Quote:Comey Debunks NYT Report About Trump Campaign Having Repeated Contacts With Russians
(CNSNews.com) – “In the main, it was not true,” former FBI Director James Comey told Congress on Thursday.

He was talking about a February 14 New York Times report titled, “Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence.”

Quote:Lynch Successfully Pressured Comey To Mislead Public Using Clinton Campaign’s ‘Inaccurate’ Talking Points

Quote:Loretta Lynch, the former attorney general under Barack Obama, pressured former FBI Director James Comey to downplay the Clinton email server investigation and only refer to it as a “matter,” Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

Comey said that when he asked Lynch if she was going to authorize him to confirm the existence of the Clinton email investigation, her answer was, “Yes, but don’t call it that. Call it a matter.” When Comey asked why, he said, Lynch wouldn’t give him an explanation. “Just call it a matter,” she said.

Comey added later that he was concerned about that direction as it was false. He was further concerned because it aligned with the Clinton campaign’s spin on the investigation.

Lynch’s order, Comey said, “concerned me because that language tracked the way the campaign was talking about the FBI’s work and that’s concerning.”

Quote:Chris Matthews: Trump-Russia collusion theory 'came apart' with Comey testimony

Quote:Liberal MSNBC host Chris Matthews said Thursday the accusation that President Trump directly colluded with Russia to interfere in the U.S. election "came apart" following former FBI Director James Comey's testimony in front of Congress.

In his written and spoken testimony on Thursday, Comey said that he never felt that Trump had tried to impede the FBI's investigation into Russia, even that the president had encouraged it and he suggested that former national security adviser Mike Flynn wasn't at the heart of the investigation.

"The assumption of the critics of the president, of his pursuers, you might say, is that somewhere along the line in the last year is the president had something to do with colluding with the Russians … to affect the election in some way," Matthews said on MSNBC, following the testimony.
"And yet what came apart this morning was that theory," Matthews said, listing two reasons why. First, he said Comey revealed that "Flynn wasn't central to the Russian investigation," and secondly, he said that kills the idea that Flynn might have been in a position to testify against Trump.
"And if that's not the case, where's the there-there?" Matthews said.

Quote:CNN issues correction after Comey statement contradicts reporting

Quote:CNN has corrected a Tuesday report after the release of former FBI Director James Comey's opening statement for his Thursday testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee contradicted the report's sources.


The CNN report said Comey was expected to dispute President Trump's claims that Comey said he was not under investigation on multiple occasions.

The report, titled “Comey expected to refute Trump," was based on unnamed sources and said Comey's conversations with the president "were much more nuanced," and that Trump drew the wrong conclusion. 
The story was compiled by four CNN journalists, including Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper and Brian Rokus. 

Borger reiterated the report's claims in an appearance on CNN on Tuesday.

“Comey is going to dispute the president on this point if he’s asked about it by senators, and we have to assume that he will be," said Borger, the network's chief political analyst. "He will say he never assured Donald Trump that he was not under investigation, that that would have been improper for him to do so.”