Comey during Thursday’s hearing.
Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
“I can recall nine one-on-one conversations with President Trump in four months — three in person and six on the phone,” former FBI director James Comey wrote in his Senate testimony, released a day ahead of his marathon hearing on Capitol Hill. But in that statement, Comey only described two of the six calls in detail. Here, in response to a question from Arkansas GOP senator Tom Cotton, Comey recounts those four other chats with Trump:
“The president called me, I believe shortly before he was inaugurated, as a follow-up to our conversation, private conversation on January the 6th. He just wanted to reiterate his rejection of the allegation and talk about — he thought about it more and why he thought it wasn’t true, the verified, unverified, and salacious parts. And during that call he asked me, again, ‘Hope you’re gonna stay. You’re doing a great job.’ And I told him that I intended to.
There was another phone call that I mentioned, I think it was — could have the date wrong — March the 1st, where he called just to check in with me as I was about to get on the helicopter.
There was a secure call we had about about an operational matter that was not related to any of this. About something the FBI was working on and he wanted to make sure that I understood how important he thought it was. A totally appropriate call.
And then the fourth call, er, I’m probably forgetting. I may have meant the call, when he called, to invite me to dinner. I’ll think about it as I’m answering other questions but I think I got that right.”
