Los Angeles, CA – Today, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement:
“The Comey memos, written shortly after the interactions took place, demonstrate that the former FBI Director’s testimony to Congress and recent public statements are an accurate reflection of his conversations with the President. They are also important evidence on the issue of potential obstruction of justice.
“These memos document the President’s disturbing effort to get the FBI to drop the criminal case against his former national security advisor, Mike Flynn, who would later plead guilty to a felony. The memos reveal the President’s repeated efforts to get the Director to ‘lift the cloud’ of the investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russia, and whether he personally was under investigation. The memos also memorialize his attempt to get the Director to pledge personal loyalty to him, rather than to the interests of justice. Although the President denies that many of these conversations took place, the description of these events is corroborated by others with whom former Director Comey shared this information shortly after the meetings and phone calls took place.
“Releasing investigatory files during an ongoing investigation sets a disturbing precedent, and the Deputy Attorney General must be aware that no matter what he gives to these members of Congress, it will never be enough. House Republicans are spoiling to manufacture a conflict with the Justice Department that would give the President a pretext to get rid of Mueller or Rosenstein, heedless of the damage they are doing to our institutions.”
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