All language subtitles for Once in a Lifetime

Excuse my breath.

I just ran out here to,
bring you this news.

The President
of the United States

has terminated
the director of the FBI,

James Comey.

As we get more here,
we'll bring it to you,

but at this point,
a bombshell at the White House.

James Comey is out.

Well, we've been
watching as James Comey

got off with his motorcade,
making his way

from the Westwood offices
of the FBI.

He got the information
this afternoon

that he has been relieved
of his duties.

Comey would become
only the second FBI director

in the history of the bureau
to be fired.

I just spoke to a senior
official a short time ago

who said they had
no idea this was happening.

The other major
complicating factor here

is the fact that the FBI

is investigating
any possible collusion

between members of
the Trump campaign team

and Russia, and now the head
of the FBI has been fired.

I found out
through The New York Times,

getting an alert on my phone.

I remember thinking,

you know,
"Has my phone been hacked?

Is this a joke?"

James.

The idea that
the president would fire

an FBI director,

middle of
the Russia investigation,

is unthinkable.

This was a target
of an FBI investigation

trying to choose the person
who was investigating them.

And what kind
of constitutional problem

does that present?

A huge one.

I think everyone realized
that we were

coming into unprecedented
political territory.

Comey's got
the FBI Gulfstream plane

out there in Los Angeles.

There's an O.J. moment

where you've got a helicopter

following this plane
down the tarmac.

Comey gets into
the plane and settles back,

uncorks some red wine,
pours it into a paper cup,

looks down over
the United States

as evening settles in,

thinking, "What the hell
just happened?"

I, Ronald Reagan...

William Jefferson Clinton...

Do solemnly swear...

Do solemnly swear...

...and will,
to the best of my ability...

...preserve,
protect, and defend...

...the Constitution
of the United States.

I know
that when you were fired,

you say in the book
that, when--

when it was over, you,

flew back on a plane
to the East Coast...

Drinking Pinot Noir

out of a paper cup,
so I thought maybe

we could re-create that
happy moment for you right now.

- To the truth.
- Yes, to the truth.

Breaking news tonight:
we have our first look

at fired FBI director
James Comey's much-anticipated

tell-all book,

a window into his interactions
with President Trump.

James Comey starts
a media tour

to promote his new book.

Our guest tonight
is James Comey.

...former FBI director,
James Comey.

James Comey.

It's all right, y'all.
It's all right.

Our president must

adhere to the values

that are the core
of this country,

the most important being truth.

This president is
not able to do that.

He is morally unfit
to be president.

Comey holds little back.
It is a scathing indictment.

This president is
"untethered to truth

and institutional values,"
Comey writes.

"His leadership

is transactional,
ego-driven"...

..."and about
personal loyalty.

I'm writing at a time of
great anxiety in my country.

I understand the anxiety.

Donald Trump's presidency
threatens

much of what is good
in this nation."

A lot of people

were suspicious of Jim

as a moralistic,

pious showboater.

This is nothing more
than a poorly executed

PR stunt by Comey
to desperately rehabilitate

his tattered reputation.
-Sarah?

There's a lot of room
for disagreement about that.

He is raising a moral and
political and legal alarm...

Right.
-About the health

of our institutions--

about the effect of
our president on them.

Do you think people tied
to President Trump

colluded with the Russians?

"I don't know"
is the honest answer.

This is a big
mistake, this book!

There is no collusion
with me--

All right.
-And Russia!

And our Justice Department,

they have this witch hunt...

Trump is trying
to muddy the legitimacy

of Bob Mueller's
Russia investigation,

and to turn this into

the public appearance
of a partisan witch hunt.

One of the biggest political
witch hunts in the history

of this country.

Robert Mueller
is on a Jihad of some sort.

"Mr. Mueller,
end the witch hunt."

"I don't know whether
the special counsel will find

criminal wrongdoing
by the president

or others
who have not been charged

as of this writing.

One of the pivotal questions

I presume Bob Mueller's team
is investigating

is whether or not,
in firing me,

President Trump was attempting
to obstruct justice,

which is a federal crime.

I've prosecuted
and overseen many cases

involving obstruction
of justice,

but in this case,
I'm a witness."

Comey and Mueller
are confronting

the most powerful man
on the face of the Earth

in the most politically charged

investigation of a president

in American history.

These guys aren't pals.

But they are allies.

They have worked together
with great effect

in the past
in confronting

presidential power when it goes
beyond the scope of the law.

Ladies and gentlemen,

the President
of the United States,

accompanied by Bob Mueller.

The heart and soul
of the FBI is keeping

the trust and confidence
of the American people,

being an investigative agency
that's not corruptible.

Mr. President.
-It was a point

Mueller used to make
when he was director.

I am deeply honored
by the trust

that President Bush has
shown in nominating me

to head the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.

Bob Mueller was the symbol

of a non-partisan individual
who keeps his head down,

follows the facts
wherever they lead,

and doesn't care about
making a name for himself.

The FBI is the foremost
law enforcement agency

in the world.

The only political appointee
at the FBI

is the director of the FBI.

Thank you all for coming.

That's traditionally
been a ten-year term

to cross two terms
of a president,

to make it clear

that the FBI director
shouldn't be accountable

to one party or the other,
but independent.

Bob Mueller became

the head of the FBI
a week before

the September 11th attacks
in 2001.

And you can imagine what

his second week
at work was like.

On the morning
of September 11th,

Bob Mueller is getting
his first briefing on al-Qaeda

when aides interrupt
to tell him

that the first plane
has hit the World Trade Center.

What happened?

It collapsed.

The top floors collapsed down.

Even as
he's sitting there

in the briefing on al-Qaeda,

the idea that that was
the beginning of a terror plot

was so far-fetched

that Mueller looks
out the window and says,

"How could a plane have hit
the World Trade Center

on such a clear day?"

Try it again.

Ready?
-The president

was in Sarasota, Florida,

for an education event.

I came up from behind him

and leaned over and whispered
into his right ear,

"A second plane hit
the second tower.

America is under attack."

On the count
of three...

Freedom itself
was attacked this morning

by a faceless coward.

The resolve
of our great nation

is being tested.

But make no mistake.

We will show the world
that we will pass this test.

God bless.

On September 14th,

in the immediate aftermath
of 9/11,

the president says,
"I want to get

the FBI director over here
this morning."

And that sounds like
a very normal expectation.

The truth is,
it was not normal.

There was a great fear
after Watergate

that the president would try

to influence
the investigative arm

of the government,

so after Watergate,

FBI directors did not come
to the White House very much

to have briefings
with the president.

But Bob Mueller came over,
and he starts his briefing,

and it was all about
what they were doing

in terms of
their investigation.

And the president interrupted
and said,

"I am very interested

in learning what
your investigation is finding,

but of greater concern
to me is,

what are you doing
to prevent the next attack?"

The U.S. House
of Representatives

is closing offices today
to allow a complete sweep

for traces of anthrax.

We have to remember

what the tension was like
in Washington

in the days and weeks
and months after 9/11.

There were
197 people onboard

American Airlines Flight 63.

An unruly passenger
apparently had

an explosive device
in his shoes.

Everyone was convinced

that a second attack
was days or minutes away.

"They've got nuclear weapons.

They've got biological
weapons.

They've got chemical weapons.
They're coming.

The second wave is gonna hit."

Vice President Dick Cheney
held the point of view

that in any time of crisis,

the powers of the presidency
were unitary--

that is,
he encompassed the power

of the Congress
and of the courts in himself.

It was more like a king than
the president we think of.

It was a point of view

that would get
President George W. Bush

into a terrible,
terrible situation.

These terrorists
must be pursued,

they must be defeated,

and they must be brought
to justice.

In 2002,

to help forewarn of an attack
on the United States,

President Bush orders
the National Security Agency

to basically start spying

on not only the world...

but on Americans.

The program, which authorized
electronic eavesdropping

into people's phone calls
and emails,

is code-named Stellar Wind.

The exact technical
details of it

are still largely opaque
to us,

but it authorized
the surveillance of Americans

inside America.

This threatens
to shatter

an understanding
that has been in place

since Watergate:

you don't spy on Americans
without a warrant.

I wanna
congratulate you, Mr. Comey,

for being selected
by President Bush

for this important position
in the Justice Department.

At this time,

the rising star
in the Justice Department,

Jim Comey,
is promoted to become

the deputy attorney general
of the United States

above Bob Mueller,

and Comey comes to understand

that there are serious
concerns about Stellar Wind,

emanating in large part
from a lawyer

named Jack Goldsmith.

