There are “troubling allegations” against US President Donald Trump in a written testimony by the now-fired FBI Director James Comey, says the top intel Democrat in the US House of Representatives.
“Former FBI Director Comey's written testimony confirms a host of troubling allegations concerning the President's conduct," said California Representative Adam Schiff, from the House Intelligence Committee, in a statement released after Comey's planned opening statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee was made public.
"Two stand out: The president sought to obtain a pledge of loyalty from the director of the FBI during a conversation that centered on whether the director would be able to keep his job," he said. "And second, the president effectively asked the director to drop the investigation of his former National Security Advisor[ Michel Flynn]."
In a February 14 meeting with Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Comey (pictured above) was told that Flynn "hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians."
"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Comey quoted Trump as saying at the time. "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."
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Along with other Trump allies, Flynn is part of an investigation into possible collusion between the Republican president’s team and Russia, claims dismissed both by Trump and the Kremlin.
"It is not the director's job to lift the cloud of suspicion over the President's conduct or that of his associates," Schiff said. "The request by the president to do...represents yet another improper effort to coerce the intelligence agencies to do public relations for the White House and to undermine the independence and integrity of the intelligence community.”
Apart from the House Intelligence Committee, at least three other congressional panels are investigating Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election along with the FBI.
On Thursday, Comey is going to testify in front of a Senate committee.