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Standoff The FBI Power and Paranoia S01E01
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00:06Fidelity, bravery, and integrity capture the essence of the FBI and its people.
00:12When I was appointed FBI director, I understood that I served at the pleasure of the president.
00:17Comey and Trump really could not be more different.
00:21Comey should hang his head in disgrace.
00:23One believes that the president should not oversee the FBI's own personal plaything.
00:30And the other man very much believes that, yes, I should.
00:35In Trump's first term, there was this strange sort of dance going on, right, between the president and the FBI
00:40director.
00:41Trump wanted to feel him out.
00:42I mean, just how dangerous is he?
00:45Donald Trump starts having private conversations.
00:48Asking for the powerful leader of the FBI to pledge loyalty to him.
00:55The danger in that demand cannot be overstated.
00:57FBI directors are supposed to be independent.
01:01It was never going to work between us.
01:03The president did not trust him.
01:04Donald Trump wanted an FBI director who he could count on in the political sense.
01:10The FBI has a lot of power.
01:13And put to the wrong ends, those capabilities can be devastating.
01:26The relationship between the FBI director and the president has always been complicated.
01:31Sometimes they're in moments of deep collaboration.
01:35At other times, the FBI is investigating the president.
01:39The relationship has to be characterized by a certain ambiguity and tension.
01:44There are all kinds of things that can happen when those two entities get together.
01:57The FBI is the nation's premier law enforcement agency.
02:02It has been that for about 100 years.
02:06They investigate everything from organized crime to fraud on Wall Street to terrorism.
02:15The FBI director, I would argue, is one of the most important jobs in the government.
02:21A vigorous new director is going to lead the FBI into the next century.
02:26This person runs an agency of tens of thousands of people.
02:29An agency with incredible powers and incredible responsibility.
02:33The president relies on the FBI to be an essential tool in the president's national security toolkit.
02:40But the FBI director is not supposed to be in direct contact with the president of the United States.
02:47And that's to ensure that any investigation that the FBI does, anything that they launch, anyone that they arrest,
02:54that those decisions are made absent of any political considerations.
03:01When I interview with President Obama, what he and I both believe the country needed in the FBI director was
03:07competence and independence.
03:11Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States.
03:15And so I was stunned when he paused, literally walking out, to announce my nomination.
03:20Good afternoon, everybody. Please have a seat.
03:23And said there's just one thing he needed from me, and that was to promise that he could continue to
03:28use the basketball court in the FBI's basement.
03:32And I laughed, relieved, that it wasn't some serious commitment that compromised that independence.
03:38But he knew, and I knew, that it could never be that the FBI director and the president were close.
03:44And that was at the heart of the joke about the basketball court.
03:49For more than a century, we have counted on the dedicated men and women of the FBI to keep us
03:54safe.
03:56My choice to be the next director of the FBI, Jim Comey.
04:02I became a federal prosecutor because I sat in a courtroom one day and watched prosecutors try to hold a
04:08mob boss without bail.
04:10I remember thinking, these are the biggest bullies there are, and I've always hated bullies.
04:16At that moment, I thought, if I can be part of fighting bullies like this, what a cool way to
04:21make a living.
04:22He's that rarity in Washington.
04:24He doesn't care about politics.
04:26He only cares about getting the job done.
04:29He is a self-described lifelong Republican.
04:32He has a lengthy track record, both in the public and the private sector.
04:37As you can see, the map of the Gambino crime family is no more.
04:42Martha Stewart is being prosecuted not because of who she is, but because of what she did.
04:47He became deputy attorney general of the United States in the Bush administration.
04:53And it's in that job that he really becomes a start in broader Washington politics.
04:59I'm not sure I have the words to describe how excited I am to return to the Department of Justice,
05:03and especially to get to work again with the people of the FBI.
05:07He had this boyish air of honesty, forthrightness.
05:14People called him a Boy Scout.
05:15And I thank you again, Mr. President, for this chance to serve.
05:21The Comey nomination was viewed so positively that he was confirmed 93 to 1.
05:29As FBI director, you feel the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover because he built the institution.