When I got to
the Office of Legal Counsel

in October of 2003,

I couldn't have imagined
having confrontations

like I had with
the White House.

But there's a natural tension

that's exacerbated in wartime

between, on the one hand,

wanting to do whatever you can
to stop the next attack,

and on the other hand,
ensuring that

the executive branch
complies with the law.

So that tension
was ever present.

It was starkly felt
every day I worked.

So the Office of Legal Counsel
basically serves to determine

what is lawful
for the executive branch.

My predecessors had
a conception

of executive power
that was super broad,

and they basically thought
the president could

do whatever he wanted
in wartime

if he thought it was necessary
for national security,

so for two years, the program
had been deemed lawful.

But the entire program
was flawed.

I concluded that

the government
was not fully complying

with the law

that was designed to protect

the privacy of Americans

when it comes
to electronic surveillance.

This results in
an epic confrontation

over civil liberties--

the president and the vice
president on one side,

Jim Comey and Bob Mueller
on the other.

On March 9th,

there's this high-stakes
meeting at the White House

to air the concerns
about the Stellar Wind program.

It's a high-power gathering.

You've got Jim Comey,
FBI Director Robert Mueller,

and head of the Office
of Legal Counsel,

Jack Goldsmith,

versus Vice President Cheney;

Cheney's top legal advisor,
David Addington;

and even White House Chief of
Staff, Andy Card.

There was no one at any of
those meetings that was there

because they wanted to deny
personal liberty,

and they were not trying
to interrupt

private communication.

I can't impress upon you

the reality of dealing
with the change

from an analog world
to a digital world.

The world changed
before our laws did,

and Stellar Wind took reality

and forced it into the law.

We've got bad things happening
around the world.

We don't want to...
go blind,

and we have to go blind--
we-we'd have to pull the plug

if we don't get it signed.

Cheney then
expressed a frustration

that was entirely reasonable.

He pointed out that

the Department of Justice's
Office of Legal Counsel

had written a memo

to support the program
in 2001

and that the attorney general
had repeatedly certified

the program's legality since.

I said the 2001 opinion
was so bad

as to be facially invalid.

No lawyer could rely upon it.

From the windowsill came
Addington's cutting voice:

"I'm a lawyer, and I did."

"No good lawyer," I added.

David Addington said something
to the effect that,

"If you rule that way,
you'll have the blood

of the 100,000 people
who die in the next attack

on your hands."

He wasn't saying that
to scare me.

He really wasn't.
He really believed it.

And I kind of believed it too.

I mean, I was reading
the threat reports.

I was as scared
as anybody else.

And this is all happening
in secret.

It's very tough
in that circumstance

to know exactly
what the right answer is.

But we held.

We held, but it wasn't over.

I met alone with
Attorney General Ashcroft

to tell him in detail about
the problems with the program

and why we could not approve
another extension:

it was an extraordinary
assertion

of presidential power.

The president has serious
substantial powers,

but the president
doesn't have the right

to do whatever he chooses.

No one has that right

in a society
framed by the rule of law.

And I'm not in a position
to discuss

what my advice was

to the President
of the United States

and his staff.

I think those are things

that are importantly
not discussed publicly.

It's pretty clear
that Jim Comey

doesn't have the same feeling.

...why he came off the list?

Did it have anything to do
with the prosecution

of voter fraud cases?

I would ask
our witness

to please state your name
for the record.

My name's James Comey.

Can you hit
your microphone, please?

Sorry, I've forgotten...
-There we go.

I've forgotten the...

The technology.
My name is James Comey.

I go by Jim Comey.

Now, were you there when
Jim Comey gave his testimony?

Yeah, I was a dutiful staffer

sitting behind,

Senator Charles Schumer.

In the spring of 2007,

I was the chief counsel
to Senator Schumer

on the Judiciary Committee.

We had a-a witness
who was gonna come testify

who had to cancel
at the last minute,

and now we had an open spot.

And I know Jim a long time.

He had been my boss
as a U.S. attorney

when I was
an assistant U.S. attorney

in the southern district.

It also became known to me

that...you know,
there's this other thing

that he has never talked about,
that was only rumored.

So Jim Comey tells me
on the phone

about this, you know,
hitherto, you know,

unexplored and basically
unknown crisis

in the Bush White House
and Justice Department

in a way that made
the hair stand up

on the back of my neck.

And was
the description in the room

as dramatic as it was
on the phone?

It was more dramatic
because there were--

there were senators whose-whose
jaws dropped to the floor.

This was a...

Very memorable...
period in my life--

probably the most
difficult time

in my entire professional life.

In the early part of 2004,

the Office of Legal Counsel,
under my supervision,

was engaged in a reevaluation
both factually and legally

of a particular classified
program.

Just assume--you thought
something was wrong?

Yes.
-Right.

And it was a program that was
renewed on a regular basis

and required signature
by the attorney general

certifying to its legality.

But the attorney general
was taken

to George Washington Hospital,

and I became the acting
attorney general.

And as acting attorney general,

I would not certify
the program,

as to its legality.

During this period,
you were not in good health.

Could you at least e--

There were press reports.

I would confirm that I was,
for about ten days,

in intensive care
in the hospital.

And I know--I know of
nothing to contradict those...

Press reports.

Well, thank you
for that--thank you

- for that candor.
- That's--

there's a big
concession for you.

Were you present
when Alberto Gonzales visited

Attorney General Ashcroft's
bedside?

Yes.

And am I correct

that the conduct
of Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Card

on that evening
troubled you greatly?

Yes.

Why?

I--
I'm only hesitating--

and I'm uncomfortable
talking about this,

but I'll answer the question.
-I understand.

Wednesday, March the tenth,

the night of
the hospital incident,

at about eight o'clock
that evening,

I was headed home.

My security detail
was driving me, and got a call

from Attorney General
Ashcroft's chief of staff,

telling me that he had gotten
a call from Mrs. Ashcroft

from the hospital.

And Mrs. Ashcroft reported
that a call had come through--

Do you have any idea
who that call was from?

I have some recollection

that the call was from
the president himself,

but I don't know that for sure.

It came from the White House,

and as a result of that call,

Mr. Card and Mr. Gonzales were
on their way to the hospital

to see Mr. Ashcroft.

So I told my security detail
that I needed to get

to George Washington Hospital
immediately.

They turned on
the emergency equipment

and drove very quickly.

Immediately called
FBI Director Mueller,

with whom I'd been discussing
this particular matter,

and told him
what was happening.

He said, "I'll meet you at
the hospital right now."

What was your concern?

You were in, obviously,
a huge hurry.

I was concerned that,

given how ill I knew
the attorney general was,

that there might be an effort
to ask him to overrule me

when he was in
no condition to do that.

You have these
lights-and-siren motorcades

converging
from across Washington.

Comey gets there first.

Comey knows that Mueller
is not going to make it

to the hospital

before White House
Chief of Staff Andy Card

and White House Counsel
Alberto Gonzales.

And Jim Comey, in that moment,

is worried that
the Secret Service agents

who are with Andy Card

might try to remove Comey
from the hospital room.

"While standing
with the FBI special agent,

I called Bob Mueller again
on his cell phone.

He was on his way.

'Bob,' I said, 'I need you
to order your agents

not to permit me to be taken
from Ashcroft's room

under any circumstances.'

Mueller asked me to pass
the phone to the agent.

I stood as the agent listened,
crisply answered, 'Yes, sir,'

and passed the phone back.

The agent looked at me with
a steely expression.

'You will not leave
that room, sir.

This is our scene.'"

Just sort of imagine
what it's like

for those FBI agents
in that moment.

You know,
"Use force if you need to

to resist
the U.S. Secret Service

and the White House
chief of staff."

And it has to be,

one of the most surreal
telephone calls

in American political history.

And the attorney
general was...

What was his condition?

Mr. Ashcroft was
lying down in the bed.

The room was darkened.

He seemed pretty bad off.

I was shortly joined

by the head of the Office
of Legal Counsel,

Assistant Attorney General
Jack Goldsmith,

and it was only
a matter of minutes

that the door opened,
and in walked,

Mr. Gonzales,
carrying an envelope,

and Mr. Card.

They seemed
very surprised to see us.

It was a very awkward--
extremely awkward moment.

They were standing
at the foot of the bed.

In that manila envelope,
Gonzales had the approvals

for the program
without any retraction,

and he asked
the attorney general

would he approve the program
that he essentially approved

for the last two years.

There was some silence,

and then Ashcroft kind of
lifted himself up off the bed

and he kind of
expanded his chest

and kind of looked at them,

and he came to life
a little bit.

