President Trump’s attorney is standing by his argument that former FBI Director James Comey may have been behind leaks to the New York Times earlier than he claimed in Thursday’s congressional hearing.
“Our statement was accurate,” attorney Marc Kasowitz said Friday afternoon.
Kasowitz argued Thursday after Comey’s hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee that the pattern of leaks about Comey’s encounters with the president did not match the former FBI director’s testimony, where he said he directed a friend to describe his memos to the media after a Trump tweet on May 12.
The New York Times published a report, on May 11, that first exposed the alleged “loyalty pledge” Trump requested Comey make to him at a Jan. 27 dinner. The report cited “two people who have heard [Comey’s] account of the dinner.”
Trump tweeted his warning to Comey about the possible existence of “tapes” of his conversations with Comey the morning of May 12.
The first mention of the memos Comey compiled came in a subsequent Times article published on May 16. That story, which alleged that the president asked Comey to drop the FBI investigation into Gen. Mike Flynn, was written by the same reporter as the May 11 article and also cited Comey’s “close associates,” one of whom read portions of the memo.
Kasowitz said Friday it “is obvious that whomever was the source for the” May 11th story in the New York Times “got that information from the memos or from someone reading or who had read the memos.”
“This makes clear, as our statement said, that Mr. Comey incorrectly testified that he never leaked the contents of the memo or details of the dinner before President Trump’s May 12, 2017 tweet,” he said.
Sarah Westwood contributed to this report.
