we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could and that there would be great benefit, if we didn't find anything, to having done the work well. And he agreed. He reemphasized the problems it was causing him, but he agreed.

So, in essence, the president agreed with your statement that it would be great if we could have an investigation, all the facts came out and we found nothing. So he agreed that that would be ideal, but this cloud is still messing up my ability to do the rest of my agenda. Is that an accurate assessment of...

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: Yes, sir. He actually went farther than that. He -- he said, "And if some of my satellites did something wrong, it'd be good to find that out."

RUBIO: Well, that's the second part, and that is the satellites. He said, "If (ph) one of my satellites" -- I imagine, by that, he meant some of the other people surrounding his campaign -- "did something wrong, it would be great to know that, as well"?

COMEY: Yes, sir. That's what he said.

RUBIO: So are those the other -- are those the only two instances in which that sort of back-and-forth happened, where the president was basically saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, it's OK, do the Russia investigation. I hope it all comes out. I have nothing to do with anything Russia. It'd be great if it all came out, if people around me were doing things that were wrong.

COMEY: Yes. As I -- I recorded it accurately there. That was the sentiment he was expressing. Yes, sir.

RUBIO: So what it basically (ph) comes down to is the president has asked three things of you. He asked for your loyalty, and you said you would be loyally honest.

COMEY: Honestly loyal.

RUBIO: Honestly loyal. The -- the -- he asked you, on one occasion, to let the Mike Flynn thing go because he was a good guy -- but (ph) you're aware that he said the exact same thing in the press the next day. "He's a good guy," "He's been treated unfairly," et cetera, et cetera. So I imagine your FBI agents read that.

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: I'm sure they did.

RUBIO: Your -- the president's wishes were known to them, certainly, by the next day, when he had a press conference with the prime minister.RUBIO: But going back, the three requests were; number one, be loyal; number two, let the Mike Flynn thing go, he's a good guy, he's been treated unfairly; and, number three, can you please tell the American people what these leaders in Congress already know, what you already know, what you've told me three times -- that I'm not under -- personally under investigation?

COMEY: Those are the three things he asked. Yes, sir.

63:40 — RUBIO: You know, this investigation is full of leaks, left and right. I mean, we've learned more from the newspapers sometimes than we do from our open hearings, for sure.

You ever wonder why, of all the things in this investigation, the only thing that's never been leaked is the fact that the president was not personally under investigation, despite the fact that both Democrats and Republicans in (ph) the leadership of Congress knew that, and have known that for weeks?

COMEY: I don't know. I find matters that are briefed to the Gang of Eight are pretty tightly held, in my experience.

RUBIO: Finally, who are those senior leaders at the FBI that you shared these conversations with?

COMEY: As I said in response to Senator Feinstein's question, deputy director, my chief of staff, general counsel, the deputy director's chief counsel, and then, more often than not, the number three person at the FBI, who is the associate deputy director, and then, quite often, the head of the national security branch.

BURR: Senator Wyden.

64:35 — WYDEN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Comey, welcome. You and I have had significant policy differences over the years, particularly protecting Americans' access to secure encryption. But I believe the timing of your firing stinks.

And yesterday, you put on the record testimony that demonstrates why the odor of presidential abuse of power is so strong.

Now, to my questions. In talking to Senator Warner about this dinner that you had with president, I believe, January 27th, all in one dinner, the president raised your job prospects, he asked for your loyalty and denied allegations against him -- all took place over one supper.

WYDEN: Now, you told Senator Warner that the president was looking to, quote, "get something." Looking back, did that dinner suggest that your job might be contingent on how you handled the investigation?

COMEY: I don't know that I'd go that far. I -- I got the sense my job would be contingent upon how he felt I -- excuse me -- how he felt I conducted myself and whether I demonstrated loyalty. But I don't know whether I'd go so far as to connect it to the investigation (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

WYDEN: You said the president was trying to create some sort of patronage relationship. In a patronage relationship isn't the underling expected to behave in a manner consistent with the wishes of the boss?

