[van id=”politics/2017/06/07/james-comey-opening-statement-for-hearing-nr.cnn”]
WASHINGTON (AP) – A prominent law professor in Washington, D.C., says President Donald Trump’s comments to James Comey contained in the former FBI director’s written testimony were inappropriate but not criminal.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, says nothing he read in Comey’s statement persuades him that Trump violated the law by interfering with a federal investigation.
Turley was referring to the entirety of Comey’s written statement, including his account of an Oval Office meeting in which Trump asked Comey to drop the investigation of former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn. Comey says Trump told him, “I hope you can let this go.”
Turley says in an email that “the comments are grossly inappropriate,” but that “we do not indict people for being boorish or clueless.”
A White House spokeswoman says she isn’t sure if President Donald Trump has read James Comey’s pre-released opening statement for his Senate Intelligence committee hearing but says the timing of the release is “interesting.”
Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Wednesday that she hadn’t read it and wasn’t sure if the president read it while returning from a day trip to Ohio.
She says, “I do find the timing of the release a little bit interesting,” given it followed testimony by Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and the head of the National Security Agency Mike Rogers. The two men testified before the Senate Intelligence committee earlier in the day.
Comey’s remarks say the president asked him to pledge loyalty and to abandon the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
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