Ex-FBI Director James Comey reportedly approached Attorney General Jeff Sessions and told him, “Don’t leave me alone with President Trump.”
The exchange came a day after President Trump met with Comey privately in February. Trump fired Comey 3 months later.
The NY Times quoted FBI sources who say Comey believed the FBI should be protected from “White House influence,” and he allegedly pulled Sessions aside to tell him that private meetings between himself and the president were inappropriate.
The sources said Sessions told Comey he “could not guarantee that the president would not try to talk” to Comey alone again.
The sources leaked this information ahead of Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.
According to sources, Comey will not say President Trump obstructed justice by pressuring him to end the FBI investigation into Mike Flynn and Russia collusion — because Comey would be indicting himself if he did.
There are also reports that Sessions offered to resign during “heated discussions” with Trump about the Russia investigation.
Sessions, who heads the Justice Department, reportedly took offense to Trump tweeting that the Justice Department should have kept his original travel ban, “not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.”
Washington insiders say Trump is undermining his own agenda.
“I believe it is unprecedented for a president to publicly chastise his own Justice Department,” said Walter E. Dellinger, who served as acting solicitor general under Bill Clinton.
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