In his opening statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee, released less than 24 hours before the hearing was set to begin, James Comey described a meeting wherein President Trump expressed hope that an FBI investigation into Mike Flynn would clear the former national security adviser of wrongdoing.
Here is the exchange, excerpted from Comey’s testimony:
The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, “He is a good guy and has been through a lot.” He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” I replied only that “he is a good guy.” (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would “let this go.”
Comey wrote that he interpreted Trump’s comments as a request for the FBI to drop any investigation into Flynn for discussion he shared with the Russian ambassador. “I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December,” the former FBI director explained in his testimony.
Comey’s interpretation is not unreasonable, and, of course, bears significant credibility given that he was the only person to actually hear the president’s words.
But take another look at what Trump actually said, according to Comey’s account:
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“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”
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“I hope you can let this go.”
“I hope you can let this go” could have felt to Comey like a strong suggestion that there would be repercussions if he did not let the investigation go, but it certainly is not definitive proof that Trump directed him to do so. In the literal sense, there is nothing wrong with Trump hoping that a former administration official would be cleared of wrongdoing. It only becomes damning if you assume the context was that Trump made the statement with a wink and a nod, implying something more like, “I hope you can let this go or otherwise you could be in trouble.”
Again, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable interpretation, but the president’s words on their own do not prove he explictly requested the investigation be dropped.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