05:35The law of the land is above any individual, and all must abide by it.
05:42J. Edgar Hoover was in many ways a conservative person.
05:47He built the agency to be that way.
05:49It is still in many ways that way today.
05:52I could feel his presence in the culture of the Bureau.
05:57When you walk into a room, people stand up.
05:59When they speak to you, they speak with a catch in their throat.
06:02You're the wizard of Oz in a lot of ways.
06:05Director Comey really brought a lot to the role that FBI people had never seen before.
06:12I wanted to change the way the FBI thought about leadership.
06:17I remember one of his first briefings.
06:21He had us go around the room and say what kind of Halloween candy was our favorite.
06:27If it was Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, did you eat them in one bite or nibble around the edges?
06:32And I thought, oh my gosh, you know, I'm a jaded FBI agent.
06:35Like, what are we doing here?
06:37But next thing I know, I was learning things about my friends that I'd never known before.
06:42He was one of the most accessible government executives you could imagine.
06:49I am 14 months into this awesome job, and I've now visited 53 of our 56 field offices.
06:57He was also super tall, which we thought was kind of fascinating.
07:01How you doing, sir?
07:01Good, how are you?
07:02Excellent, excellent.
07:03He would turn to employees and say, I have some expectations for you.
07:06To take care of ourselves, to not work 24 hours a day.
07:12Comey would also tell people, I want you to love someone.
07:15You will be a better FBI employee if you actually take the time to have people in your life.
07:22The mission is everything for the people of the FBI.
07:25The job is hard, the hours are long, the money's not great.
07:28And so sleep and love and exercise are the path to keeping yourself in a place
07:33where you can protect the American people for the long term.
07:40Another Republican joining the race, but this one like no other.
07:43Billionaire Donald Trump says he really is running for president.
07:48Hillary Clinton becoming the Democratic nominee was somewhat expected.
07:52Trump was a completely different story.
07:54That is some group of people, thousands.
07:57Donald Trump never served in any kind of government post.
08:00He had bone spurs for Vietnam.
08:02He had no sense of public service.
08:0441-year-old Donald Trump is a billionaire real estate developer
08:07who likes to put his name on the buildings he owns.
08:10He lived by a code of Roy Cohen.
08:13Take no prisoners.
08:15Somebody punches you, punch back ten times harder.
08:17I would have wiped the floor with the guys that weren't loyal,
08:21which I will now do, which is great.
08:23You know, I love getting even with people.
08:26Comey and Trump really could not be more different.
08:28They both were comfortable in the media spotlight.
08:32You spin, baby.
08:33You spin.
08:34But that's pretty much where the similarities end.
08:36Comey is much more careful in his words.
08:39Trump was confrontational.
08:40Trump was accusatory in almost every public setting he's ever been in.
08:44Hillary Clinton, who's weak, she'll never be able to do the job.
08:50Fighting like crazy.
08:51We were working our tails off at the Trump campaign.
08:53Trump not here.
08:53But I think the honest expectation was that this is going to be tough.
08:57It's going to be tough to beat a Clinton for a political newcomer.
09:01And then you get James Comey's intervention in that election.
09:07The FBI is now looking into Clinton's private email system.
09:12The inspector general made the referral to the FBI.
09:15I have released 55,000 pages of emails.
09:20We are all accountable to the American people to get the facts right.
09:25No one is above the law in the FBI's eyes.
09:28It doesn't matter who we're investigating.
09:30We're trying to find out what's true.
09:32This is the single biggest scandal since Watergate.
09:37It gave fodder to the Trump campaign,
09:40but it also brought the FBI into trying to be a referee,
09:43which is an impossible task to do.
09:46The Clinton email investigation was obviously of tremendous public interest.
09:51I thought it was very important to make sure that the FBI
09:54and the Department of Justice have showed their work to the American people.
10:02You're looking at that podium right there.
10:03We are waiting to hear from the FBI director, James Comey, any moment now.
10:07There's no official word on what exactly he's going to talk about.
10:10It's the first time an FBI director has waded publicly into that political circle.
10:19It's an art. It's threading the needle.
10:22But Comey jumped the mandate.