COMEY: Yes.

WYDEN: OK.

COMEY: Or at least consider how what you're doing will affect the boss as a significant consideration.

WYDEN: Let me turn to the Attorney General. In your statement, you said that you and the FBI leadership team decided not to discuss the president's actions with Attorney General Sessions, even though he had not recused himself.

What was it about the Attorney General's own interactions with the Russians, or his behavior with regard to the investigation, that would have led the entire leadership of the FBI to make this decision?

COMEY: Our judgment, as I recall, was that he was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons. We also were aware of facts that I can't discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic.

And so we were -- we were convinced -- and, in fact, I think we had already heard that the career people were recommending that he recuse himself -- that he was not going to be in contact with Russia- related matters much longer, and that turned out to be the case.

WYDEN: How would you characterize Attorney General Sessions's adherence to his recusal, in particular with regard to his involvement in your firing, which the president has acknowledged was because of the Russian investigation?

COMEY: That's a question I can't answer. I think it's a reasonable question. If -- if, as the president said, I was fired because of the Russia investigation, why was the attorney general involved in that chain? I don't know, and so I don't have an answer for the question.

WYDEN: Your testimony was that the president's request about Flynn could infect the investigation. Had the president got what he wanted and what he asked of you, what would have been the effect on the investigation?COMEY: Well we would have closed any investigation of General Flynn in connection with his statements and encounter -- statements about and encounters (ph) with Russians in the late part of December.

WYDEN: Well...

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: So we -- we would have dropped an open criminal investigation.

WYDEN: So, in effect, when you talk about infecting the enterprise, you would have dropped something major that would have spoken to the overall ability of the American people to get the facts?

COMEY: Correct. And -- and, as good as our people are, our judgment was we don't want them hearing that the president of the United States wants this to go away, because it might have an effect of their ability to be fair and impartial and aggressive.

WYDEN: Now, the -- Acting Attorney General Yates found out that Michael Flynn could be blackmailed by the Russians, and she went immediately to warn the White House.

Flynn is gone, but other individuals with contacts with the Russians are still in extremely important positions of power. Should the American people have the same sense of urgency now, with respect to them?

COMEY: I think all I can say, Senator, is it's a -- the special counsel's investigation is very important. Understanding what efforts there were or are by the Russian government to influence our government is a critical part of the FBI's mission, so -- and you've got the right person in Bob Mueller to lead it.

So it's a very important piece of work.

WYDEN: Vice President Pence was the head of the transition. To your knowledge, was he aware of the concerns about Michael Flynn prior to or during General Flynn's tenure as national security adviser?

COMEY: I don't -- you're asking -- including up to the time when Flynn was...

WYDEN: Right (ph). COMEY: ... forced to resign? My understanding is that he was, and I'm trying to remember where I get that understanding from -- I think from Acting Attorney General Yates.

WYDEN: So former Acting Attorney General Yates testified that concerns about General Flynn were discussed with the intelligence community. Would that have included anyone at the CIA or Dan Coats' office at the DNI?COMEY: I would assume yes.

WYDEN: Michael Flynn resigned four days after Attorney General Sessions was sworn in. Do you know if the attorney general was aware of the concerns about Michael Flynn during that period?

COMEY: I don't, as I sit here -- I don't -- I don't recall that he was. I could be wrong, but I don't remember that he was.

WYDEN: And, finally, let's see if you can give us some sense of who recommended your firing. Besides the letters from the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, do you have any information on who may have recommended or have been involved in your firing?

COMEY: I don't. I don't.

WYDEN: OK (ph).

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BURR: Senator Collins.

COLLINS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Comey, let me begin by thanking you for your voluntary compliance with our request to appear before this committee, and it's discussing (ph) this very important investigation.

I want, first, to ask you about your conversations with the president, the three conversations in which you told him that he was not under investigation.

The first was during your January 6th meeting, according to your testimony, in which it appears that you actually volunteered that assurance. Is that correct?

COMEY: That's correct.

