Top Dem calls for Trump to testify in public and under oath on Comey claims

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is calling for President Trump to testify before congressional investigators about his interactions with fired FBI Director James Comey, after the former top cop testified before a Senate panel about his conversations with the president.

“What’s most important is that investigators in the Senate and at the Department of Justice get all the facts and find the truth,” Murphy said in a statement.

“If the White House’s account differs from what we heard today, the American people deserve to hear the president’s side of the story in a similar forum — under oath and open to the press,” he added.

In a highly anticipated testimony Thursday, Comey told members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that Trump had asked him in private conversations for a pledge of loyalty and once urged him to shut down his agency’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Trump abruptly fired Comey last month, initially arguing that his handling of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton‘s private email use damaged the bureau’s credibility and destroyed confidence in Comey’s ability to do his job.

But in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump acknowledged that he had thought of the FBI’s Russia investigation in his decision to fire Comey. Subsequent news reported also revealed that the president had told visiting Russian officials a day after he ousted Comey that doing so relieved him of “great pressure” because of the probe.

Trump has also publicly denied ever asking Comey to pledge his loyalty, issuing a flat rejection of that account at a news conference last month. Comey said on Thursday that that assertion was not true.

Still, whether Trump should testify before a congressional panel is a question that has rarely been raised, and it is not common for a sitting president to do so.

Source: The Hill