10:24Because of his actions during the 2016 election,
10:27I'm not sure there is a name more associated with partisan rage than James Comey.
10:39Good morning.
10:40I'm here to give you an update on the FBI's investigation
10:44of Secretary Clinton's use of a personal email system
10:47during her time as Secretary of State.
10:49July 5, 2016 was an incredibly important day
10:54in American politics, in American history, and in the FBI's history.
10:58It was very important that we be as complete and transparent
11:01as possible with the American people.
11:05I have not coordinated this statement or reviewed it in any way
11:08with the Department of Justice or any other part of the government.
11:12They do not know what I'm about to say.
11:14It was just sort of like this very quiet reaction, like,
11:18huh, I wonder what's going to happen next.
11:22I felt kind of sick about it because it's not typically how the FBI does business.
11:26We don't speak to the public about charging decisions.
11:29We did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues
11:34intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information.
11:39We are expressing to justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.
11:44Look, I have said I made a mistake using my personal email.
11:48I regret that.
11:49And it's time to move on.
11:59James Comey's announcement, it absolutely hurt the Trump campaign,
12:03and I believe it was intended to.
12:04He assumed a level of authority that was not his.
12:08I have such respect for the FBI.
12:10I am so disappointed.
12:12We have a rigged system, folks.
12:13He's not a prosecutor.
12:15He's certainly not a judge or jury.
12:16And yet he exonerated Hillary, and he was clearly inserting himself in politics.
12:21There was a lot of turmoil within the FBI about our conclusion in the case.
12:27Now, if we charge someone, the indictment speaks for itself.
12:31We certainly don't make public announcements about cases
12:34without our DOJ counterparts there with us.
12:38To us, that was certainly a protocol, you know, breach.
12:41You don't do that.
12:43Comey thought he had to do it because he thought that Attorney General Loretta Lynch
12:49had already compromised herself with public credibility.
12:52Outcry over Lynch meeting with former President Bill Clinton on the tarmac.
12:59I said, hmm, if we stand together given this, we would be seen in a way that is tainted.
13:06Loretta Lynch did not want to recuse herself, and that put the FBI in a very precarious situation.
13:12It didn't matter which decision the FBI made.
13:15We were conducting an investigation of one of the two candidates for president.
13:19Whatever we did, we were going to be accused of being political.
13:23I wouldn't have done it differently.
13:25One thing I don't think anyone in the FBI could have predicted
13:29is that the Clinton case would be reopened and just days before a presidential election.
13:36Thousands of additional emails have been discovered on another electronic device.
13:41So what happens inside the FBI is they essentially have a crash investigation.
13:46Is this something new, or is this information they already have?
13:50And I talked to a former senior member of her campaign who said they were livid.
13:54She has described it as getting kneecapped by Comey just before an election.
13:58When you're doing things in October and in November, you're confusing the electorate,
14:04and you become the boogeyman in history.
14:07And just two days before the election, Comey is briefed by that investigative team,
14:11and they tell him, boss, there's nothing new here.
14:14Right now, a historic moment.
14:17We can now project the winner of the presidential race.
14:19The man who's just pulled off the most stunning,
14:22unbelievable upset in American political history.
14:27We reject the presidential election!
14:30This is a divided country right now.
14:34While the campaign is over, our work on this movement is now really just beginning.
14:43It's almost impossible to believe that reopening and reclosing that case in the days prior to the election
14:50did not have an impact on the election.
14:52We had to make the decision without regard to politics.
14:58I really couldn't consider how it might affect an election.
15:03I hope it didn't.
15:05I don't mean this to sound flip, but it doesn't matter.
15:07It doesn't change how I think about the decision.
15:10Comey believed, when the fever breaks, I think you'll understand why I did what I did.
15:14The years since have proven that it's not a temporary condition.
15:17It's not a fever.
15:18This is the way things are now.
15:20And I think you just misjudge the moment tremendously.
15:22FBI Director James Comey, are you going to ask for his resignation?
15:28I think that I would rather not comment on that yet.
15:32I don't, I haven't made up my mind.
15:34I respect him a lot.