COLLINS: Did you limit that statement to counterintelligence investigations, or were you talking about any kind of FBI investigation?

COMEY: I didn't -- I didn't use the term "counterintelligence." I was speaking to him, and briefing him about some salacious and unverified material. It was in the context of that that he had a strong and defensive reaction about that not being true. And my reading of it was it was important for me to assure him we were not personally investigating him. And so the context then was actually narrower, focused on what I had just talked to him about.

It was very important because it was, first, true. And second, I was worried very much about being in kind of a -- kind of a J. Edgar Hoover-type situation. I didn't want him thinking that I was briefing him on this to sort of hang it over him in some way. I was briefing him on it because we were (ph) -- had been told by the media it was about to launch. We didn't want to be keeping that from him.COMEY: And if there was some -- he needed to know this was being said. But I was very keen not to leave him with an impression that the bureau was trying to do something to him. And so that's the context in which I said, "Sir, we're not personally investigating you."

COLLINS: And then, on -- and that's why you volunteered the information...

COMEY: Yes, ma'am.

COLLINS: ... correct?

Then, on the January 27th dinner, you show -- you told the president that he should be careful about asking you to investigate, because, quote, "You might create a narrative that we are investigating him personally," which we weren't.

Again, were you limiting that statement to counterintelligence investigations, or more broadly, such as a criminal investigation?

COMEY: The context was very similar. I didn't -- I didn't modify the word "investigation." It was -- again, he was reacting strongly again to that unverified material, saying, "I'm tempted to order you to investigate it." And that -- in the context of that, I said "Sir, you want to be careful about that, because it might create a narrative we're investigating you personally."

COLLINS: And then there was the March 30th phone call in -- with the president, in which you reminded him that congressional leaders have been briefed that we were not personally -- the FBI was not personally investigating President Trump.

And again, was that statement to congressional leaders and to the president limited to counterintelligence investigations? Or was it a broader statement?

(CROSSTALK)

74:45 — COLLINS: I'm trying to understand whether there was any kind of investigation of the president under way.

COMEY: No. I'm sorry, and -- and if I misunderstood, I apologize. We briefed the congressional leadership about what Americans we had opened counterintelligence investigation cases on, and we specifically said the president is not one of those Americans, but -- that there was no other investigation of the president that we were not mentioning at that time.

What (ph) -- the context was counterintelligence, but I wasn't trying to hide some criminal investigation of the president.COLLINS: And was the president under investigation at the time of your dismissal on May 9th?

COMEY: No.

COLLINS: I'd like to now turn to the conversations with the president about Michael Flynn, which have been discussed at great length. And, first, let me make very clear that the president never should have cleared the room, and he never should have asked you, as you reported, to let it go -- to let the investigation go.

But I remain puzzled by your response. Your response was, "I agree that Michael Flynn is a good guy." You could have said, "Mr. President, this meeting is inappropriate. This response could compromise the investigation. You should not be making such a request."

It's fundamental to the operation of our government that the FBI be insulated from this kind of political pressure. And you've talked a bit today about that you were stunned by the president making the request.

But my question to you is, later on, upon reflection, did you go to anyone at the Department of Justice and ask them to call the White House counsel's office and explain that the president had to have a far better understanding and appreciation of his role vis-a-vis the FBI?

COMEY: In general, I did. I spoke to the attorney general, and I spoke to the new deputy attorney general, Mr. Rosenstein, when he took office, and explained my serious concern about the way in which the president is interacting, especially with the FBI.

And I specifically, as I said my testimony, asked the -- told the attorney general, it can't happen that you get kicked out of the room and the president talks to me.

Look, in the room -- and -- and -- but why didn't we raise the specific (ph)? It was of investigative interest us to try and figure out, so -- what just happened with the president's request. So I would not have wanted to alert the White House that it had happened until we figured out, what are we going to do with this investigatively?

COLLINS: Your testimony was that you went to Attorney General Sessions and said, "Don't ever leave me alone with him again." Are you saying that you also told him that he had made a request that you let it go, with regard to part of the investigation of Michael Flynn?

