Highlights of James Comey’s Senate testimony today

Former FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee today that "It's my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation."

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During about three hours of public testimony, Comey accused President Donald Trump’s administration of spreading “lies” about him after he was fired in May.
Comey also discussed a distrust he had of the president and awkwardness he felt when they talked privately.

"I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so I thought it really important to document," Comey said. "I knew there might come a day when I might need a record of what happened not only to defend myself but to protect the FBI."

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The revelations came as Comey delivered his much anticipated first public telling of his relationship with Trump, speaking at a packed Senate intelligence committee hearing that brought Washington and parts of the country to a standstill as all eyes were glued to televisions showing the testimony.

The former director immediately dove into the heart of the fraught political controversy around his firing and whether Trump interfered in the bureau’s Russia investigation, as he elaborated on written testimony delivered Wednesday. In that testimony he had already disclosed that Trump demanded his “loyalty” and directly pushed him to “lift the cloud” of investigation by declaring publicly the president was not the target of the FBI probe into his campaign’s Russia ties.

Comey said that he declined to do so in large part because of the "duty to correct" that would be created if that situation changed. Comey also said in his written testimony that Trump, in a strange private encounter near the grandfather clock in the Oval Office, pushed him to end his investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia asked Comey the key question: "Do you believe this arises to obstruction of justice?"

"I don't know. That's Bob Mueller's job to sort that out," Comey responded, referring to the newly appointed special counsel who has taken over the Justice Department's Russia investigation.

In a startling disclosure, Comey revealed that after his firing he had actually tried to spur the special counsel's appointment by giving one of his memos about Trump to a friend of his to leak to the press.

"My judgment was I need to get that out into the public square," Comey said.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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