About an hour after former FBI Director James Comey testified Thursday before a Senate intelligence committee that President Donald Trump had assailed his character in the aftermath of his May 9 firing, Trump’s personal attorney shot back, saying the commander in chief “never, in form or substance” directed Comey to shut down the investigation of fired national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Lawyer Marc Kasowitz, speaking at a press conference at the National Press Club in D.C. to reply to the Comey testimony, slammed the former FBI chief for leaking a memo detailing a private conversation he had earlier this year with the president.
“Today, Mr. Comey admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president,” Kasowitz said in a televised statement. “We will leave it [to] the appropriate authorities to determine whether this leak should be investigated along with all those others being investigated.”
Though Kasowitz acknowledged that Trump requested Comey remain loyal to him, he insisted the president never sought to obstruct the investigation “into an attempted Russian interference” of the 2016 U.S. presidential election or suggested that Comey refrain from investigating anyone.