15:35I respect the FBI a lot.
15:37Comey wasn't used to how Trump operates, how he talks, how he throws stuff out there just for effect.
15:43As much as the FBI has to be independent, it can't just be completely divorced from the government.
15:50That would never work.
15:52And I think Comey worried a lot about, how do I quickly build a relationship with this person?
16:02Before Trump is sworn into office, the leaders of the various national security agencies in the U.S., including Director
16:08Comey, made a trip to Trump Tower.
16:11They were going to brief President Trump on the threat from Russia, efforts by the Russians to influence the election.
16:17During my first meeting with Donald Trump, I kept having this weird vision pop into my head that reminded me
16:26of Cosa Nostra.
16:27Cosa Nostra is the official name for the mafia.
16:30And I think what was bringing it back was the way in which he operated, the deference that those around
16:35him showed, and that his concern when being briefed by the leaders of our country's intelligence community was not about
16:43America, but about me, me, me, me.
16:45So in addition to briefing Trump on Russia's collusion, Comey had another role that day.
16:51My job was to stay behind and brief him on an accusation that the Russians had captured images of unusual
17:01sexual activities long before he was president-elect during a visit by Donald Trump to Moscow.
17:06The information wasn't verified.
17:08The information wasn't verified. It hadn't been investigated by the FBI. I didn't know whether the information was accurate or
17:13not. We thought it was important to let him know there was this allegation that was about to become public.
17:19What was supposed to be a legitimate national security briefing turned into an absolute political ambush. Trump hadn't done anything
17:26wrong and was very insistent on that point.
17:29This is a lie. Comey knew that it was not true. It's a garbage report that should not be given
17:34any credibility at all.
17:35Certainly not taking up the highest levels of U.S. national security and U.S. intelligence.
17:40He likely perceived it as pulling a J. Edgar Hoover. We were showing him something in order to have something
17:47over him. So he ought to treat us well, which was, of course, not our purpose.
17:52The intelligence community leadership believed it was important, and I agreed very much, that we not keep secrets from the
17:58president of the United States.
17:59It was a way to reduce the power of such information by letting the person at the center of such
18:06information know that we were aware of it so that it wouldn't have any power to coerce him.
18:14After the meeting, Comey comes down, gets in the armored suburban. He sits next to me.
18:18I asked Josh Campbell, my special assistant in the car, to give me the classified laptop.
18:22I handed over, and the cabin of the vehicle went silent. It's just him typing. Type, type, type. He's taking
18:29notes about what exactly had occurred, just in case a record would be needed down the road.
18:34It was really important that I be able to protect the institution and, frankly, be able to protect myself by
18:40having a reliable memory of what we had talked about.
18:46I relate at that time to President-elect Trump. I said, you cannot trust this man. He cannot serve as
18:52your FBI director, and you have to fire him on day one.
18:55They were never really going to see eye to eye on things because they just have wildly different views.
19:01That relationship started going bad from their first face-to-face meeting. From that moment on, the gulf only grows.
19:12The FBI's mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.
19:16Everything the FBI does is in service of that mission. You are there to accomplish and help others accomplish that
19:24mission.
19:24They say less than 1% of the people that apply to be an FBI agent actually complete the FBI
19:29Academy.
19:32All FBI agents go through the same training. You go to Quantico, you get that basic understanding of how the
19:37organization works, how investigations are supposed to be conducted.
19:41Slowly get out of the car, keep your hands high.
19:46FBI agent classes span a lot of different backgrounds. We had one person that was a trainer at NASA.
19:51It was someone who was an art history major.
19:53One person worked at a bank.
19:55A former flight attendant.
19:56And so what they're looking for is not just can you do the job, but are you shapeable? Are you
20:01moldable?
20:03Most agent trainees come to Quantico with very little firearms experience.
20:11And that is how the firearms instructors prefer it. They want a blank slate.
20:15They want to teach you the FBI way.
20:19You learn how to engage in hand-to-hand combat. And then there's all the classroom stuff.
20:24You study law, writing, how to read a fingerprint, which is very hard. It's my worst subject.
