The Justice Department turned over copies to Congress of former FBI Director James Comey’s memos about his interactions with President Donald Trump on Thursday.
Read: James Comey’s memos on Trump meetings
The Justice Department turned them over to Congress on Thursday.
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Jen Kirby is a senior foreign and national security reporter at Vox, where she covers global instability.
The Associated Press first obtained copies of the 15 pages of memos, which contain some redactions. Comey has publicly testified to many of the details within the memos, including in his congressional testimony last June and now on his book tour promoting his new memoir, A Higher Loyalty.
There are a few new tidbits included in the documents. At a January 27, 2017, private dinner at the White House — the same one where Comey says the president demanded loyalty — Comey said Trump described then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn as having “serious judgement issues.” (Comey wrote that he did not comment at the time.)
The memos also document the February 14, 2017, Oval Office encounter, in which Trump asked Comey to “see your way clear” to letting Flynn go, and other phone calls and interactions between the former FBI director and the president.
The Department of Justice sent over these memos to Congress after House Republicans demanded them last week, threatening a subpoena. The Department of Justice sent over unclassified versions of the memos Thursday, and according to Politico, will provide members of the House committees a chance to view the classified versions, without redactions, through a secure channel on Friday.
House Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), House Oversight Committee Chair Trey Gowdy (R-SC), and House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) released a joint statement about the release of the memos Thursday night. ”We have long argued former Director Comey’s self-styled memos should be in the public domain, subject to any classification redactions,” the statement read. “These memos are significant for both what is in them and what is not.”
Read the memos below, or at this link.
Update: This post has been updated with additional details from the Comey memos and a statement from House members.
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