COMEY: No, I specifically did not. I did not.COLLINS: OK, you mentioned that, from your very first meeting with the president, you decided to write a memo memorializing the conversation. What was it about that very first meeting that made you write a memo, when you had not done that with two previous presidents?

COMEY: As I said, a combination of things. A gut feeling is an important overlay on it (ph). But the circumstances -- that I was alone, the subject matter, and the nature of the person that I was interacting with and my read of that person.

(UNKNOWN): The nature of that person (ph)?

78:40 — COMEY: Yeah, and -- and -- and, really, just a gut feel, laying on top of all of that, that this -- it's going to be important, to protect this organization, that I make records of this.

COLLINS: And finally, did you show copies of your memos to anyone outside of the Department of Justice?

COMEY: Yes.

COLLINS: And to whom did you show copies?

79:18 — COMEY: I asked -- the president tweeted on Friday, after I got fired, that I better hope there's not tapes. I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, because it didn't dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation. There might be a tape.

And my judgment was, I needed to get that out into the public square. And so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn't do it myself, for a variety of reasons. But I asked him to, because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. And so I asked a close friend of mine to do it.

COLLINS: And was that Mr. Wittes?

COMEY: No, no.

COLLINS: Who was that?

COMEY: A good friend of mine who's a professor at Columbia Law School.

Related: Who Is Daniel Richman, the Columbia Professor Who Leaked Comey’s Trump Memo?

COLLINS: Thank you. BURR: Senator Heinrich?

HEINRICH: Mr. Comey, prior to January 27th of this year, have you ever had a one-on-one meeting or -- or a private dinner with a president of the United States?

COMEY: No, I met -- dinner, no. I had two one-on-ones with President Obama that I laid out in my testimony: once, to talk about law enforcement issues -- law enforcement and race, which was an important topic throughout for me and for the president; and then once, very briefly, for him to say goodbye.

HEINRICH: Were those brief interactions?

COMEY: No. The one about law enforcement and race in policing, we spoke for probably over an hour, just the two of us.

HEINRICH: How unusual is it to have a -- a one-on-one dinner with the president? Did that strike you as odd?COMEY: Yeah, so much so that I assumed there would be others -- that he couldn't possibly be having dinner with me alone.

HEINRICH: If -- do you have an impression that, if you had found -- if you had behaved differently in that dinner -- and I am quite pleased that you did not -- but if you had found a way to express some sort of expression of loyalty, or given some suggestion that the Flynn criminal investigation might be pursued less vigorously, do you think you would've still been fired?

COMEY: I don't know. I -- it's impossible to say, looking back. I don't know.

HEINRICH: But you felt like those two things were -- were directly relevant to your -- the kind of relationship that the president was seeking to establish with you?

COMEY: Sure, yes.

HEINRICH: The -- the president has repeatedly talked about the Russian investigation into the U.S. -- or the Russian -- Russia's involvement in the U.S. election cycle as a hoax and as fake news.

Can you talk a little bit about what you saw as FBI director -- and, obviously, only the parts that you can share in this setting -- that -- that demonstrate how serious this action actually was, and why there was an investigation in the first place?

COMEY: Yes, sir.

The -- there should be no fuzz on this whatsoever. The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle. They did it with purpose. They did it with sophistication. They did it with overwhelming technical efforts. And it was an active-measures campaign driven from the top of that government. There is no fuzz on that.

It is a high-confidence judgment of the entire intelligence community, and -- and the members of this committee have -- have seen the intelligence. It's not a close call. That happened. That's about as un-fake as you can possibly get, and is very, very serious, which is why it's so refreshing to see a bipartisan focus on that, because this is about America, not about any particular party.

HEINRICH: So that was a hostile act by the Russian government against this country? COMEY: Yes, sir.

HEINRICH: Did the president, in any of those interactions that you've shared with us today, ask you what you should be doing, or what our government should be doing, or the intelligence community, to protect America against Russian interference in our election system?COMEY: I don't recall a conversation like that.

HEINRICH: Never?