And then John Ashcroft
did something that amazed me.

He had been misled
about the scope

of the surveillance program,
he said.

He vented that he had
serious concerns

about the legal basis
for parts of the program

now that he understood it.

"But that doesn't matter now,"
he said,

"because I'm not
the attorney general."

With a finger extended from
his shaking left hand,

he pointed at me.

"There is
the attorney general."

I don't appreciate the way
Jim Comey talks about it.

His tunnel vision was limited,

so I don't question

how he relates it
from his narrow vision,

but it's very different than
a more realistic

a-and accurate description
of what happened.

The president made
a phone call to the hospital,

and I hear him say
to John Ashcroft--

or Janet Ashcroft--that
Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales

will come over
and bring the documents,

and you can sign them.

And so,
the president says to me,

"He's expecting you.
You can go over there."

And I go out
and get Alberto Gonzales,

and we then go over
to the hospital.

This was not,
"Sign the document!

You've gotta make him
sign the document!"

- No, no--
- This was not that way at all.

But he did--
John Ashcroft didn't turn

to you and say,
"I'm not the attorney general.

- This man is"?
- No, he says, "I'm told

I'm not the attorney general
right now."

I was...upset
at the White House

because I didn't know

the attorney general
wasn't the attorney general.

I was not in a condition

to make the kinds
of decisions that...

um...

I wasn't totally without
an awareness,

but I-I wasn't looking
around the room.

I-I didn't...I didn't...

you know, I had a morphine pump
in one hand.

And I was not attorney general
for a good reason.

At that point,
they just wanted

to get the hell out of there,

and they said something like,

"Thank you very much, sir.
I hope you feel better."

Mrs. Ashcroft is a small lady,

and...she did something
that really kind of summed up

the way I think
a lot of us felt.

As they were walking
out the door,

she stuck out her tongue
at them

in a very, um, forceful way.

She didn't approve.

Can you tell us
what happened then?

I was very upset. I was angry.

Jim Comey has a strong
sense of right and wrong,

and through his career

has not been shy
about sharing that

publicly and vocally.

Tell me
what so upset you.

I thought I'd just witnessed
an effort to take advantage

of a very sick man

who did not have the powers
of the attorney general

because they had been
transferred to me.

People want
to take these things

and turn them into
Machiavellian games.

It was not.

Yes, the attorney general
had signed off

on it every month.

Yes, there was an expectation

that he'd sign off on it again.

Yes, we were told that
the program would come

to a screeching halt
at midnight

if we didn't have
the document signed.

And I wasn't even
carrying the document.

Alberto Gonzales was.

Who sent you to the hospital?

Senator, what I can say
is we'd had

a very important meeting
at the White House

- over one of the most--
- I didn't ask that.

I didn't ask--you've discussed
the meeting...

I'm answering your question,
Senator.

Who sent you?
-If I could.

Did anyone tell you to go?

It was one of the most
important programs

for the United States.
It was important--

had been authorized
by the president.

Did the president ask you
to go?

We were there on behalf of the
President of the United States.

I didn't ask you that.

Did the president
ask you to go?

Senator, we were there
on behalf

of the President
of the United States.

Why can't you answer
that question?

That's the answer that
I can give you, Senator.

And you stated
that the next day, Thursday,

was the deadline for
reauthorization of the program.

- Is that right?
- Yes, sir.

Okay.
Can you tell us what happened?

The program was reauthorized
without us,

and without a signature
from the Department of Justice

attesting as to its legality

and, I prepared
a letter of resignation.

As I understand it,

you believed that others were
also prepared to resign,

not just you.

Yes.

I was prepared
to resign if I felt

that we were condoning
or promoting or facilitating

illegal behavior.

It is not to say that you are

the ultimate arbiter

of what's right and wrong.

I started thinking
more about resignation

and trying to figure out
what the principled thing

to do was in this highly
political situation

where there was
a lot of presidential power

to deal with, but there was
also restraints

on presidential power.

And across my desk

was a large portrait
of Elliot Richardson,

the attorney general
under Nixon

who resigned on principle.

He has very thick,
large black glasses,

and his beady little eyes
were staring out of them,

and I grew very close to him
in watching his portrait

and trying to decide
what I should do.

Ultimately, I didn't see how
I could continue to serve

an administration that seemed
indifferent to the law,

so I was prepared to resign,

and a lot of other people
were as well.

How about
your chief of staff?

Yes, he-he was certainly
gonna go when I went.

Right. How about Mr. Ashcroft's
chief of staff?

My understanding was that
he would go as well.

How about Director Mueller?

Yes.

Literally and figuratively,
George W. Bush blinks,

and he says, "Tell Jim
to make the changes

that he thinks are necessary
to this program."

Bush writes
in his memoir...

that when Mueller and Comey
confronted him

and said they were prepared
to resign on principle,

a thought flashed immediately
through his mind,

and that was the memory of
the Saturday Night Massacre.

President Nixon has discharged

Archibald Cox as Watergate's
special prosecutor.

As a result, Attorney General
Elliot Richardson has resigned,

and when Deputy Attorney
General William Ruckelshaus

refused to carry out orders...

From the president,
he was discharged.

And Bush writes, "That was not
a historical experience

I wished to repeat."

You felt lucky
that the country was spared

what was clearly
a constitutional crisis

and a potential
mass resignation,

over principle

by the leading
law enforcement officials

in the country.

George W. Bush
didn't think

that any president
could survive

the loss of an FBI director.

Those are words he said to me
a decade ago at this point

but have sort of
rattled around my mind

with sort of a fresh resonance,

you know, as we sort of look at
Jim Comey and Bob Mueller

in the midst
of another showdown

with another president.

On June eighth, 2017,

almost ten years exactly
after his testimony

about the Stellar Wind
confrontation,

here comes Jim Comey
to tell the story

of another
extraordinary confrontation

with a president.

Comey delivering
the first public accounting

of his dealings
with President Donald Trump.

No word yet on
whether the White House would

claim executive privilege
to block Comey's testimony.

He has done
so much damage

to the reputation of the FBI,

and he continues to insert
himself into stories.

Nothing
with Jim Comey has been dull

in his past testimonies.

I don't expect this one
to be either.

Director Comey,
you're now under oath.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ranking Member Warner,
members of the committee,

thank you for inviting me here
to testify today.

When I was appointed
FBI director in 2013,

I understood that I served at
the pleasure of the president.

But I want the American people
to know this truth:

when I was fired,

the administration chose
to defame me

and, more importantly,
the FBI by saying

that the organization
was in disarray,

that the workforce had
lost confidence in its leader.

Those were lies,
plain and simple.

There were
a lot of terrible things

about the firing,
but it didn't surprise me.

I run a news
and commentary outlet

that is devoted to,

the space where

national security, law,
and policy

crash into one another.

Two days after the election,
I wrote a piece

specifically warning

that Trump might try

to fire Jim Comey.

I believed that if you are
an authoritarian personality

in control of the presidency,

you simply cannot be

as authoritarian
as you want to be

if you have independent,
honest law enforcement--

and let me just be candid
about my bias, here:

That is what I think
Jim represents.

Flaws and all, whatever
mistakes he may have made,

he's independent
and he's honest.

Let me begin
with one overarching question.

Why do you believe
you were fired?

There's no doubt that

it's a fair judgment--
it's my judgment--

that I was fired because
of the Russia investigation.

I was fired to change the way

the Russia investigation
was being conducted.

I wanted to know

that the person
who headed the FBI

would be willing

to stand up to the President
of the United States

as Bob Mueller had been
willing to do in 2004,

because, for reasons
that were specific

to the Russia investigation,

I never doubted
that there would be

a significant confrontation.

The Russia
investigation began

very quietly
in the summer of 2016,

when evidence
of Russian interference

in the presidential election
started to emerge.

There's a long
history of the Russians

interfering in elections--

theirs and other people's.

We have records going back
at least to the '60s

of Russians attempting,
in their ham-handed way,

to influence elections.

Just to play devil's
advocate, I mean,

isn't there a variation of this

that we've done to Russia
in the past?

Sure. We've done that.

...I...

This may seem naive
or altruistic,

but I think
in just about every case,

we were trying to do it because
of the oppressed peoples

of that particular country
or, frankly,

what we thought was in,
you know, best U.S. interests.

But never ever as direct
and aggressive and multifaceted

as what they did in 2016.

Was the big difference

that they weaponized it
and made it public?

Well, the thing was,
it was so different.

It was so active,

particularly using
the enabler of social media.

That was
the big difference here.

Massive use of social media,

which was very sophisticated,
very astute.

