Former FBI Director James Comey admitted Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he got a friend to leak memos of his conversations with President Trump to the press. Comey said he didn't personally share his written accounts of his talks with Trump regarding the Russia probe "for a variety of reasons," but got a friend to pass them along to a reporter because he believed it might "prompt the appointment of a special counsel." Shortly after the memos surfaced, Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, was tapped to lead an independent investigation into the Trump team's ties to Russian election meddling.
Comey said Trump's tweeting prompted him to decide to leak the memos. He said he woke up in the middle of the night after Trump threatened Comey in a tweet with "tapes" of their conversations, realizing that he needed to get his version of events "out into the public square."
Comey indicated the friend who did the leaking was a professor at Columbia Law School. Politico's Gabriel Debenedetti connected the dots back to Columbia Professor Daniel Richman, whose bio describes him as "an adviser" to Comey.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Week Unwrapped: Will US Catholics rebel against the Pope?Podcast Plus what are the ethics of freezing your late partner?
-
David Hockney at Annely Juda: an ‘eye-popping’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends ‘Some Very, Very, Very New Paintings Not Yet Shown in Paris’ testifies to the artist’s ‘extraordinary vitality’ and ‘childlike curiosity’
-
The most downloaded country song in the US is AI-generatedUnder the radar Both the song and artist appear to be entirely the creation of artificial intelligence
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
-
Trump pivots on Epstein vote amid GOP defectionsSpeed Read The president said House Republicans should vote on a forced release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