20:33The Emergency Vehicle Operations Center, it was the most fun.
20:37You get to drive a car recklessly on a closed track and they're saying, go faster, go faster.
20:43We have an infamous program that's designed to teach agents search warrants.
20:48And we would do most of those over at Hogan's Alley.
20:51Hogan's Alley is a fake town within Quantico. It's about 10 square blocks. It has a movie theater. It has
20:59a bank. It has several houses. It has a motel.
21:01It's like very hands-on, very realistic. That training was absolutely essential.
21:07It produces the agents and analysts that go out into the field and get to do good, that get to
21:12help people.
21:12It was really, really something special.
21:16I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend
21:24the Constitution of the United States.
21:28Something that Donald Trump has believed, I am the boss, and I don't care about this tradition of DOJ and
21:38FBI independence from the political desires of the Oval Office.
21:43To a guy like James Comey, that is something that is completely anathema and a sign that there is genuine
21:50democratic backsliding within the United States.
21:54He called me the end of his first week to ask me to come to dinner at the White House.
21:59It was unusual to get a call. Unprecedented, actually, to get a call.
22:03I think it's totally appropriate. I mean, look, the FBI cannot only answer to itself.
22:08We hire Donald Trump to be the boss, to be the overseer of every federal executive branch agency, including the
22:16FBI.
22:16So, I mean, they have to answer to someone. And my strong inclination is Trump wanted to learn more about
22:22it. Just how dishonest is he?
22:25We had a very nice dinner at the White House very early on.
22:28He asked for the dinner.
22:28A dinner was arranged. I think he asked for the dinner.
22:31Outside of current issues involving national security concerns that the President of the United States should have little or nothing
22:40to do with the FBI.
22:43I showed up at the White House that evening. I convinced myself that it was a group dinner, because I
22:49learned from my staff that he was having dinners with leaders of the intelligence community and the national security community.
22:57I went and stood outside the green room and peeked in, and I saw that in the center was a
23:03small table with two place settings and two chairs.
23:07And so I knew this was not the group dinner I'd been expecting. This was going to be a one
23:11-on-one.
23:14And President Trump arrived shortly thereafter, and then we sat down and had a dinner very, very close to each
23:21other on a very small table.
23:25And early in the dinner, I think probably still on the salad, he said that he needed loyalty, that he
23:31expected loyalty.
23:35He wanted a commitment that he was never going to have a problem with the FBI, and that I was
23:41on his team. And I was so surprised by that request that I just stared at him and didn't blink
23:49for probably three beats, which is a very long time at a small table like that.
23:54And then he broke the stare and looked down and began eating. Near the end of the conversation, he again
24:01asked for a commitment that I would be loyal.
24:04And I said, you'll always get honesty from me, a clumsy way to try to avoid the request. And he
24:11said, that's what I want, honest loyalty.
24:17I hardly know the man. I'm not going to say, I want you to pledge allegiance. Who would do that?
24:22It doesn't make sense.
24:23No, I didn't say that. And I didn't say the other.
24:26It is not possible that I misunderstood President Trump at our dinner.
24:33Whatever may or may not have been salvageable in their relationship, a stake is driven through the heart of that.
24:40The request that I pledge as the FBI director, personal loyalty to the president would violate everything I believe, which
24:53was to protect the FBI's independence.
24:55You have two men who have radically different visions engaged in a standoff over who is the FBI beholden to,
25:05who controls the FBI.
25:06For Donald Trump, the FBI is not independent. The FBI should be loyal to the president of the United States.
25:14Jim was troubled about the entire interaction. And ultimately, we discussed that he should probably, while it was still fresh
25:22in his mind, create a record of what he remembered.
25:26I wrote memos every time I had any conversation with President Trump of substance, because I knew that his approach
25:34represented a threat to the reputation and the reality of the institution I led. And I didn't trust him.
25:41President Trump is very wary of the FBI. He is a very black and white person. You're either on his
25:51team, slavishly loyal, or you're an enemy.
25:58In every important city throughout the United States are the inconspicuous headquarters of men whose job is to see rather
26:06than to be seen.