They had messages
for everybody--

Black Lives Matter,
white supremacists,

pro-Muslims, anti-Muslims,

pro-gun-control,
anti-gun-control.

It didn't matter.
The Russians went after them.

And their objections,
we believe,

evolved over time,

starting with the very strong
personal animus

that Vladimir Putin had
towards Secretary Clinton,

whom he held responsible
for fomenting

what he thought was
a revolution

during the election
in Russia in 2011.

So the Russians did
all they could

to undermine her.

A revolt

in the Democratic Party

after hacked emails revealed

the DNC favored Clinton
over Sanders.

Will you people shut up?
Save it for Trump!

Russian intelligence
hacked the DNC

and set the pestilence
of these emails out

into the ecosystem
of American politics.

On the eve
of the convention,

WikiLeaks released thousands
of emails from the DNC.

So if you go back
to the Watergate break-in,

a bunch of bad actors
broke into

the Democratic National
Headquarters,

digging up dirt.

Here we are today.

A bunch of bad actors
that happen to be Russians

broke into the Democratic
National Headquarters

to dig up dirt and help
elect Donald Trump.

I pledge

that I will be president
for all Americans.

FBI, CIA, and NSA
are on the same page on this,

and frankly, FBI, CIA, and NSA
rarely agree on anything.

So we put together all of
the reporting that we had

on Russian interference
in the run-up to the election,

put it in one document

called the Intelligence
Community Assessment.

And then we all took a very
low-vis, low-profile

15-SUV column

that took us down
to Trump Tower,

where we briefed out

our Intelligence Community
Assessment

to then-President-Elect Trump

on Friday, January sixth.

So when you went in
to brief Trump...

set the stage for us.

- What was the room like?
- Well, I don't know.

I guess it was about
a 12x15-size room--

pretty small,
had a conference table

which accommodated,
eight people,

and then about six people
along the side.

I don't remember
the colors of the wall.

"We walked
in a group,

surrounded
by our security people,

and entered
the side-street entrance

for the Trump Tower
residences."

"After all the live-TV images
of job applicants

and dignitaries
coming and going

through the gilded
Fifth Avenue lobby

as though on
a reality TV show,

the leaders of our country's
biggest intelligence agencies

were sneaking in to see
the president-elect.

We were sneaking in
to tell him

what Russia had done to
try to help elect him."

The import

of our Intelligence Community
Assessment

really did, cast some doubt

about the legitimacy
of the election,

so we were all a bit
apprehensive

about just what kind of
a reaction we would get.

When we completed
our briefing,

President Elect Trump and
various other staff members

started drafting
a press release,

you know,
before we left the room,

which was kind of unusual.

And what they wanted to say was
that the Russian meddling

had no impact on the election,

and we tried
to point out to them

that we didn't say that.

The president has
repeatedly talked about

Russia's involvement
as fake news.

Can you talk a little bit
about what you saw

as FBI director?

The Russians interfered
in our election

during the 2016 cycle.

They did it with purpose.

They did it
with sophistication.

It was
an active-measures campaign

driven from the top
of that government.

There is no fuzz on that.

Did the president,
in any of those interactions,

ask you what you should
be doing

to protect America
against Russian interference

in our election system?

I don't recall
a conversation like that.

Never?

No.

It's in
the aftermath of that briefing

that Comey pulls Trump aside

and tells him about
the dossier,

this document
that had been compiled

by a former British spy

on derogatory information
the Russians had

about the president.

The dossier
was not used at all

to draw on as a source

for the Intelligence Community
Assessment.

We did include

about a page-and-three-quarter
summary of the dossier

as an appendix,

but not as an organic part

of the Intelligence Community
Assessment.

And we just felt,
the obligation or duty

to warn the president
that this thing was out there.

And Jim asked if...

he said, "I think
it'd be better

if I did it by myself,"
and I-I was fine with that.

The material included
some wild stuff.

Among that stuff were
unconfirmed allegations

that the president-elect
had been engaged

in unusual sexual activities
with prostitutes in Russia

while on a trip
to Moscow in 2013.

Another allegation was
that these activities

were filmed
by Russian intelligence

for the possible purpose
of blackmail

against the president-elect.

Jim Comey,
and I think rightfully so,

was concerned about

the counterintelligence
implications.

The Russians have
a long history

and are famous for using
what they call "kompromat"--

compromising material--

which they might attempt
to use for leverage.

The mere fact
that this stuff is out there

is a problem

that has to be managed
from a security point of view.

But Trump responds

by denying
specific components of it:

whether he needs
prostitutes or not.

Trump is the kind of guy who
tries to make his own reality.

"It never happened,

I don't know anything
about Russia,

and I have no business
with Russians."

I think that our
intelligence agencies

are giving the president advice
that is colored

by their agenda
and their motivations.

They began trying to get

Donald Trump to run
for president in 1988,

again in 2000,

again in 2012,
and then finally, in 2016.

I have worked
for four presidents.

I think I could only be called
an adviser to three of them:

Richard Nixon,

Ronald Reagan,

and Donald Trump.

If you are the subject

of a partisan witch hunt--

as I think Nixon was,

as I think Trump now is--

then I-I think
that you cannot trust

in the intelligence agencies,

and I suspect,

that Mr. Comey was telling
the president

about the dossier
as a way to threaten him.

There was a real chance
that Donald Trump

would assume I was pulling
a J. Edgar Hoover

and dangling
the prostitute thing over him

to gain leverage.

I decided I could assure
the president-elect

that the FBI was not currently
investigating him.

This was literally true

but could
be misleadingly narrow.

But I also saw the bigger
danger of the new president,

who was known to be impulsive,

going to war against the FBI.

The FBI director
is so concerned

by this interaction

that he gets into the FBI car

and immediately
memorializes it.

It's the first memo

in a series of ones
that Comey made

about every single interaction
he had with the president.

He's asked, "Why'd you feel
the need to write it down?"

And he says, "It's because of
the nature of the person."

CNN has learned

that the nation's
top intelligence officials

provided information to
President-Elect Donald Trump

about claims
of Russian efforts

to compromise
President-Elect Trump.

...including
a claim of sexual activity

caught on a Moscow hotel room
surveillance camera.

Go ahead.
-First of all,

did the heads of
the intelligence agencies

provide you with
a two-page summary

of these unsubstantiated
allegations?

These meetings,
as you know, are confidential,

classified, so I'm not allowed

to talk about what went on
in a meeting,

but I will say
I think it's a disgrace

that the intelligence agencies
allowed any information

that turned out to be
so false and fake out,

and that's something that

Nazi Germany would've
done and did do.

He had

a news conference

in which he characterized
the intelligence community

as Nazis,

blaming us for,
putting out the dossier,

which was nonsensical.

The dossier is not
an intelligence document.

It wasn't classified.

You know, it had nothing
to do with

the intelligence community.

Naive me, I tried to appeal
to his higher instincts,

I guess, and I asked that
he not refer to, you know,

the intelligence community
as Nazis.

What was his reaction?

He said, you know,
"Thanks, yeah, they're great,"

and all that, but his--his i-
main interest was in

my, issuing a statement
rebutting the, dossier,

which I-I really couldn't do...

and didn't.

Go ahead.

What do you say
to foreign policy experts

who say you're actually
weakening national security

by waging this war of words

against your
U.S. intelligence community?

And there's actually
a fairly fine line

between democracy
and autocracy,

and if we're not sensitive

and don't protect
those institutions,

you're in trouble.

Well, you know,
President Putin

and Russia put out a statement
today that this, fake news

was indeed fake news.

They said it totally
never happened.

Russia will have much
greater respect

for our country
when I'm leading it

than when other people
have led it.

The Russians,
in an unbelievable

and unprecedented attack
on American democracy,

hacked the election

with the intent of
throwing it to Trump--

with the intent of disrupting
American democracy.

Jim Comey, he knows
that the time will come,

about five minutes after
inauguration,

that he's gonna be
investigating the White House,

that he's gonna be
investigating the president,

and that a terrible
confrontation is in store.

Please raise your right hand
and repeat after me.

"I, Donald John Trump
do solemnly swear"...

Ever since Watergate,

the country has recognized

that the Justice Department
and FBI

have to have some form
of independence

from the White House
and the president,

especially when the White House
and the president

are being investigated.

So we're already
in a fraught situation

where the Justice Department
itself is investigating

the campaign of the president
in a close election,

but Trump
from the very beginning

seemed to have an attitude
that was indifferent

to these independence norms.

The inauguration
was such a success

and such a safety success,

and we wanna thank you all,
because it was really

a very, very special
experience.

