Former FBI Director James Comey refuted President Trump’s suggestion that he is “best friends” with special counsel Robert Mueller, instead telling House lawmakers they’re “not friends in any social sense.”
In a closed-door interview Friday with members of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees, the transcript of which was made public Saturday, Comey was asked by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, whether the two men were close.
“I admire the heck out of the man, but I don’t know his phone number. I’ve never been to his house. I don’t know his children’s names. I think I had a meal once alone with him in a restaurant,” Comey said.
“I like him a lot,” he continued. “I am not a — I’m an associate of his who admires him greatly. We’re not friends in any social sense.” Trump claimed in a tweet earlier Friday, before Comey’s testimony, that he and Mueller were “best friends, just one of many Mueller Conflicts of Interest.”
[Read more: Trump rips Mueller’s ‘big time conflicts of interest’]
The president also told The Daily Caller in a September interview that Mueller was Comey’s “best friend,” and claimed he could give them “100 pictures of him and Comey hugging and kissing each other.”
Nadler then told Comey he wouldn’t ask whether he and Mueller have “ever hugged and kissed.” Comey replied: “A relief to my wife.”
Comey’s appearance before the joint panel of lawmakers came after a dispute between him and Republicans over a subpoena from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., compelling him to sit for a deposition behind closed doors.
The former FBI director challenged the subpoena in federal court, but ultimately agreed to testify if he was able to speak freely after the conclusion of his interview and if the transcript was released within 24 hours.
