(CNN) – Former FBI director James Comey testified Thursday that he orchestrated the leak of his accounts of conversations with President Donald Trump because he thought it might lead to the appointment of a special prosecutor to lead the Russia investigation.
In one of the most revealing moments of a blockbuster Senate intelligence committee hearing, Comey said he had asked a friend at Columbia University to leak the content of one of his memos.
He said that it dawned on him that there could be corroboration of a memo that he wrote after the President tweeted that he better hope there were no White House tapes of their conversations.
“My judgment was that I needed to get that out into the public square,” he said. He added he took the step “because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
Comey at one point told Senators, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”
Comey was asked by Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton whether he believed that Trump had colluded with the Russians.
“It is a question I don’t think I should answer in an open setting,” Comey said, adding that the question would be answered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Trump administration ‘lies, plain and simple’
Comey also testified that the Trump administration “chose to defame me,” told “lies, plain and simple” and that he was “confused” by Trump saying he was fired due to the Russia probe.
“The administration chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI by saying the organization was in disarray … those were lies,” Comey said.
However, he also said that he did not believe that either Trump nor his staff had asked him to stop the Russia investigation.
He told the committee that the “shifting explanations” from the White House for why Trump fired him last month “confused” and increasingly concerned him.
At the White House, deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushed back on the idea that Trump was a liar.
“I can definitely say the President is not a liar, and I think it’s frankly insulting that question would be asked,” she said, pushing back on Comey’s testimony that he was worried the President would not tell the truth about their meetings.
Comey also revealed new details about his meeting with Trump during the transition when he briefed the President-elect on details of a salacious dossier drawn up by a former British spy that suggested that Russia had incriminating information about him. Comey said he didn’t want to create a “J. Edgar Hoover type situation” in which Trump concluded the bureau was trying to hold something over him. He said he was keen to leave the impression with Trump that the FBI was not investigating him.
Comey said he took exception to White House claims that the FBI was in disarray and that it was poorly led and had lost confidence in his leadership.
“Those were lies, plain and simple, and I am so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them, and I am so sorry that the American people were told them,” Comey said.
Comey seized center stage in a compelling national political drama as he testified that as soon as he met the President-elect during the transition, he decided to create a written record of their meetings.
“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting,” Comey said.
Comey said that he knew that one day he might need a written record of their conversations to defend himself and the FBI.
On Trump’s tapes and leaking memos
Comey said that he believed it was his right to publicize the details of what he viewed were unclassified recollections of his conversation with Trump in his role as a private citizen.
He said he asked his friend to take the action rather than doing it himself because the press was camped outside his house and it would have been like feeding “seagulls at the beach.”
He also revealed that he had now given all the memos to Mueller.
Comey said that he took the President’s expression of “hope” that he could ease off of Flynn as a directive.
He said it rang in his ears as “will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest,” paraphrasing a quote attributed to English King Henry II that courtiers took to mean he wanted the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket murdered in the year 1170.
Comey said that it had never occurred to him that there might be tapes of his conversations with Trump until the President tweeted about it.
And he called on Trump to make them public if tapes do exist.
“If he did, my feelings aren’t hurt … release all the tapes!”