Right after
the inauguration,

Trump has the heads of
the law enforcement agencies

that did security
for his swearing in

to the White House
for an event,

and Comey is very concerned

about being seen on camera
with the president,

especially when the FBI
is supposed to be insulated

from politics.

But Comey,
who's six-foot-eight,

is noticed by the president.
-Let's...

and there's--
James, come here,

will you, please?

He's become
more famous than me.

My wife, Patrice, has
known me since I was 19.

Back at our home,
she was watching TV

and pointing at the screen.

"That's Jim's
'shit' face."

Yes, it was.

The president leaned in

and put his mouth
near my right ear.

"I'm really looking forward
to working with you," he said.

Unfortunately,

because of the vantage point
of the TV cameras,

what many in the world thought
they saw was a kiss.

To have this
flamboyant display of embrace

made Jim concerned
about the public confidence

in the integrity of the FBI

at a time when

his own position was,

in the eyes
of a lot of people,

politically suspect.

Jim believed it was an attempt

to compromise him--

to make him look political,

to make him look close
to Trump

in a fashion
that would further convince

people who had
supported Hilary Clinton

that he had put
a thumb on the scale

during the election

by his performance in the
Hilary Clinton email matters.

I am running for
president of the United States!

In 2015,
the FBI opened

the Clinton email
investigation,

looking at Clinton using
a personal email account

when she was
secretary of state.

This was an investigation
that was during the campaign,

and it was being looked at
in a political lens

by the country.

Comey knew that the stakes
were very high, and he felt

unnerved by some things
the Justice Department had done

in the course
of the investigation,

which made him wonder

whether their
political leanings

were gonna get in the way
of the investigation.

Things that looked funky,

like Loretta Lynch
meeting with Bill Clinton

on the tarmac in Arizona.

Okay, what's with this?

Loretta Lynch met
with President Bill Clinton

on the tarmac
of a Phoenix airport

for 30 minutes.

Because of the ongoing
federal investigation

into Hillary Clinton's emails,
that meeting

has now become
a major problem.

As the firestorm grew
in the media,

I paid more attention,
watching it become

another corrosive
talking point

about how the Obama
Justice Department

couldn't be trusted
to complete

the Clinton
email investigation.

Mr. Director.

Comey felt
that the FBI

needed to put distance
between itself

and the Justice Department.

You have to
understand the relationship.

The FBI conducts
investigations.

Justice Department lawyers
then decide

what charges can
or cannot be brought

based on those findings.

The FBI had
interviewed Hillary Clinton,

and they'd come
to the conclusion

that they didn't think
she should be prosecuted,

but instead of quietly
sending that recommendation

over to the Justice Department,

Comey held a press conference.

Good morning.

This is going to be
an unusual statement

in at least a couple of ways.

First, I'm going to include

more detail about our process

than I ordinarily would,

because I think
the American people

deserve those details

in a case of intense
public interest.

Transparency
had been something

that had benefited Comey
enormously

in the run-up to him taking
over as FBI director.

In the years after he left
the Justice Department

under the Bush administration,

he had publicly testified
about a program

that he thought was illegal.

Just assume--you
thought something was wrong.

Yes.
-Right.

And by airing
this out publicly,

Comey was able to get

the stain
of the Bush administration

off of him and make himself

appear as a whistleblower,

so when Obama
appoints him

as FBI director,

he cites this
in his statement.

To know Jim Comey is also
to know his fierce independence

and his deep integrity.
When it's mattered most,

he joined Bob in standing up
for what he believed was right.

He was prepared to give up
the job he loved

rather than be
part of something

he felt
was fundamentally wrong.

So as he comes

into the Clinton
email investigation,

transparency is something

that had really
benefited Comey a lot

throughout his entire career,

and as he's faced
with these different decisions,

he goes back to run
the same play.

The problem is,
in doing that,

he really undermined himself.

Although we did not find
clear evidence

that Secretary Clinton
or her colleagues

intended to violate laws

governing the handling
of classified information,

there is evidence

that they were
extremely careless.

It's awkward
in the extreme.

Comey made it awkward
in the extreme.

He gratuitously said

she had been
"extremely careless"

in her handling
of classified emails.

Well, carelessness
is not a federal crime.

I didn't dissent
from his decision to do it...

...but I was very concerned

about the precedent
that it would set.

There's something
really horrible

about having

a senior
law enforcement official

evaluating the conduct
of somebody in public

whom he is not going
to charge, and I have a

sort of civil liberties anxiety
about that.

Although there is evidence
of potential violations

of the statues
regarding the handling

of classified information,

our judgment is that
no reasonable prosecutor

would bring such a case.

I remember Director Comey--
one of the words

was "no reasonable prosecutor"

would, um, file charges.

The FBI, typically--you do
your investigative report,

turn it over
to the U.S. Attorney's office,

or in this case,
to the Department of Justice,

let them make the decision.

The July announcement
by Director Comey

was certainly outside
the normal rulebook,

and, um, certainly surprised
a lot of people.

There wasn't any advance
warning that it was coming.

People have certainly

lost some confidence
in the FBI over this,

and it's been a--
a difficult time.

When the FBI director

says that
the secretary of state

was extremely careless
and negligent

in handling
our classified secrets,

I know that these terms

are minor

compared to what
she actually did.

They were just used

to save her
from facing justice

for her terrible,
terrible crimes.

Lock her up!
Lock her up!

Lock her up!
Lock her up!

Lock her up!
Lock her up!

Lock her up!
Lock her up!

Ten days
before the election, Comey

took another
extraordinary measure.

He sent a letter to Congress

saying that the bureau

had reopened

the email investigation...

As part
of a different case,

Anthony Weiner,

the former husband

of Huma Abedin,

Hillary's closest aide,

had provided a laptop
to the authorities,

and the FBI saw
what they thought

were Hillary Clinton's emails.

Once you've said
publicly

this investigation
was finished,

the day you make a liar
out of yourself

and go after new evidence,

you have some duty to--

to let people know
about that.

Assuming,
as nearly everyone did,

that Hillary Clinton
would be elected

President of the United States

in less than two weeks,

what would happen to the FBI

or her own presidency

if it later was revealed

after the fact

that she was still a subject

of an FBI investigation?

Comey feels,

rightly or wrongly,

a legal obligation
to inform Congress

that, indeed,
the needle has moved,

not knowing whether there's
any "there" there

within in the emails,
but knowing full well

that once he sends
this one-page letter,

the Republicans on the Hill

will leak it
nanoseconds later.

Clinton is conceivably doomed.

It took guts

for Director Comey

to make the move
that he made

in light of the kind
of opposition he had,

where they're trying
to protect her

from criminal prosecution.

You know that.

You think Comey
made a mistake?

I do.

Why?

The idea that the FBI

was wading into
the politics of that moment

is tremendously damaging

to the reputation
of the FBI.

It took a lot of guts.

I was not his fan,

but I'll tell you what.
What he did--

he brought back
his reputation.

Comey is in
a very tough position.

The man in charge

of the Russia investigation

is now seen
as a political actor.

By this time,

the FBI investigation

into Russian meddling

has been going on
for six months.

It's code-named
"Crossfire Hurricane."

At the heart
of the Russian

interference campaign

was the release
of damaging emails

associated with
the Democratic Party.

In late July, the FBI learned

that a Trump campaign
foreign policy advisor

named George Papadopoulos

had been discussing obtaining
from the Russian government

emails damaging
to Hillary Clinton.

Based on this information,

the FBI opened
an investigation

to try to understand
whether Americans,

including any associated
with the Trump campaign,

were working in any way
with the Russians

in their influence effort.

Comey knows that Flynn,

the national security advisor

to President Trump,
has ties to Russia.

The FBI is looking at him
very closely

whether he is in any way
under the influence

of Vladimir Putin.

The Russians were going

to try to co-opt,

influence, gain leverage--

whatever they could do.

They attempted to woo me,

and I...

...saw them doing that
with, General Flynn,

and I just kind of

offered some fatherly advice
about my own experience.

And do you think
he took that advice to heart?

No.

On January 24th,

as part of
our continuing investigation

of Russian influence efforts,

I dispatched two agents
to the White House

to interview Flynn
about his conversations

with the Russians.

He lied to the agents.

Mike Flynn, for reasons
we do not understand yet,

lies to the FBI

about his Russia contacts.

Lying to the FBI is,
of course, a crime.

Two days later,

the acting attorney general,

Sally Yates,
warns the White House

that Flynn has lied to the FBI,

that he is susceptible
to blackmail

by the Russians.

