Several weeks after his inauguration, President Trump reportedly called former F.B.I. James B. Comey, asking him when the F.B.I. would confirm that he was personally not under investigation.
According to two sources briefed on the call, Mr. Comey did not answer the president’s question. Instead, he advised him on the proper way to communicate with the F.B.I.
According to guidelines, the F.B.I. is prohibited from discussing active criminal investigations with the White House unless they are “important for the performance of the president’s duties and appropriate from a law enforcement perspective.” If an active investigation meets this guideline, only the attorney general or the deputy attorney general can begin discussing the case with the president.
Accordingly, Trump should have ordered the White House counsel to send its inquiries to the Justice Department, not directly called the F.B.I. director.
This phone call added to the list of interactions between Trump and Comey that the director felt threatened the F.B.I.’s independence, in light of its investigation into ties between Trump’s associates and Russia. According to associates of Comey, the President asked Comey to pledge his loyalty during a dinner. He also asked Comey to end his investigation of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor.
The day following this conversation, which Trump has denied, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus asked Comey to assist the White House in denying that Trump’s associates collaborated with Russian intelligence officials during his election campaign.
Comey included all of these encounters in his detailed notes, which he passed on to his aides. According to two sources who have read them, the notes show that Mr. Trump continuously tried to influence Comey.
However, Comey aimed to be independent, not wanting to have political allegiances. He is among the several other previous F.B.I. directors who have sought to keep a distance between the White House and the Justice Department. While J. Edgar Hoover, the F.B.I.’s longest-serving director, had close relationships with numerous presidents, leaders of the modern F.B.I. have worked to ensure that the White House has limited contact with the F.B.I.
Consequently, Comey felt that his contact with Trump, as well as with his aides, was inappropriate. According to his associates, Comey spoke privately of his worries and expressed his will to resist Trump’s requests. He did not wish to be friendly with the president and sought to avoid personal contact with him.
Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the editor in chief of the Lawfare blog, a frequent critic of Trump and a close friend of Comey, revealed some of Comey’s concerns during interviews.
Though he initially did not wish to publicly discuss his conversations with Comey, Wittes decided to speak out after The New York Times reported earlier this month that Trump asked Comey for a loyalty pledge just days after his inauguration.
During a lunch Wittes had with Comey in March, Comey told Wittes that he continuously worked to preserve the separation between the F.B.I. and the White House during the first two months of Trump’s administration. Comey also had to educate Trump on the proper way to correspond with the F.B.I.
Comey revealed several more of his interactions with Trump during his lunch with Wittes. According to Wittes, two days after Trump’s inauguration, Comey attended a ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House honoring law enforcement officials who had provided security for the inauguration. Comey did not initially want to attend the ceremony, but he wished to represent the F.B.I.
Wearing a dark blue suit, Comey tried to blend in with the blue curtains of the room, hoping Trump would not call on him. Nonetheless, Trump eventually singled him out, saying, “Oh and there’s Jim. He’s become more famous than me.”
Comey then walked up to Trump, looking abashed, and stuck out his arm for a handshake. Trump, however, pulled him into an embrace, which Comey did not reciprocate.
In another situation Wittes described, the White House called Comey just before he was supposed to board a helicopter. Comey delayed his helicopter ride and answered the President’s request to speak with him; however, Trump simply wanted to chitchat. Comey perceived this call as Trump still “trying to get him on board,” according to Wittes.
During a different discussion with Comey, which Wittes detailed on Lawfare, Comey revealed his concerns over the Senate confirming federal prosecutor Rod J. Rosenstein as the deputy attorney general. “He’s good, he’s solid but he’s also a survivor and you don’t survive that long without making some compromises,” said Comey.
In light of his unwanted encounters with Trump, Comey “had to throw some brushback pitches to the administration,” said Wittes. However, after the phone call in which he instructed Trump on the proper guidelines and procedures, Comey reportedly felt better about his relationship with Trump and his administration. “I think we’ve kind of got them trained,” paraphrased Wittes.
According to White House press secretary Sean Spicer, Mr. Comey and acting F.B.I. director Andrew G. McCabe’s “sworn testimony… make clear that there was never any attempt to interfere in this investigation. As the president previously stated, he respects the ongoing investigations and will continue working to fulfill his promises to the American people.”
Mr. Comey never stated if he had told Trump whether he was under investigation. However, in the letter Trump sent to Comey to inform him that he was fired, Trump wrote, “I greatly appreciate you informing, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.”
Trump also initially cited a memo that Mr. Rosenstein had written as grounds for firing Comey. Nonetheless, Mr. Rosenstein revealed during a Thursday discussion with Senate members that Trump had already decided to fire Comey when he wrote this memo.
