Trump Willing to Testify Under Oath Regarding Comey Claims

This Friday, President Donald Trump said that he would be willing to testify under oath regarding his conversations with former FBI director James Comey. When asked about his willingness to give a testimony, he said, “One hundred percent.” Trump fiercely denied claims that he asked Comey to discontinue the FBI’s investigation into national security advisor Micheal Flynn.

The president also denied asking Comey for his loyalty, however, says that “There would be nothing wrong if I did say that.” He further declined to comment on whether or not there were actual recordings of the conversations he had with the former FBI director. In relation to the recordings, Trump said “I’ll tell you about that sometime in the future.” When asked a second time he replied by saying, “I’m not hinting anything. I will tell you over a very short period of time.”

On Friday, Trump also offered a very blunt assessment of Comey’s testimony to the Senate Intelligence Panel. During a Rose Garden news conference Trump stated, “No collusion, no obstruction, he’s a leaker.” He argues that his team was “very happy” after the testimony.

Trump officially took questions from reporters for the first time in three weeks, while standing next to the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. This was a particularly brief news conference in which both presidents took only two press questions each. The conference comes only one day after Comey’s bombshell testimony, in which the former FBI director accused the Whit House of “lies.”

During Comey’s Testimony this Thursday, Trump remained silent on Twitter, however on Friday he tweeted that, “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication…WOW, Comey is a leaker!”

His tweet relates to the Republicans many talking points regarding the Testimony. The Republican National Committee and the White House used surrogates in order to put emphasis on the fact that the fired FBI director clearly says during the testimony that the current President was never the explicit topic of the Russian probe (at least not during Comey’s time at the FBI). However, the testimony has still left a sour impression on the White House. Comey claims that President Trump’s private remarks urging him to drop the probe into the former national security advisor Micheal Flynn, lead to former director to warn his Justice Department Employees to be cautious. He also revealed that he chose to take detailed notes during his interactions with Trump because he was worried that if he did not, the current administration and the President himself would lie about their conversations.

Since the Justice Department tapped former FBI Director Robert Mueller to be the special counsel investigating the Russian interference with the 2016 election, Trump has remained relatively shy of the media. The last time he formally took questions was on May 18th, during a bilateral news conference with the current President of Columbia Juan Manuel Santos.