The next day,

the phone rings
in Jim Comey's office.

The President
of the United States

would like to have him
for dinner.

Mr. Comey,
prior to January 27th

of this year,

have you ever had
a private dinner

with a President
of the United States?

No.

How unusual is it to have

a-a one-one-one dinner

with the president?
Did that strike you as odd?

Yeah, so much so that I assumed
there would be others,

that he couldn't possibly
be having dinner with me alone.

If you had behaved differently
in that dinner,

do you think you
would have still been fired?

I don't know.

I--it--it's impossible to say,

looking back.
I don't know.

At some point
early on,

Trump asked bluntly,

"So what do you want to do?"

It was an odd question
that I didn't

entirely understand at first,

but without waiting
for an answer,

he launched into a monologue

that made it crystal-clear

what he was referring to:

whether I wanted
to keep my job.

With a serious look
on his face, he said,

"I need loyalty.

I expect loyalty."

During the silence
that followed,

I didn't move, speak,

or change my facial expression
in any way.

It's the two of them

under the chandelier,
alone in the Green Room,

dining over shrimp scampi,

and at some point,

Comey has
an out-of-body experience,

and he's flashing back
on his early career,

interrogating,
investigating,

and prosecuting mafiosi.

He's looking at the president,
but he's seeing Sammy

"The Bull" Gravano,

listening to a don

saying "I need loyalty.

I need your loyalty."

It's gonna make
a great movie.

It's not surprising

that a president
would want loyalty

from a subordinate.
It is extremely surprising,

and stupid on Trump's part,

to overtly ask for loyalty
from Comey,

because first of all,

it looks like Trump is trying

to protect himself
from scrutiny.

Second of all,

there's no way

that anyone
in Comey's position,

and especially Jim Comey,

can give him the loyalty
that he thinks he needs

when there's an investigation
going on,

and Comey's got a job to do,
and he's running

the FBI.

I was determined
not to give the president

any hint of assent
to this demand,

so I gave silence instead.

He then returned
to the issue of loyalty,

saying again,
"I need loyalty."

I paused again.

"You will always get honesty
from me," I said.

He paused.
"That's what I want:

honest loyalty,"
he said.

This appeared to satisfy him
as some sort of deal

in which we were both winners.

"You will get that
from me," I said.

Jim has said
that he muffed the situation,

um, and that he regrets,
in retrospect,

compromising
with the president

on "honest loyalty."

I agree with him.
I think--

I think, ideally,

the right way to do it
would've been to say,

"Nope.
Sorry, Mr. President.

I cannot oblige you
on the loyalty thing.

You know.
Sorry.

You know, maybe you have
to fire me now, but,

like, I don't--loyalty is--
that's just not what I do.

I have an oath
to the Constitution.

End of story."

I think it is interesting

that nobody else has told
a story like this,

and I doubt very much
it's because

nobody else
has been asked

for a loyalty oath,

and I want to know

who exactly
in the federal government

did better than Jim,

faced one-on-one
with the president,

asked for loyalty.

Embattled
national security advisor

General Michael Flynn

stepping down Monday night.

Michael Flynn forced

to resign for not telling
the truth

about his contacts
with the Russian ambassador.

The shakeup
comes at a critical time

for President Trump.

That also
raised questions

about the relationship
with Russia,

which still remains
a big question.

Happy Valentine's Day.
I can sense

the love in the room.

Um, I want to address

the events of last night,
first and foremost.

The evolving and eroding
level of trust

as a result
of this situation

is what led the president

to ask for General Flynn's
resignation.

Why would the president,
if he was notified 17 days ago

that Flynn was
a potential threat

to blackmail by the Russians,

why would he be kept on

for almost three weeks?

Once we understood
that this was a showdown

that involved lies
from the president's

national security advisor--

that's when we began
to move, publicly at least,

into uncharted territory.

In your estimation,
was General Flynn,

at that time,
in serious legal jeopardy?

General Flynn,
at that point in time,

was in legal jeopardy.

There was an open
FBI criminal investigation

of his statements in connection

with the Russian contacts

and the contacts themselves.

And I--I think that is
very significant, because

on February 14th,

you were in a meeting,

and the president asked

everyone to leave,

including the attorney general
to leave,

before he brought up
the matter of General Flynn,

and have you ever seen
anything like that before?

No,

and so I knew

something was about to happen

that I needed to pay

very close attention to.

The president
seemed oddly uninterested

and distracted during
the classified briefing.

At the end
of this low-energy session,

he signaled
that the briefing was over.

Then, pointing at me,
he added,

"I just want to talk to Jim.
Thanks, everybody."

The president began
by saying

General Flynn hadn't done
anything wrong

in speaking with the Russians.
He then said,

"I hope you can see
your way clear

to letting this go,
to letting Flynn go.

He is a good guy.
I hope you can let this go."

Think about it.

The President
of the United States

asking the FBI director

to drop
an ongoing investigation.

Thank you, sir.

Senator Risch.

Thank you very much.
You wrote down the words,

so we can all have the words
in front of us now.

Quote, "I hope--"
this is the president speaking.

"I hope
you can let this go."

Now, those are his exact words.
Is that correct?

Correct.
-Okay.

He did not direct you
to let it go.

Not in his words, no.

He did not order you
to let it go.

Again, those words
are not an order.

No.

He said, "I hope."

The reason I keep saying
"his words" is

I took it as a direction.

I mean, this is the
President of the United States

with me alone,
saying "I hope" this.

I didn't obey that,
but that's the way I took it.

All right.

When you have the President
of the United States

saying to the chief
law enforcement officer,

"Hey, look the other way
on my guy,"

that is an enormous
red flag.

It sure seems
like a cover-up,

and that is why
we have to start looking

at obstruction of justice.

Do you sense that the president

was trying to obstruct justice,

or just seek for a way

for Mike Flynn to save face,

given he had already
been fired?

Obstruction of justice
is a technical crime.

It is something
that requires evidence,

you know, that stands up
in a court of law.

Now, there is
no constitutional rule

that says the president
is not allowed

to instruct the FBI director

as to how to conduct
an investigation.

In fact, he is
constitutionally authorized

to do exactly that.

Despite the norms

about FBI independence,

he's the chief prosecutor.

In some sense,

he is allowed to decide

who gets prosecuted or not,

and the paradox
and difficulty here

is whether the president
was acting

within his legitimate
constitutional power

to direct an investigation,

or whether he crossed
the line somehow,

if the line can be crossed,
into criminality.

And so
it looks suspicious,

but at the end of the day,

a lot of this does turn
on criminal intent,

and we'd have to get into,
really,

what was President Trump's
state of mind at the time,

which is often
very hard to prove,

because the prosecutor asks,
"What were you thinking?"

and the defendant says,
"I'm taking

my Fifth Amendment rights,"

and so what you need to do
as a prosecutor

is look to extrinsic evidence--

did he talk to other folks,

what did he say to his
national security advisor,

does he have
anything written down

that might bear on this--

and then start
to build a case.

This is one of the reasons
why I think

that as a legal matter,
the claim that Trump

committed obstruction
of justice is much harder

than most commentators
have made it seem,

but it's--the legal matter
is not what's important.

What's important is that

the President
of the United States

was trying to shape
an investigation

into himself
and his subordinates

in a way that

is a complete violation
of all the norms

that have been put in place
since Watergate.

It's all fake news.

Mike Flynn is a fine person.

Mike was doing his job.

He was calling countries

and his counterparts.

Yes, go ahead.

Can you say
whether you

are aware that anyone

who advised your campaign

had contacts with Russia

during the course
of the election?

How many times do I have

to answer this question?

- Can you just say--
- Russia is a ruse.

Yeah, I know you have
to get up and ask a question.

It's so important.
Russia is a ruse.

I have nothing
to do with Russia.

To the best of my t--
knowledge,

no person that I deal with...

Jeff Sessions met twice

with the Russian ambassador

to the United States

during last year's

presidential campaign.

As attorney general,

it's Jeff Sessions'
responsibility

to oversee
any potential investigation

into the Trump campaign's
relationship with Russia.

Now, several are suggesting

that the nation's
chief law enforcement officer

himself step aside.

The president
was very concerned

when he first heard
about this,

and had
the White House counsel,

Don McGahn,

try and lobby Sessions

not to step aside.

I have been here

just three weeks today.

A lot has been happening,
in this three-week period.

Ultimately, Sessions said,
"Look, the career folks

here at the Justice Department

who advised me on this said

that I have to not
be involved in this

because of my role
in the campaign."

Therefore,
I have recused myself,

in the matters that deal
with the Trump campaign.

