WASHINGTON — President Trump asked the F.B.I.
director, James B. Comey, to shut down the federal investigation into
Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in an
Oval Office meeting in February, according to a memo Mr. Comey wrote
shortly after the meeting.
“I hope you can let this go,” the president told Mr. Comey, according to the memo.
The
documentation of Mr. Trump’s request is the clearest evidence that the
president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and
F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and
Russia. Late Tuesday, Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican
chairman of the House Oversight Committee, demanded that the F.B.I. turn
over all “memoranda, notes, summaries and recordings” of discussions
between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey.
Such
documents, Mr. Chaffetz wrote, would “raise questions as to whether the
president attempted to influence or impede” the F.B.I.
A Times Exclusive: Trump, Comey and the Russia Investigation
Michael S. Schmidt, a New York Times
reporter, explains new revelations from a memo written by James B.
Comey, the fired F.B.I. director. The memo showed that President Trump
may have tried to halt the agency's investigation into Michael T. Flynn.
By A.J. CHAVAR on Publish Date May 16, 2017.
.
Watch in Times Video »
Mr.
Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president
immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned,
according to two people who read the memo. It was part of a paper trail
Mr. Comey created documenting what he perceived as the president’s
improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation. An F.B.I.
agent’s contemporaneous notes are widely held up in court as credible
evidence of conversations.
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Mr.
Comey shared the existence of the memo with senior F.B.I. officials and
close associates. The New York Times has not viewed a copy of the memo,
which is unclassified, but one of Mr. Comey’s associates read parts of
it to a Times reporter.
“I
hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn
go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo. “He is a good guy.
I hope you can let this go.”
What Is Obstruction of Justice? An Often-Murky Crime, Explained
A look at what qualifies as obstructing justice, and whether the accusations against President Trump could fit in that definition.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey that Mr. Flynn had done nothing wrong, according to the memo.
Mr. Comey did not say anything to Mr. Trump about curtailing the investigation, replying only: “I agree he is a good guy.”
In a statement, the White House denied the version of events in the memo.
“While
the president has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a
decent man who served and protected our country, the president has
never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including
any investigation involving General Flynn,” the statement said. “The
president has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and
all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the
conversation between the president and Mr. Comey.”
Mr. Chaffetz’s letter,
sent to the acting F.B.I. director, Andrew G. McCabe, set a May 24
deadline for the internal documents to be delivered to the House
committee. The congressman, a Republican, was criticized in recent
months for showing little of the appetite he demonstrated in pursuing
Hillary Clinton to pursue investigations into Mr. Trump’s associates.
Graphic
The Events That Led to Comey’s Firing, and How the White House’s Story Changed
New disclosures on Tuesday allege that in February,
President Trump asked James B. Comey, then the F.B.I. director, to shut
down an investigation into Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser,
Michael T. Flynn.
But since announcing in April
that he will not seek re-election in 2018, Mr. Chaffetz has shown more
interest in the Russia investigation, and held out the potential for a
subpoena on Tuesday, a notably aggressive move as most Republicans have
tried to stay out of the fray.
In
testimony to the Senate last week, Mr. McCabe said, “There has been no
effort to impede our investigation to date.” Mr. McCabe was referring to
the broad investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the
Trump campaign. The investigation into Mr. Flynn is separate.
A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.
Mr.
Comey created similar memos — including some that are classified —
about every phone call and meeting he had with the president, the two
people said. It is unclear whether Mr. Comey told the Justice Department
about the conversation or his memos.
Document: Representative Jason Chaffetz’s Letter to the F.B.I.
Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey
last week. Trump administration officials have provided multiple,
conflicting accounts of the reasoning behind Mr. Comey’s dismissal. Mr.
Trump said in a television interview that one of the reasons was because
he believed “this Russia thing” was a “made-up story.”
The Feb. 14 meeting took place just a day after Mr. Flynn was forced out of his job
after it was revealed he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about
the nature of phone conversations he had had with the Russian ambassador
to the United States.
Despite
the conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Comey, the investigation of
Mr. Flynn has proceeded. In Virginia, a federal grand jury has issued
subpoenas in recent weeks for records related to Mr. Flynn. Part of the
Flynn investigation is centered on his financial links to Russia and
Turkey.
The Day’s Top Political News
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- Two American officials told our reporters that the intelligence was provided by Israel.
- The turmoil has set the White House staff squabbling.
Mr.
Comey had been in the Oval Office that day with other senior national
security officials for a terrorism threat briefing. When the meeting
ended, Mr. Trump told those present — including Mr. Pence and Attorney
General Jeff Sessions — to leave the room except for Mr. Comey.
Alone
in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump began the discussion by condemning leaks
to the news media, saying that Mr. Comey should consider putting
reporters in prison for publishing classified information, according to
one of Mr. Comey’s associates.
Mr. Trump then turned the discussion to Mr. Flynn.
After
writing up a memo that outlined the meeting, Mr. Comey shared it with
senior F.B.I. officials. Mr. Comey and his aides perceived Mr. Trump’s
comments as an effort to influence the investigation, but they decided
that they would try to keep the conversation secret — even from the
F.B.I. agents working on the Russia investigation — so the details of
the conversation would not affect the investigation.
Mr.
Comey was known among his closest advisers to document conversations
that he believed would later be called into question, according to two
former confidants, who said Mr. Comey was uncomfortable at times with his relationship with Mr. Trump.
Mr.
Comey’s recollection has been bolstered in the past by F.B.I. notes. In
2007, he told Congress about a now-famous showdown with senior White
House officials over the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping
program. The White House disputed Mr. Comey’s account, but the F.B.I.
director at the time, Robert S. Mueller III, kept notes that backed up
Mr. Comey’s story.
The
White House has repeatedly crossed lines that other administrations
have been reluctant to cross when discussing politically charged
criminal investigations. Mr. Trump has disparaged the continuing F.B.I. investigation
as a hoax and called for an inquiry into his political rivals. His
representatives have taken the unusual step of declaring no need for a
special prosecutor to investigate the president’s associates.
Five Contradictions in the White House’s Story About Comey’s Firing
The Trump administration has offered conflicting answers
about how and why the F.B.I. director, James Comey, was fired.
The Oval Office meeting occurred a little over two weeks after Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Comey to the White House for a lengthy, one-on-one dinner at the residence.
At that dinner, on Jan. 27, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey at least two
times for a pledge of loyalty — which Mr. Comey declined, according to
one of Mr. Comey’s associates.
In a Twitter post on Friday,
Mr. Trump said that “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’
of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
After
the meeting, Mr. Comey’s associates did not believe there was any way
to corroborate Mr. Trump’s statements. But Mr. Trump’s suggestion last week that he was keeping tapes has made them wonder whether there are tapes that back up Mr. Comey’s account.
The
Jan. 27 dinner came a day after White House officials learned that Mr.
Flynn had been interviewed by F.B.I. agents about his phone calls with
the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak. On Jan. 26, the acting
attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, told the White House counsel about the
interview, and said Mr. Flynn could be subject to blackmail by the
Russians because they knew he had lied about the content of the calls.
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