President Trump targeted the Justice Department in a tweet Friday, claiming that former FBI Director James Comey was being stopped from answering questions during his latest interview with Congress.
“It is being reported that Leakin’ James Comey was told by Department of Justice attorneys not to answer the most important questions,” Trump tweeted. “Total bias and corruption at the highest levels of previous Administration. Force him to answer the questions under oath!”
Trump sent the tweet just moments after Comey spoke to reporters following his interview with lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
{mosads}Lawmakers in the room with Comey said the former FBI director declined to answer some questions on the advice of FBI counsel. That move left some Republicans frustrated.
Comey told reporters after the interview that he did not believe that he shut down specific lines of questioning.
“I think you will not see that happening” in the transcript of the interview, Comey said.
A transcript of the questioning is slated to be released on Saturday, part of a deal brokered between Republicans on the committees and Comey, who had requested his hearing be made in public.
“The FBI, for understandable reasons, doesn’t want me talking about the details of the investigation that is still ongoing, it began when I was FBI director,” Comey told reporters on Friday. “So it makes sense that they don’t want me to go into those details.”
He said that line of questioning did not comprise the majority of the interview, which he said focused on his handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
A Justice Department inspector general report issued over the summer was critical of Comey for making public statements about the email probe, but found that there was no political bias influencing FBI decisions.
Republican lawmakers have for months investigated claims of bias within the Justice Department after text messages by FBI officials critical of Trump surfaced.
Other lawmakers leaving the room provided to give many specifics on what was discussed during the closed-door interview. However, they did say that Comey face questions about the anti-Trump text messages and the so-called Steele dossier that made unverified allegations about the president’s ties to Russia.
Comey will return in two weeks for a second interview with the GOP-controlled committees, as Republican lawmakers said they still have more questions.
— Morgan Chalfant contributed.