Jeff Sessions, who is

a politician
through and through,

bent to the norms

of independence
of the department.

You don't want
the attorney general

to be conducting
an investigation

where he has
a conflict of interest.

So the number two person,
Rod Rosenstein,

who occupied the position
that Comey had

when I was in
the Justice Department--

he was the deputy
attorney general--

he became,
for the Russia matter,

the acting attorney general,

just as Comey had become,

for the surveillance program

in 2004,
the acting attorney general,

and so this actually worked

the way it was supposed
to work.

Thank you all.
Take care.

But when
Sessions recused himself,

Trump became enraged.

A source is telling CNN

that the president
was frustrated and angry.

That led to a fiery meeting
in the Oval Office,

where there were, quote,
"a lot of expletives."

The President
of the United States

is infuriated,

because he wants loyalty.

He wants his man

in charge
of the Russia investigation,

and he can't have it.

After that angry
White House meeting,

the president left
for Florida,

and it was from
his Mar-a-Lago estate

on Saturday morning
that Trump tweeted out

that explosive accusation

that President Obama
ordered the wiretapping

of his phone
and Trump Tower

during the campaign.

Trump is trying
to muddy the waters

and distract
from the Russia probe.

Along comes Comey

to set the record straight

in a very public way.

Tomorrow, James Comey

will publicly answer questions

about the president's
wiretapping claims.

The setting this time:

the House Intelligence
Committee.

It promises
to be a blockbuster.

How directly will
he take on the president

in open session?
If he does,

how is the president
gonna respond?

The committee
will come to order.

Director Comey,

I want to begin
by attempting to put to rest

several claims
made by the president

about his predecessor,

namely, that President Obama

wiretapped his phones.

I have no information
that supports those tweets,

and we have looked carefully
inside the FBI.

The president accused

Mr. Obama,
and presumably the FBI,

of engaging in McCarthyism.

Were you engaged
in McCarthyism, Director Comey?

I try very hard
not to engage in any isms

of any kind,

including--
including McCarthyism.

The investigation
in the House

Intelligence Committee

began as
a bipartisan investigation.

Um, but then we had

the open hearing
with James Comey.

Director Comey,
you're recognized

for five minutes.

As you know,
our practice

is not to confirm

the existence
of ongoing investigations,

but in unusual circumstances,

where it is
in the public interest,

it may be appropriate
to do so.

This is one
of those circumstances.

He announced
for the first time

that there had been
a counterintelligence

investigation
of the Trump campaign

going on since July.

I was told thereafter

that the GOP members
of our committee

viewed that hearing

as an unmitigated disaster,

which was curious to me,

because it was only a disaster
if you viewed

as your mission
protecting the president.

We were attacked
by a hostile power.

In a normal time,

the legislative branch
of government

would say,
"What the hell just happened?"

Director Comey,
you announced this morning

that there'll be
an investigation

into Trump associates.
Do Russians

historically prefer Republicans

to win over Democrats?

I don't know
the answer to that.

Did the Russians

prefer Mitt Romney

over Barack Obama in 2012?

I never saw a U.S.
intelligence community

analytic position
on that issue.

Don't you think
it's ridiculous to say

that somehow, the Russians,
prefer

Republicans over--
over Democrats?

With the election
of Donald Trump,

you got
a Republican president,

you got a Republican Congress,

and the Republican Congress

proves unwilling and unable

to investigate
the Republican president.

Director Comey,
do you have any evidence

at the FBI that any

current Trump White House

or administration official

coordinated with the Russian

intelligence services?
-That's not something

I can answer
in an open setting.

Well, we're conducting
our own investigation here,

and I know that you're
not going to tell me

whether or not
you have any evidence,

but I can tell you that
we don't have any evidence.

You know, there is
a big gray cloud

that you have now put over,

people who have
very important work to do

to lead this country.

I understand.
Thank you.

If you think about
the antics of Devin Nunes,

there's some
deep, deep worry

that there are people
in Congress

who don't care
about the law,

who don't care
about the Constitution,

and care only
about getting reelected

and having
their president reelected.

Among the majority party,

there's no interest
in finding out

what the Russians did,

or what the Trump campaign did,

or what they did
in combination.

That is damning evidence

that our system is

cracking in terms

of its checks and balances.

What you have

in the House Intelligence
Committee is

a chairman who has
essentially destroyed

the checks and balances

that are written
into the Constitution

to construct
a Trumpian reality

around a terrible event.

And as we sit here today,

we know
they're coming at us again,

and we haven't done
a damn thing about it.

He asked
what we could do

to lift the cloud.
I responded that we were

investigating the matter
as quickly as we could.

The president went on to say
that if there were

some satellite associates
of his

who did something wrong,

it would be good
to find that out,

but then reemphasized
the problems

this was causing him

and said he hoped
I could find a way

to get out that he wasn't
being investigated.

Now, I understand

that you received
a call from Trump as well.

I--you know, I did.
You know--

Look, God knows
I don't fully understand

why Donald Trump does
all that he does,

but there's all sorts of ways

someone who is in
political office

can try to put the arm
on someone who's a prosecutor

or a law enforcement official.

Someone will say,
"Stop working on that case."

People can also say,
"Could you open up a case?"

Now, our jurisdiction
included his properties,

his residents, bank accounts,
family members--

I'm not saying that we
were looking

at any of those things
necessarily,

but that was what
our ambit included.

Ordinarily, if someone
of that position

is gonna be calling
the local prosecutor

in a jurisdiction
as I described,

there would've been
some warning about it,

it would have been set up
through the attorney general--

I mean, there is protocol

for precisely the purpose

of making sure that lines
are not crossed,

so we considered
whether or not

I should return the call

and actually make
a tape recording

of the phone call
between the sitting

United States attorney
and the sitting president,

and we thought that was
a bridge too far.

That didn't feel right,

and then we taught--
thought to ourselves

we could take
contemporaneous notes,

and I later learned
Jim Comey did.

Why was there
so much of an instinct

for people to want
to have a record

of a conversation
with President Trump?

On the morning
of April 11th,

the president called to ask
what I had done

about his request
that I get out

that he is not personally
under investigation.

He seemed irritated with me.
Then he added,

"Because I have been
very loyal to you. Very loyal.

We had that thing, you know."

You described
two phone calls

that you received
from President Trump

where he asked you,

quote, "to lift the cloud,"
end quote.

Talk for a moment about

your response to that

and what impact
you believe that had.

Well, I didn't do it, and so

this didn't improve
the relationship.

Please go into that
with more detail.

He was frustrated
with the

Russia investigation

and something about the way
I was conducting it

the president felt

created pressure on him
that he wanted to relieve.

After April 11th,

did he ask you more, ever,

about the Russia investigation?

No.

We never spoke again

after April 11th.

I was in Los Angeles
to attend

a diversity agent
recruiting event.

I went early enough
to have time

to visit the FBI's
Los Angeles field office.

I met dozens
of LA employees

standing at their desks,

and then I stopped.

On the TV screens
along the back wall,

I could see "Comey Fired"

in large letters.

This is coming on the heels

of the FBI director being,

so central

involved in this,
Russian scandal.

Across three screens,

displaying three
different news stations,

I now saw
the same words.

President Trump acted based on
the clear recommendations

of deputy attorney general,

Rod Rosenstein.

I just got a letter.

It's a lengthy letter,
a three-page letter,

from the deputy
attorney general.

The deputy attorney general

Rod Rosenstein said,

"I could not defend
the director.

James Comey's handling

of the conclusion
of the investigation

of Secretary Clinton's emails,
started..."

When Trump

fired Comey, he gave

as his first and
ostensible reason,

a memo that Rosenstein
had written

that had detailed

what Rosenstein viewed
as the failings of Comey

in connection
with the Hillary investigation.

You remember, that was
that highly dramatic

press conference that was held
last summer

where, FBI director Comey

was quite critical
of Hillary Clinton.

There's much to question
about what Comey did,

but that seemed like
it was a memo written

quickly, and not
very impressively,

as an excuse to fire Comey.

There is no way

that Rod Rosenstein
could have thought

that Donald Trump

wanted to fire
the FBI director

because he had been unfair

to Hillary Clinton...

Morning, sir.
How you doing?

...Though I'm sure
it reflects

Rod's honest evaluation
of Jim's performance

in the Hillary Clinton
email matters.

Monday, you met with
the deputy attorney general,

Rod Rosenstein.
-Right.

Did you ask
for a recommendation?

He made
a recommendation,

but regardless
of recommendation,

I was going to fire Comey.
My decision.

