Trump asked FBI head for ‘loyalty’ and a halt to Flynn probe: 10 takeaways from Comey’s prepared testimony

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Comey told Trump he wasn’t under investigation …
In the letter Trump sent Comey informing him he was fired, he thanked him for “informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under FBI investigation.” Comey confirms that he assured Trump at least once that he personally was not the subject of any investigation.
In that context, prior to the January 6 meeting, I discussed with the FBI’s leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure President-Elect Trump that we were not investigating him personally. That was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him. We agreed I should do so if circumstances warranted. During our one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, based on President-Elect Trump’s reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking the question, I offered that assurance.

… but didn’t want to do so publicly in case things changed.
In a March 30 phone conversation Comey explained to Trump why there had been a hearing and how he had briefed congressional leadership on the specifics of the investigation. He did not explain to the president that he didn’t want to make a public statement saying he (Trump) was not under investigation, because he would have to publicly correct that statement if the situation changed–precisely the circumstance that had arisen when Comey felt obliged to inform Congressional leaders, just before the election, that he had reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
I explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those Congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump. I reminded him I had previously told him that. He repeatedly told me, “We need to get that fact out.” (I did not tell the President that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change.)