COMEY: No.

HEINRICH: Do you -- do you find it odd...

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: Not with -- not with -- not with President Trump.

HEINRICH: Right.

COMEY: I attended a fair number of meetings on that with President Obama.

83:30 — HEINRICH: Do you find it odd that the president seemed unconcerned by Russia's actions in our election?

COMEY: I -- I can't answer that, because I don't know what other conversations he had with other advisers or other intelligence community leaders. So I -- I -- I just don't know, sitting here.

Related: James Comey Testimony: Here Are 9 Key Moments from the Hearing

HEINRICH: Did you have any interactions with the president that suggested he was taking that hostile action seriously?

COMEY: I don't remember any interactions with the president, other than the initial briefing on January the 6th. I don't remember -- could be wrong, but I don't remember any conversations with him at all about that.

HEINRICH: As you're very aware, it was only the two of you in the room for that dinner. You've told us the president asked you to back off the Flynn investigation. The president told a reporter...

COMEY: Not in that dinner.

HEINRICH: Fair enough -- told the (ph) reporter he did -- never did that. You've testified that the president asked for your loyalty in that dinner. The White House denies that. A lot of this comes down to, who should we believe? Do you want to say anything as to why we should believe you?

84:45 — COMEY: Probably (ph) -- my mother raised me not to say things like this about myself, so not I'm going to. I think people should look at the whole body of my testimony, because, as I used to say to juries, and when I talked about a witness, you can't cherry-pick it. You can't say, "I like these things he said, but on this, he's a -- he's a dirty, rotten liar."

HEINRICH: Right.

COMEY: You got to take it all together. And I've tried to be open and fair and transparent and accurate. A really significant fact to me is, so why did he kick everybody out of the Oval Office?

Why would you kick the attorney general, the president (ph), the chief of staff out, to talk to me, if it was about something else? And so that -- that, to me, is -- as an investigator, is a very significant fact.

HEINRICH: And as we look at -- at testimony, or as -- communication from both of you, we should probably be looking for consistency.COMEY: Well, in looking at any witness, you look at consistency, track record, demeanor, record over time, that sort of thing.

HEINRICH: Thank you.

So there are reports that the incoming Trump administration, either during the transition and/or after the inauguration, attempted to set up a sort of back-door communication channel with the Russian government using their infrastructure, their devices or facilities.

What would be the risks particularly for a transition, someone not actually in the office of the president yet, to setting up unauthorized channels with a hostile foreign government, especially if they were to evade our own American intelligence services?

COMEY: I'm not going to comment on whether that happened in an open setting. But the risk is -- primary risk is obvious: you spare the Russians the cost and effort of having to break into our communications channels by using theirs.

And so you make it a whole lot easier for them to capture all of your conversations, and then to use those to the benefit of Russia against the United States.

87:47 — HEINRICH: The memos that you wrote -- you wrote, did you write all nine of them in a way that was designed to prevent them from needing classification?

COMEY: No. And -- and, on a few of the occasions, I wrote -- I sent e-mails to my chief of staff or others on some of the brief phone conversations that I recall. The first one was a classified briefing.

Although it wasn't in a SCIF, it was in a conference room at Trump Tower. It was a classified briefing and so I wrote that on a classified device. The one I started typing...

HEINRICH: Got you.

COMEY: ... in the car -- that was a classified laptop that I started working on.

HEINRICH: Any reason, in a classified environment, in a SCIF, that this committee would -- it would not be appropriate to see those communications, from -- at least from your perspective as the author?

COMEY: No. HEINRICH: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BURR: Senator Blunt.

BLUNT: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Comey, when you were terminated at the FBI, I said, and still continue to feel, that you have provided years of great service to the country.

I also said that I'd had significant questions, over the last year, about some of the decision you made. If -- if the president hadn't terminated your service, would you still be, in your opinion, the director of the FBI today?

COMEY: Yes, sir.

BLUNT: So you took as a direction from the president something that you thought was serious and troublesome, but continued to show up for work the next day?COMEY: Yes, sir.

