Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho) zeroed in on an explosive New York Times report that he described as “not true” while questioning former FBI director James B. Comey on Capitol Hill on Thursday. Comey confirmed that “in the main, it was not true.”
The trouble for Risch and fellow Republicans seeking to discredit news accounts of the FBI's Russia investigation is that Comey also backed up several other reports and even admitted to planting a different story in the New York Times, after being fired by President Trump.
This was Comey's exchange with Risch:
RISCH: I remember you, you talked with us shortly after Feb. 14, when the New York Times wrote an article that suggested that the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians. You remember reading that article when it first came out?
COMEY: I do. It was about allegedly extensive electronic surveillance (inaudible) communications.
RISCH: Correct. And, and that upset you to the point where you actually went out and surveyed the intelligence community to see whether you were missing something, is that correct?
COMEY: That's correct. I want to be careful in an open setting.
RISCH: I'm, I'm not going to go any further than that.
COMEY: Okay.
RISCH: Thank you. In addition to that, after that, you sought out both Republican and Democrat senators to tell them that “hey, I don't know where this is coming from, but this is not the case. This is not factual.” Do you recall that?
COMEY: Yes.
RISCH: Okay. So, so again, so the American people can understand this, that report by the New York Times was not true. Is that a fair statement?
COMEY: In the main, it was not true. What — and, again, all of you know this, but maybe the American people don't: The challenge — and I'm not picking on reporters — about writing stories about classified information is the people talking about it often don't really know what's going on, and those of us who know what's going on are not talking about it. And we don't call the press to say, “Hey, you got that thing wrong about this sensitive topic.” We just have to leave it there.
Comey said something similar in congressional testimony on March 20. “Often times,” he said of leaked information, “it doesn't come from the people who actually know the secrets. It comes from one hop out, people who heard about it or were told about it. And that's the reason so much information that reports to be accurate classified information is actually wrong in the media.”
In testimony on Thursday, however, Comey corroborated several news reports in the Times and The Washington Post that were based on leaks. He confirmed that Trump sought a loyalty pledge. He confirmed asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions not to leave him alone with the president.
Comey confirmed the reported contents of a memo about a conversation he had with Trump that focused on former national security adviser Michael Flynn — and added that he, himself, directed a friend to leak the memo to the Times.
Comey's testimony Thursday buttressed more media reports than it discredited. But the Risch exchange gave media detractors and Trump supporters plenty of fuel to fan their distrust of those stories.
