Key moments of Trump-Comey clash and what's come after
Updated: 2017-05-17 09:57
White House Senior Advisor Kellyanne Conway holds up a memorandum from the Justice Department's Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein critical of Comey's position as director of the FBI at the White House in Washington, US, May 10, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] |
Feb 14, 2017: Comey speaks with Trump in the Oval Office a day after Flynn is ousted. A memo that Comey wrote after the meeting, which became public May 16, says Trump asked him to shut down the FBI investigation into Flynn and his Russia ties.
March 8, 2017: During a cybersecurity conference at Boston College, Comey says he plans to serve his entire 10-year term, quipping, "You're stuck with me for another 6? years."
March 20, 2017: Comey testifies to Congress that the FBI has been investigating possible links between Trump associates and Russian officials since July, the same month he held an unusual news conference to discuss the investigation into Clinton. Comey had previously refused to acknowledge the parallel Trump investigation, and his disclosure enrages Democrats who already blamed Comey for costing Clinton the presidency.
March 20, 2017: Comey testifies at the same hearing that the FBI and Justice Department have no information to back up Trump's unsubstantiated claim on Twitter that Obama wiretapped him before the election.
May 2, 2017: Clinton again lays part of the blame for losing the election on Comey's Oct 28 letter. "If the election were on Oct 27, I would have been your president," she tells a women's luncheon in New York.
May 3, 2017: Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Comey insists he was consistent in his handling of the separate investigations into Clinton and Trump. Comey also says it made him feel "mildly nauseous" to think his actions in October might have influenced the election outcome. But he tells senators: "I can't consider for a second whose political futures will be affected and in what way. We have to ask ourselves what is the right thing to do and then do it."
May 9, 2017: Comey sends Congress a letter correcting his prior sworn testimony regarding emails handled by longtime Clinton associate Huma Abedin. Comey had told Congress that Abedin had sent "hundreds and thousands" of emails to her husband's laptop, including some with classified information. The two-page, follow-up letter said that, in fact, only "a small number" of the thousands of emails found on the laptop had been forwarded there while most had simply been backed up from electronic devices.