26:07The FBI has a notoriously bad history when it comes to diversity.
26:12Accurate marksmanship is a matter of self-preservation.
26:15In his early days as director, J. Edgar Hoover only hired men, only white men.
26:22It was 1972 before we started hiring women as agents. It's been an uphill climb.
26:30When James Comey is head of the FBI, 83% of FBI agents are white, and they are overwhelmingly male.
26:39Is that agency going to be effective in areas that it's not representative of?
26:45Core to the FBI's competency is the agent's ability to develop trust.
26:51If a six-foot, eight-inch white guy is standing in your doorway, you may not feel the same connection
26:55and trust if he doesn't understand you, understand your neighborhood, or if it's a language issue, if he doesn't speak
27:01anything but English.
27:03That's a problem in developing witnesses, developing trust.
27:06And one of the things that was important to him was to make sure that our workforce better reflected the
27:12communities that we serve.
27:13I said, here's the good news, the talent's out there.
27:18I was in Los Angeles for a diversity recruiting event to try and convince talented people who were underrepresented in
27:25the FBI, you ought to be part of this life, and was early.
27:28So I went to the FBI field office in Los Angeles, and did my walk-arounds to say hello to
27:34people.
27:34And over their heads, I could see, I think, three big television screens with no volume, but tuned to news
27:42channels.
27:42I'm standing off near a wall, and I just remember as I'm staring at my phone, the room goes quiet.
27:47As I was speaking, I saw a crawl that said, Comey resigns.
27:54And I thought, hmm, that's not right.
27:56I think it was a good idea for him to resign.
27:59And my first instinct, honestly, given the number of pranks in the FBI, was that they were being funny.
28:05And so I said, that took a lot of work.
28:08Now, let me continue with what I was saying, and as I continued speaking.
28:12This is important, guys. I'll let you finish, but the president has accepted the attorney general's recommendation to dismiss, dismiss
28:20James Comey.
28:21Excuse my breath here, Wolf. I just ran out here.
28:23The crawl changed from Comey resigns to Comey fired, and so then I started to stumble a little bit in
28:30my remarks to the employees.
28:32And I said, look, I don't know whether that's true or not. I'm about to go find out.
28:37It felt otherworldly.
28:39This is the motorcade of former director Comey.
28:43Numbness, confusion.
28:44This is American history unfolding.
28:46Because I really not expected to be fired.
28:49The question you also have to ask, was this a coup or a firing?
28:53We did see him get onto this jet right here.
28:56We were watching the plane bringing former FBI director James Comey back to Washington.
29:02People were really shaken up by the suddenness of what had happened.
29:09Walked down the hallway in headquarters and see, like, people gathered together, like, speaking in hushed tones, crying, emotional.
29:15People still genuinely liked him as the director. They felt he was, he was a visionary leader.
29:24I started on the plane to digest that this is the last time I'm ever going to do this.
29:30I intentionally broke an FBI rule that no longer applied to me.
29:35I opened a bottle of wine.
29:36So he pours himself this cup of wine and he's seated there.
29:39And at some moment, I walked up to him and said, hey, you got any extra?
29:43And he said, I thought you'd never ask.
29:45I said, you know, I'm not allowed as an FBI agent to be drinking on the job, but I don't
29:49work for you anymore.
29:50And he started laughing.
29:51I mean, that was the nature of the relationship, that even in the most tense times, you can still find
29:55levity.
29:55And then a sadness started to hit me.
29:58And then it really hit me when the pilots created a space for me to come and sit between them
30:07as they landed at National Airport.
30:12Because this would be my last flight ever.
30:16So I went up there and they choked up and I started to get emotional.
30:23And then I could feel it starting to hit me as I sat between them.
30:29Trump's firing of Comey was Nixonian.
30:32It was, you know, the Saturday Night Massacre all over again.
30:37It's getting rid of a person that won't adhere to my every whim.
30:43The FBI director has a 10-year term and is expected to serve the full 10 years.
30:49It's definitely not common for the president to fire a director.
30:53Well, maybe it is now.
30:54We don't elect the FBI director, right?