BLUNT: And, six weeks later we're still telling the -- we're telling the president, on March the 30th, that he was not personally the target of any investigation?

COMEY: Correct. On March the 30th, and I think again on -- I think on April 11th as well, I told him we're not investigating him personally. That was true.

BLUNT: Well, the point to me -- the concern to me there is that all these things are going on. You, now, in retrospect -- or at you, now, to this committee -- that these were -- you had serious concerns about what the president had, you believed, directed you to do, and had taken no action -- hadn't even reported up the chain of command, assuming you believe there is an "up the chain of command," that these things had happened.

Do you have a sense of that, looking back, that that was a mistake?

COMEY: No. In fact, I think no action was the most important thing I could do to make sure there was no interference with the investigation.

BLUNT: And on the -- on the Flynn issue specifically, I believe you said earlier that you believed the president was suggesting you drop any investigation of Flynn's account of his conversation with the Russian ambassador, which was essentially misleading the vice president and others?

COMEY: Correct, and -- and I'm not going to go into the details, but whether there were false statements made to government investigators, as well.

BLUNT: The -- any suggestion that the -- that General Flynn had violated the Logan Act, I always find pretty incredible. The Logan Act's been on the books for over 200 years. Nobody's ever been prosecuted for violating the Logan Act.

My sense would be that the discussion -- not the problem -- misleading investigators or the vice president might have been.

COMEY: That's fair. Yes, sir.

BLUNT: And -- and you're -- had you previously, on February the 14th, discussed with the president, in the previous meeting, anything your investigators had learned, or their impressions from talking to Flynn?

COMEY: No, sir.

BLUNT: So he said, "He's a good guy." You said, "He's a good guy." And that was -- no further action taken on that?

COMEY: Well, he said more than that. But there was no -- the action was I wrote it up, briefed our senior team, tried to figure out what to do with it and just (ph) made a decision, we're going to hold this and then see what we make of it down the road.COMEY: Yes, sir.

BLUNT: Was it your view that not briefing up (ph) meant you really had no responsibility to report that to the Justice Department in some way?

COMEY: I think, at some point -- and -- and I don't know what Director Mueller is going to do with it, but at some point I was sure we were going to brief it to the team in charge of the case.

But our judgment was, in the short term, doesn't make sense to -- no fuzz on the fact that I reported it to the attorney general. That's why I stressed he shouldn't be kicked out of the room. But -- didn't make sense to report to him now.

BLUNT: You know, you said the attorney general said (ph), "I don't want to be in the room with him alone again," but you continued to talk to him on the phone. What is the difference in being in the room alone with him and talking to him on the phone alone?

COMEY: Yeah, I think that what I stressed (ph) to the attorney general was a little broader than just the room. I said "You -- I report to you. It's very important you be between me and the White House, between..."

(CROSSTALK)

BLUNT: After that discussion with the attorney general, did you take phone calls from the president?

COMEY: Yes, sir.

BLUNT: So why did you just say you need to talk to -- why didn't you say, "I'm not taking that call. You need to talk to the attorney general"?

COMEY: Well, I -- I did, on the April 11th call, and I reported the calls -- the March 30th call and the April 11th call -- to my superior, who was the acting deputy attorney general.

BLUNT: I -- I don't want to run out of time here. Let me make one other point.

In reading your testimony, January the 3rd, January the 27th and March the 30th -- it appears to me that, on all three of those occasions, you, unsolicited by the president, made the point to him that he was not a target of the -- of an investigation.

COMEY: Correct. Yes, sir.

BLUNT: One, I thought the March 30th very interesting. You said, well, even though you don't want -- you may not want us -- that was the 27th, where he said, "Why don't you look into that dossier thing more?" You said, "Well, you may not want that, because then we couldn't tell you -- couldn't say with -- we couldn't answer the question about you being a target of the investigation."

But you didn't seem to be answering that question anyhow. As Senator Rubio pointed out, the one unanswered, unleaked question seems to have been that, in this whole period of time.

