US president Donald Trump on Friday accused James Comey, the former FBI director, of lying under oath to Congress in testimony that the president dismissed as a politically motivated proceeding.
Mr Trump also asserted that Mr Comey's comments Thursday, in which the former FBI director implied that the president fired him for pressing forward with the Russia investigation, had failed to prove any collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow nor any obstruction of justice.
"Yesterday showed no collusion, no obstruction," Mr Trump said in the White House Rose Garden, during a news conference with the visiting Romanian president. "That was an excuse by the Democrats, who lost an election they shouldn't have lost," he said.
“It was just an excuse, but we were very, very happy, and frankly, James Comey confirmed a lot of what I said, and some of the things that he said just weren’t true.”
Asked if he would be willing to give his version of events under oath, Mr Trump replied: “100 percent.”
The remarks were a defiant response from Mr Trump, who had remained uncharacteristically silent on social media during Mr Comey’s blockbuster day of testimony Thursday, as he is facing fresh questions about whether his interactions with his former FBI chief amounted to an attempt to obstruct justice.
While Mr Comey told Congress that the president had not personally been under investigation while he was in the post, his testimony provided a harsh back story that strongly suggested Mr Trump had tried to influence his handling of the matter.
Mr Trump denied that he had ever asked Mr Comey to drop the FBI investigation into ties of his former national security adviser and Russia, or asked for a pledge of loyalty, as Mr Comey asserted Thursday. Those conversations are reflected in memos Mr Comey wrote, and now are in the possession of Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the Russia probe named after Comey's firing.
"I didn't say that," Mr Trump said of the request regarding the former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, "And there'd be nothing wrong if I did say it." About the loyalty pledge from Comey, Mr Trump said: "I hardly know the man, I'm not going to ask him to pledge allegiance."
Tape recordings
Later it emerged the intelligence committee is asking White House lawyers whether there are any tape recordings or memos of Mr Comey’s conversations with Mr Trump.
The committee’s chairman, Mike Conaway and Adam Schiff, sent a letter to White House counsel Don McGahn, asking him whether any such tapes or memos exist now, or had existed in the past.
The committee has also sent a letter to Mr Comey, asking for any notes or memoranda in his possession that would describe discussions he had with Mr Trump. The committee is seeking the materials by June 23rd. A friend of Mr Comey’s is also being asked to hand over any memos the former FBI chief has given him.
The president declined repeatedly to say whether, as he suggested last month in a tweet, he had recordings of his conversations with Mr Comey. “I’ll tell you about it over a very short period of time,” he said. “You’re going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer.”
Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Comey had given him “vindication” in the Russia investigation.
"Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication," he wrote at 6.10 am. He added, "and WOW, Comey is a leaker," referring to the former director's admission that he had orchestrated the leak of the contents of a memo detailing Oval Office discussions with the president to the New York Times through a friend.
The president also recirculated another defence of his actions posted on Twitter by Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus who has advised the Trump team on Middle Eastern policy. "We should stop talking about obstruction of justice," Mr Dershowitz said, linking to an interview he gave to Fox News. "No plausible case. We must distinguish crimes from pol sins."
Mr Trump's team, led by his personal lawyer, Marc E Kasowitz, on Friday was preparing a counterattack on Mr Comey based in part on his admission that he arranged the leak of his account of the conversation with Mr Trump in which he says the president suggested the FBI halt its investigation into Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser.
The president’s lawyers plan to file a complaint with the justice department inspector general next week arguing that Mr Comey should not have shared what they call privileged communications, according to two people involved in the matter.
Anonymous source
The lawyers also plan to send a complaint to the Senate judiciary committee raising questions about Mr Comey's previous testimony to that panel. On May 3rd, in response to Republican senator Chuck Grassley, the committee chairman, Mr Comey said he had never been an anonymous source for news outlets about the investigation involving Mr Trump's team or authorised anyone at the FBI to be.
In his testimony on Thursday, Mr Comey said the memo whose contents he had a friend leak was not classified and therefore not inappropriate to make public. Mr Trump’s lawyers argue that it was subject to executive privilege, although the president has never asserted privilege over his conversations with Mr Comey and independent legal experts have expressed doubt that he could.
Mr Comey arranged the leak on May 15th after he was fired and after the May 3rd hearing so it would not be in direct conflict with that testimony.
New York Times