House Republicans on Tuesday released a transcript of their explosive closed-door session a day earlier with fired FBI Director James Comey, who revealed during the questioning that FBI agents knew “exactly” what ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had told Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak prior to interviewing Flynn at the White House.
The 173-page transcript, which documented congressional Republicans’ second hearing with Comey this month, additionally included Comey’s explanation of why he broke normal protocol by sending two FBI agents into the White House to interview Flynn in January 2017, without involving or notifying White House lawyers.
Flynn was fired in February 2017 for misleading Vice President Mike Pence on the same topic, but was not charged with any wrongdoing related to the substance of his communications with Kislyak. And, a Washington Post article published one day before his White House interview with the agents, citing FBI sources, publicly revealed that the FBI had wiretapped Flynn’s calls and cleared him of any criminal conduct.
Mr. Gowdy. The Bureau knew that Michael Flynn was not
telling the truth. You knew that before you sent the agents over
there, right?
Mr. Comey. No, I didn’t know that.
Mr. Gowdy. What did you know?
Mr. Comey. I knew certain classified facts about the nature
of his interactions with the Russians. I knew that the Vice
President was making statements that he attributed to
conversations he’d had with Mr. Flynn that were starkly at odds
with those classified facts.
Mr. Gowdy. You had the option of going to the Vice President
and telling him that you knew for a fact what he was being told by
General Flynn was not correct. That was one option, wasn’t it?
Mr. Comey. I’m not going to answer a hypothetical. We
didn’t do that.
Mr. Gowdy. I know you didn’t, Director Comey, but it’s not
unfair to ask what your options were. If you’re concerned that someone is lying to the Vice President, one of your options is to
go tell the Vice President, “Someone’s lying to you.”
As Reported By Fox News:
Comey returned for more Capitol Hill testimony after the prior Dec. 7 session left lame-duck Republican lawmakers fuming as Comey repeatedly said “I don’t remember,” “I don’t know” and “I don’t recall” when grilled about investigations Republicans believed were aimed at hurting Trump.
The questioning covered the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s email server and how a counter-intelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election morphed into an all-encompassing probe of Trump’s inner circle, including the obtaining of FISA warrants used to spy on American citizens.