But you said something earlier I don't want to fail to follow up on. You said, after you were dismissed, you gave information to a friend so that friend could get that information into the public media.

COMEY: Correct.

BLUNT: What kind of information was that? Wasn't that (ph) -- what kind of information did you give to a friend?

COMEY: That the -- the -- the Flynn conversation, that the president asked me to let the -- the Flynn -- I'm forgetting my exact own words, but the -- the conversation in the Oval Office.BLUNT: So you didn't consider your memo or your sense of that conversation to be a government document? You consider it to be somehow your own personal document that you could share with the media as you wanted to?

COMEY: Correct. I...

BLUNT: Through a friend?

COMEY: ... I understood this to be my recollection, recorded, of my conversation with the president. As a private citizen, I felt free to share that. I thought it very important to get it out.

BLUNT: So were all of your memos that you've recorded on classified or other documents memos that might be yours as a private citizen?

COMEY: I'm sorry, I'm not following the question.

BLUNT: Well, I think you said you'd used classified -- a classified...

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: Not the classified documents. Unclassified -- I don't have any of them anymore. I gave them to the special counsel. But, yeah, my view was that the content of those unclassified -- the memorialization of those conversations was my recollection recorded.

94:15 — BLUNT: So why didn't you give those to somebody yourself, rather than give them through a third party?

COMEY: Because I was worried the media was camping at the end of my driveway at that point, and I was actually going out of town with my wife to hide, and I worried it would be like feeding seagulls at the beach...

(LAUGHTER)

...if -- if it was -- if it was I who gave it to the media. So I asked my friend, "Make sure this gets out."

BLUNT: It does seem to me that what you do there is create a source close to the former director of the FBI, as opposed to just taking responsibility yourself for saying, "Here are these records."

And, like everybody else, I have other things I'd like to get into, but I'm out of time.

COMEY: OK.

BURR: Senator King.

KING: Thank you.

First I'd like to acknowledge Senator Blumenthal and, earlier, Senator Nelson. I think the one principal thing you'll learn today, Senator, is that the chairs there are less comfortable than the chairs here. But I welcome you to the hearing.

Mr. Comey, a broad question. Was the Russian activity in the 2016 election a one-off proposition? Or is this part of a long-term strategy? Will they be back?

COMEY: Oh, it's a long-term practice of theirs. It -- it stepped up a notch in a significant way in '16. They'll be back.

KING: I think that's very important for the American people to understand, that this is -- this is very much a forward-looking investigation in terms of how do we understand what they did and how do we prevent it. Would you agree that that's a big part of our role here?COMEY: Yes, sir, and it's not a Republican thing or Democratic thing. It really is an American thing. They're going to come for whatever party they choose to try and work on behalf of. And they're -- they're not devoted to either, in my experience. They're just about their own advantage. And they will be back.

KING: That's my observation. I don't think Putin is a Republican or a Democrat. He's an opportunist.

COMEY: I think that's a fair statement.

KING: With regard to the -- several of these conversations, in his interview with Lester Holt on NBC, the president said, "I had dinner with him. He wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on." Is this an accurate statement?

COMEY: No, sir.

KING: Did you, in any way, initiate that dinner?

COMEY: No, he -- he called me at my desk at lunchtime, and asked me was I free for dinner that night. I called himself (ph) and said, "Can you come over for dinner tonight?"

And I said, "Yes, sir."

He said, "Will 6 work?" I think he said 6 first. And then he said, "I was going to invite your whole family, but we'll do that next time. I wanted (ph) you to come over. And is -- is that a good time?"

I said, "Sir, whatever works for you."

And he then said, "How about 6:30?"

And I -- I said, "Whatever works for you, sir." And then I hung up and had to call my wife and break a date with her. I was supposed to take her out to dinner that night, and (OFF-MIKE).

KING: That's one of the all-time great excuses for breaking a date.

(LAUGHTER)

COMEY: In retrospect, I would have -- I love spending time my wife. I wish I'd been there that night. (LAUGHTER)

KING: That's one question I'm not going follow up, Mr. Comey.

