Comey tells Congress he helped leak Russia memo

Former FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee he helped leak information to the press in hopes of the appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible Russian interference in the presidential election. Comey admitted to asking a friend to share with a reporter a memo he wrote about a one-on-one conversation with President Donald Trump. The New York Times then published a story about the leaked memo asserting Trump pressured Comey to drop the FBI’s investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. “The president tweeted on Friday after I got fired that I’d better hope there are not tapes,” Comey said, adding that he hopes everyone can listen to the tapes if they exist. He explained he asked “a good friend of mine who’s a professor at Columbia Law School” to share the information instead of personally delivering the memo to the press: “I thought it might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.” Shortly after the Times report, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel on the Russia probe. Comey testified for just under three hours in a public hearing before joining senators for a classified briefing. The former FBI director explained he took copious notes of each interaction with Trump because he was “honestly concerned’’ that the president might lie.

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