30:56But we do elect the president, who is his boss and can hire and fire the FBI director and can
31:00have private meetings with him.
31:05We call back to headquarters and someone from the Trump team had dropped off a letter at the front door
31:10of the FBI.
31:13His letter to me said, Dear Director Comey, I received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney
31:19General of the United States recommending your dismissal as director of the FBI.
31:23I have accepted their recommendation and you are hereby terminated or removed from office effective immediately.
31:28It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital
31:34law enforcement mission.
31:34I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.
31:39My first reaction was, what is he talking about?
31:42And then I had a chance to look at the memo from the then Deputy Attorney General saying that the
31:49reason they were firing me was because of the Clinton investigation, which Trump had told me during dinner he thought
31:54I had handled beautifully.
31:55And then, of course, it didn't take long for Donald Trump to start going out there and saying the quiet
32:01part loud.
32:01Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation.
32:04And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia
32:10thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.
32:14It's an excuse by the Democrats.
32:16Are you angry with Mr. Comey because of his Russia investigation?
32:20I just want somebody that's competent.
32:23The FBI had been investigating whether Trump campaign eggs were conspiring in any way with Russian agents to affect the
32:35outcome of the election.
32:36President Trump revealed what I believe was his real reason for firing Jim Comey.
32:43He was not comfortable with the investigation of his campaign's potential ties to Russia.
32:49There was unanimity that it was the right thing to do.
32:52But at the same time, there was a widespread recognition within the White House that this was a problem, that
32:56this was a PR challenge.
32:59After I was fired, Donald Trump tweeted that I should hope there aren't tapes of our conversations.
33:07It takes months for people to sort out the reality, which is that there was no tape of that conversation.
33:12And so I asked one of my friends to share not the memo itself, but the content to a reporter.
33:19And that ought to be enough to get the Department of Justice to realize they need to hand this to
33:24an investigator and prosecutor.
33:25These Comey memos are the latest bombshell in this still unfolding story.
33:30This is perhaps the most explosive revelation yet.
33:33These memos raise additional questions about whether the president was trying to interfere in the Russia investigation.
33:41The firing of James Comey sets off one of the longest and most chaotic months of the Trump era.
33:49And boy, is that saying something.
33:57The Justice Department tonight naming the former FBI director, Robert Mueller, special counsel to take over the investigation into Russia's
34:05meddling in the 2016 election.
34:07The firing and the memos combined created so much uncertainty about the reliability of the Justice Department that there pretty
34:15much had to be a special counsel.
34:18This is an investigation that is now just plainly independent.
34:21Who's not beholden to the administration.
34:24You know, the whole thing is ludicrous. It's ludicrous.
34:27And yet it was used, unfortunately, effectively to largely derail the Trump presidency.
34:32There was no collusion. There was no obstruction.
34:34It just boggles the mind that Donald Trump thought getting rid of him in the way that he did would
34:40make the problem go away.
34:42It's all a big hoax. I call it the witch hunt.
34:45And all that that did was turbocharge and expand the scope of these investigations.
34:53A dramatic day on Capitol Hill with fired FBI director James Comey taking center stage.
34:58We are now just hours away from what promises to be a riveting show on Capitol Hill.
35:03James Comey has yet another public coming out.
35:09We are hosting a Comey hearing watch party.
35:12James Comey's testimony, of course, is highly anticipated this morning.
35:16Comey revels in the limelight. He loves cameras.
35:19We were not, at that point, you know, very concerned about what Comey had to say.
35:30I was nervous to be testifying, and I'm never nervous testifying.
35:37And I think I was because I felt alone a bit.
35:43That I was no longer the director. I was a private citizen.
35:48Comey's testimony on Capitol Hill included quite a few explosive claims that he was making about Donald Trump.
35:55You interpret the discussion with the president about Flynn as a direction to stop the investigation, is that correct?
36:03Yes.
36:05Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was under investigation.
36:09And the day after Flynn ultimately resigns, Comey's at the White House for a meeting, and Trump asks him to
36:15stick around.
36:16When it was just the two of us, he said something to me about Mike Flynn being a good guy.
