Former FBI Director James Comey will testify at a Senate hearing on Thursday that President Donald Trump told him “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”
Comey recounted the conversation in his prepared opening statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee. The statement was released Wednesday.
Comey recounted a Jan. 27 private dinner in the White House Green Room with the president.
“‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty,'” Comey quoted Trump as saying.
Comey continued: “I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence.”
While the conversation moved on, Comey said that Trump returned to the topic later in the evening. Comey said he tried to explain the importance of the Justice Department’s independence from the White House.
“Throughout history, some Presidents have decided that because ‘problems’ come from Justice, they should try to hold the Department close,” Comey said in the prepared remarks. “But blurring those boundaries ultimately makes the problems worse by undermining public trust in the institutions and their work.”
Trump fired Comey on May 9. In a letter addressed to Comey that day, Trump said: “It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump announced that he had picked Christopher A. Wray to succeed Comey as FBI director.
Read Comey’s full statement below:
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