- It was not--
- You had made the decision

before they came in the room?

I-I was going to fire Comey.

And, in fact, when I decided
to just do it,

I said to myself--I said,
"You know,

this Russia thing
with Trump and Russia

is a made-up story."

This was an excuse

for having lost an election,
and--

Okay, are you angry
with Mr. Comey

because of his
Russia investigation?

I just want somebody
that's competent.

Trump realized

that he could not count

on Jim Comey

to not investigate him

and not investigate
his friend,

and that is why he fired
Jim Comey,

as he made very clear

the next day
to the Russian ambassador

and the foreign minister.

The thing
about that meeting

that is sort of
an interesting thing

of the Trump era is that
everyone remembers it

because the president
called Comey a nutjob.

With all the news
Trump makes,

we tend to follow
the stupid human trick

and not pay attention
to the more substantive thing,

the fact that he said

it relieved pressure on him.

Ultimately,
this is the story

about a president

not getting
the investigative outcomes

that he wanted,

and trying to make
law enforcement

malleable
to his political desires,

and the--the extreme danger
of that

should be all
we've been talking about

for the last year
and a half,

and it hasn't been,

and one of the reasons is that

people have
such mixed feelings about Jim.

FBI director

James Comey

has just been fired

by Donald Trump.

Wow.
Wow...

Huge, huge Donald Trump fans
here tonight.

The complicated feelings

that people have
about Comey

in relation to Hillary Clinton

really did muddy that story.

Frankly, I think
it's kind of sad.

Here's what Democrats said
not long ago about Comey.

Harry Reid said Comey
should resign

and be investigated
by the Senate.

Senator Chuck Schumer said,
"I don't have confidence

in him any longer."
And I've heard

from countless, members
of the FBI

that are grateful and thankful
for the president's decision.

You personally

have talked to countless FBI
employees since this happened?

Correct.
-I mean, really?

Like, I mean, really?
Are we be--so are we talking--

Between, like,
email, text messages,

absolutely.
-50?

Yes.
-I don't believe

she heard from anybody

in the building,

so I sought,

under Freedom
of Information Act,

all statements to staff

in response to the firing

in all the field offices,

in all the divisions.

If Sarah Huckabee Sanders
was right,

there would be a kind of

"ding-dong,
the witch is dead."

There was not
a single expression

anywhere
in any of those pages

that remotely supports

what Sarah Huckabee Sanders
said.

People in that building

knew instinctively

that the attacks on him

were a proxy
for an attack on them.

At that point,
the face-to-face meetings

between Trump and Comey

are not a matter
of public record,

but two days
after Comey is fired,

there's a headline
in The New York Times.

"In A Private Dinner,

Trump Demanded Loyalty.

Comey Demurred."

In the aftermath
of Comey being fired,

it was clear
that some stuff had gone on

that we didn't know about
between Comey

and the president,
and the first story

that I was able to break
about it

was the loyalty dinner.

Trump was obviously
very upset,

and it's in the aftermath
of that story

that the president tweets

"Comey better hope
there are not tapes."

President tweeted
on Friday

after I got fired.

I woke up
in the middle of the night.

Holy cow.
There might be tapes,

and if there are tapes,

it's not just my word
against his

on the direction to get rid
of the Flynn investigation,

and so I asked a friend of mine

to share the content
of the memo with a reporter,

because I thought
that might prompt

the appointment
of a special counsel.

When you received

the information
about this memo,

did you realize
what it could lead to?

Yeah, I mean,
it was pretty clear--

the significance of it.
Yeah.

We reported
about the Oval Office meeting,

and the next day,

Rod Rosenstein

appoints Mueller
to be the special counsel.

The White House
blindsided tonight

as the Department of Justice

will appoint
a special counsel...

Special Counsel
in the Russia investigation.

That
special counsel will be

former FBI director
Robert Mueller.

The former
FBI director Robert Mueller.

So it--it isn't
like the firing of Comey

ended the investigation into--

No.
If anything,

you could argue that it

doubled or tripled the shadow

over the White House.

Sir, do you
believe that Robert Mueller,

our new special investigator
on Russia,

will be thorough and complete
without political intervention,

and would you be confident

on his findings
and recommendations?

Yes.
Bob Mueller is one

of the finest people
and public servants

this country has ever produced.

He will do it well.

He is a dogged,
tough person,

and you can have
high confidence

that when it's done,
he's turned over all the rocks.

Director Comey,
thank you once again

on behalf of the committee.
This hearing's adjourned.

When the president
fires Jim Comey,

he thinks if he decapitates
the FBI,

the FBI will cease
to investigate him.

He is so wrong.

Bob Mueller can take teams
of FBI agents

and point them
in a number of directions.

His mandate is not simply
to look at all things Russia.

It is to look
at all things criminal.

Like Paul Manafort

and Rick Gates' indictment

for money laundering
and past work

for Russian-backed oligarchs
in Ukraine.

Paul Manafort
is a nice man.

You look at what's going on
with him--

it--it's just a sad thing.

We've seen from Mueller

that his interests are broad,

that he is looking

at many different things,
including

charging Russians
who were part

of this influence campaign,
to charging

folks around the president

with making false statements
to investigators.

Michael Flynn
ended up pleading guilty.

This is where we saw
George Papadopoulos

plead guilty.

There has been

absolutely no collusion.

It's been stated
that they have no collusion.

At every stage
of his investigation,

Bob Mueller has surprised us

by knowing more
and knowing it earlier

than we possibly imagined.

They have a witch hunt

against the President
of the United States.

What's going on
is a disgrace.

It's an absolute disgrace.

Investigations
beget investigations,

so what starts
as a counterintelligence case

becomes an obstruction
of justice case

when Comey is fired,

and it has now

almost inevitably,

because you're investigating
Donald Trump,

become an investigation

that is fraught
with evidence trails

and the question
of hush money, and...

...it could go on

until long after Trump
has left office.

Why don't you
just fire Mueller?

Why don't I just fire Mueller?

Yeah, just fire
the guy.

And many people have said,

"You should fire him."

So we'll see what happens.

I think
it's, disgraceful,

and so does a lot
of other people.

This is a pure and simple

witch hunt.
Thank you very much.

Thank you.
Thank you.

I saw this
on Twitter just yesterday.

Someone had the revelation:
"I--I guess

much of what goes on
in this country

at the highest levels
is done on the honor system."

Yeah, and that's true.

So when he fired Jim Comey,

I learned a lesson:

that this president,
if brought to anger,

is capable
of firing anyone.

I think he's capable
of pardoning anyone.

I think he's capable

of taking outrageous steps

if he thinks
that he or his family

are in the crosshairs.

Today, the president demanded

his attorney general,
Jeff Sessions, resign.

We're going to have
a new acting attorney general

who has been somewhat critical
of the Mueller investigation.

The president's move

shifts the focus immediately

to the Mueller investigation.

Is it in danger?

It's kind of
shame--shame on us

for being so surprised by it,

and as we tape this,
lots of things have happened

in, you know,
very recent times,

so shame on us again

if we don't realize,

how close we are

to yet another
constitutional crisis,

because, you know any--
any moment,

if Donald Trump had
his druthers,

he would do a lot of things
that are inimical to democracy.

Raise your right hand
and please repeat after me.

"I, Richard Nixon,

do solemnly swear..."

I, Richard Nixon,
do solemnly swear...

Our whole history
is about

creating a system
of accountability

to prevent the rise

of an autocracy
or a dictatorship.

If you don't obey the laws
that are put in place

to keep all of us
on the up-and-up,

then where are you?

I, Ronald Reagan,

do solemnly swear...

"That I will
faithfully execute

the office of President
of the United States..."

That I will faithfully execute
the office

of President
of the United States...

If the FBI is not doing it,
who's gonna do it?

We're not perfect,

but the institution is solid.

I-I fear what it would be like
if we didn't have

the FBI.

It's not--it's not the enemy.

I will, to the best
of my ability...

"Preserve, protect, and defend

the Constitution
of the United States."

The question
of whether we

are still capable

of holding
the president, accountable

is an enduring one,

and I hope
that the American people

want those
truth-finding mechanisms

to be able
to do their job

unimpeded.

Preserve,
protect, and defend

the Constitution
of the United States.

Congratulations, Mr. President.

No free republic

in the history of civilization

has lasted longer
than 300 years,

and that was
the Roman Empire.

We're on year 242.

If we're gonna
make it

to the three-century mark,

we have to get through this

in a way in which

our institutions

and the rule of law
are strengthened,

and at the moment,
they are under attack

by the President
of the United States.