President Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski suggested Friday that former FBI Director James Comey wanted Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step aside in the Russia investigation because he testified Thursday that FBI leadership knew weeks before his recusal that Sessions would step aside.
“Jim Comey had information about Jeff Sessions and wanted Jeff Sessions removed from the investigation, he said so basically yesterday, wanted him removed, and timeline doesn’t add up and Comey isn’t telling truth,” Lewandowski said on Fox News.
In his written opening statement, Comey said he briefed his leadership team at the FBI that in a discussion with President Trump about the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn, Trump told Comey to “let this go.” But Comey said the FBI agreed not to notify Sessions because they believed “he would likely recuse himself from involvement in Russia-related investigations.”
Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation two weeks after Comey and Trump’s Feb. 14 conversation, following reports that he did not disclose conversations he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
“The timeline does not add up, but what he testified under oath, he knew, Jeff Sessions attorney general would recuse himself from the Russian investigation. This is a statement he made on February 15th,” Lewandowski said.
When pressed by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., during Thursday’s hearing concerning what the FBI was aware of concerning Sessions’ recusal, Comey said he could not discuss the details in an open setting.
“Our judgment, as I recall, was that he was very close to and inevitably going to recuse himself for a variety of reasons,” Comey testified. “We also were aware of facts that I can’t discuss in an open setting, that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic and so we were — we were convinced and in fact, I think we had already heard that the career people were recommending that he recuse himself, that he was not going to be in contact with Russia-related matters much longer.”
Sessions also suggested during his confirmation hearing that he would likely recuse himself from any investigations related to the campaign since he openly supported Trump throughout the 2016 campaign.