But, in that same interview, the president said, "In one case, I called him, and in one case, he called me." Is that an accurate statement?

COMEY: No.

KING: Did you ever call the president?

COMEY: No. I -- I might -- the only reason I'm hesitating is I think there was a least one conversation where I was asked to call the White House switchboard to be connected to him, but I -- I never initiated a communication with the president.

KING: And, in his press conference on May 18th, the president was asked whether he had urged you to shut down the investigation into Michael Flynn. The president responded, quote, "No, no. Next question." Is that an accurate statement?

COMEY: I don't believe it is.

KING: Thank you.

With regard to the question of him being under personal -- personally under investigation, does that mean that the dossier is not being reviewed or investigated or followed up on in any way?

COMEY: I obviously can't -- I can't comment either way. I can't talk in an open setting about the investigation as it was when I was the head of the FBI. And obviously it's -- it's Director Mueller's -- Bob Mueller's responsibility now, so I just -- I don't know.

KING: So clearly your statements to the president back in those -- these various times when you assured him he wasn't under investigation were as of that moment. That -- that correct, is it not?COMEY: Correct -- correct.

KING: Now, on the Flynn investigation, is it not true that Mr. Flynn was and is a central figure in this entire investigation of the relationship between the Trump campaign and the Russians?

COMEY: I can't answer that in an open setting, sir.

KING: And certainly Mr. Flynn was part of the so-called Russian investigation. Can you answer that question?

COMEY: I have to give you the same answer.

99:10 — KING: All right. We'll be having a closed session shortly, so we will follow up on that.

In terms of his comments to you about -- I think in response to Mr. Risch -- to Senator Risch, you said he said, "I hope you will hold back on that." But when you get a -- when a president of the United States in the Oval Office says something like "I hope" or "I suggest" or -- or "would you," do you take that as a -- as a -- as a directive?

COMEY: Yes. Yes, it rings in my ear as kind of, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

KING: I was just going to quote that. In 1170, December 29, Henry II said, "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?" and then, the next day, he was killed -- Thomas Becket. That's exactly the same situation. You're -- we're thinking along the same lines.

Several other questions, and these are a little bit more detailed. What do you know about the Russian bank, VEB?

COMEY: Nothing that I can talk about in an open setting. I mean, I know it...

(CROSSTALK)

KING: Well, that takes care of my next three questions.

COMEY: I know it exists. Yes, sir.

KING: You know it exists. What is the relationship of Ambassador -- the ambassador from Russia to the United States, to the Russian intelligence infrastructure? COMEY: Well, he's a diplomat who is the chief of mission at the Russian embassy, which employs a robust cohort of intelligence officers. And so, surely, he's witting of their very, very aggressive intelligence operations, at least some of it in the United States. I don't -- I don't consider him to be an intelligence officer himself. He's a diplomat.

KING: Did you ever -- did the FBI ever brief the Trump administration about the -- the advisability of interacting directly with Ambassador Kislyak?

COMEY: Look (ph), all I can say sitting here is there were a variety of defensive briefings given to the incoming administration about the counterintelligence risk.KING: Back to Mr. Flynn, would the -- would closing out the Flynn investigation have impeded the overall Russian investigation?

COMEY: No. Well, unlikely, except to the extent -- there's always a possibility, if you have a criminal case against someone and you bring in and squeeze them, you flip them, and they give you information about something else. But I saw the two as touching each other, but separate.

KING: With regard to your memos, isn't it true that in a -- in a court case, when you're weighing evidence, contemporaneous memos and contemporaneous statements to third parties are considered probative in terms of the -- the -- the validity of -- of testimony?

COMEY: Yes.

KING: Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

BURR: Senator Cotton?

Or -- excuse me, Senator Lankford?

LANKFORD: Well, Director Comey, good to see you again.

COMEY: You, too.

LANKFORD: We've had multiple opportunities to be able to visit, as everyone on this dais has. And I appreciate you and your service and what you have done for the nation for a long time, which you continue t