36:22And he asked me to let that go. I hope you can let that go.
36:26I was stunned, and time slowed down as I tried to figure out how to address that.
36:32The president of the United States is not supposed to pressure the director of the FBI to ease up on
36:38his buddies.
36:39Do you sense that the president was trying to obstruct justice, or just seek for a way for Mike Flynn
36:44to save face, given he had already been fired?
36:47I don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to
36:51obstruct.
36:52I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning.
36:55Did you at any time urge former FBI director James Comey to close or to back down the investigation into
37:01Michael Flynn?
37:02And also, as you look back...
37:04No. No. Next question.
37:07Donald Trump has a well-established and well-documented history of denying every accusation that's made about him.
37:19If you look at all of this in total, Trump's demand for loyalty from an FBI director, his request to
37:25drop a criminal investigation,
37:26and then his firing of an FBI director, who would not go along with that, that really shows this tension
37:32between the president and this law enforcement institution.
37:37It is extremely dangerous for the executive branch and for the institution of the FBI to be beholden to one
37:47another.
37:48This is exactly what we're not supposed to do in this country.
37:52We live under the rule of law.
37:55Everybody's supposed to be treated equally. You're supposed to have constitutional rights.
38:01The FBI is supposed to be insulated, independent.
38:06Decisions have to be made without regard to persons.
38:09And if they're made with Lady Justice peeking under the blindfold to make sure I'm only going after Democrats or
38:15only going after Republicans, we're lost.
38:25Here it is. This is the Mueller report that's held the country in suspense.
38:30Two years ago, the acting attorney general directed the office to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
38:40I'm speaking out today because our investigation is complete.
38:43The Mueller report concluded that there was a Russian effort organized at the highest levels of the Russian government to
38:51try and influence the U.S. election in favor of Donald Trump.
38:55That's the conclusion. It's not a hoax. It's not a conspiracy to take out a candidate. It's a fact. The
39:04Russian government, they did it. And anyone who tells you different is lying.
39:10What it also concluded was they didn't find enough evidence to prove that Donald Trump or anyone from the campaign
39:19actively colluded in those Russian efforts.
39:23These were bad people. You look at McCabe and Comey. And this was an attempted coup. This was an attempted
39:31takedown of a president. And we beat them. We beat them.
39:36Nor did it exonerate him from any misconduct involved in the investigation. So it left that an open question.
39:45The Jane Comeys of the world who were once leading the FBI, they are long gone.
39:50President-elect Donald Trump has announced his intention to nominate Kash Patel as the next director of the FBI.
39:59Kash Patel, this longtime Trump supporter, this very aggressive critic of the FBI, that's who Trump wants to run the
40:07FBI.
40:08He's confirmed 51 to 49. Razor close for a job that has always been very wide margin confirmations.
40:16And that speaks a lot to there's no such thing anymore as the FBI being free of politics. The FBI
40:24is right dead center at the heart of politics now.
40:27During his first year back in office, President Trump wasted barely any time he was going to use the federal
40:35government, the FBI, the Department of Justice to go after his political enemies.
40:42The former FBI director James Comey has just been indicted by a federal grand jury.
40:47He is accused of lying to Congress and obstructing a proceeding related to the FBI's investigation of Russian meddling in
40:54the 2016 election.
40:55James Comey has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges.
40:58A U.S. federal judge has now dismissed the indictments against former FBI director James Comey.
41:04They got out on a technicality and you'll see what happens.
41:11I'm still considered a villain in MAGA world.
41:17I'm not sure exactly why that is. I often joke I'm the relationship that Trump can't get over.
41:22Wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about me and how I'm living my best life.
41:27It was a great honor for me to fire, I will tell you this, a great honor to fire James
41:33Comey.
41:34I loved being FBI director. I'm so glad that I was and I don't regret it for a moment.
41:41This is going to be an incredible test for the FBI.
41:47Can the institution survive this moment and come out to be the FBI it's supposed to be?
41:54My message to FBI agents today is remember what you were trained to do, do things the right way, document
42:01everything.
42:02Because to the extent you're asked to do things the wrong way, there will be accountability.
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