Senate Intelligence Committee chairman is skeptical about Comey memo as he says ‘the burden is on The New York Times’ to prove it’s real
Memo written by fired FBI Director James Comey after February 14 meeting with Donald Trump describes the president asking him to drop his Mike Flynn probe
The White House denies the claim, saying it’s ‘not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation’
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr says he’s skeptical the memo exists
House Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat says: ‘We need to get those notes, if they exist’
Senator Lindsey Graham believes Comey should have quit on the spot if the president asked him to close the Flynn investigation
The federal law against obstruction is purposely broad and could form the basis for an impeachment case against Trump
By David Martosko, US Political Editor
DailyMail.com
17 May 2017
The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that he is skeptical about reports that ousted FBI Director James Comey took detailed notes about his February meeting with President Donald Trump.
‘Somebody’s going to have to do more than have anonymous sources on this one for me to believe that there’s something there,’ North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr told reporters, reacting to a New York Times story that said Trump asked Comey to shut down his probe into former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn’s Russia ties.
Burr said Comey had already shared copious amounts of information with his committee about the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference with last year’s election – and met with him personally the day before Trump fired him – but the existence of a memo that an FBI source described to a Times reporter never came up.
‘I could write something and I could read it over the phone and tell them that it came from him,’ Burr said. ‘I think the burden is on The New York Times, if they’re reporting it and they’ve got somebody that’s got the document, they need to get the document and get it released.’
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, too, took a wait-and-see approach – and said Comey should have tendered his resignation on the spot if Trump asked him to slow-walk his investigation into Flynn.
‘If this happened, the FBI director should have done something about it or quit,’ Graham said. ‘If the president asked the FBI director to do something inappropriate, the FBI director should have said no and quit.’
On Wednesday morning the House Intelligence Committee’s leading Democrat said Congress needs to see the memo.
‘We don’t really know what took place here and we need to find out,” Schiff told ‘Good Morning America’ on ABC. ‘We need to get those notes, if they exist, that director Comey took of this conversation.’
‘Congress will need to subpoena them if indeed they’re not provided voluntarily. I certainly support that. I think there are many committees that will,” Schiff added. ‘Congress really needs to get to the bottom of this.
Comey’s memo, if it is genuine, records a February 14 Oval Office meeting in which Trump asked him to close his Flynn probe.
‘I hope you can let this go,’ Trump told Comey, according to a copy of a memo read to a Times reporter over the phone.
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