The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Thursday that memos drafted by former FBI Director James Comey about his conversations with President Trump corroborate his testimony before Congress.
In a statement Thursday night obtained by MSNBC, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said that Comey’s memos, which were sent to lawmakers Thursday night, “provide strong corroborating evidence of everything he said about President Trump.”
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Trump “wanted [Comey’s] personal loyalty,” and “wanted to end the Russia investigation” when he fired the FBI director last year, Cummings says.
“President Trump’s interference was a blatant effort to deny justice,” he added, “and Director Comey was right to document it as it happened.”
Democrats have pointed to Trump’s 2017 firing of Comey as an attempt to obstruct the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, which the special counsel office is now investigating as possible obstruction of justice.
Trump denied this week that Comey’s firing was related to the Russia investigation, apparently walking back previous comments he made to the contrary to NBC’s Lester Holt last year.
“Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!” Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
Comey is currently on a national media tour to promote his book, “A Higher Loyalty,” which hit bookstores this week and quickly rose to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list.
The Trump administration and Republicans have responded to Comey’s media tour by casting the former FBI director as dishonest, with almost a dozen lawmakers calling for the Justice Department to open criminal proceedings into Comey and others in a letter this week.