ren hoek
Footballguy
But Comey suggested that Trump WAS a target of the investigation. He suggested the entire Trump campaign was a target, without ruling anyone out.Among the reasons was that if he said that Trump wasn’t a target and then he later became one, correcting the record would be in order lest the statement become a lie — but that’s a terrible situation to be in because correcting the record would mean publicly saying that Trump was the target of an investigation, which would be bad for a bunch of reasons. (For one thing, it would unfairly cast a shadow over Trump when a conclusion of criminal culpability hadn’t been reached.) That’s why the FBI has a general policy of not saying who is or isn’t a target unless and until a decision to indict has been made.
I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.
Because it is an open ongoing investigation and is classified, I cannot say more about what we are doing and whose conduct we are examining. (3/20/17)
So he was able to reveal to the entire world that the Trump campaign was being investigated for potential collusion with Russia, possibly including Trump himself, despite telling Trump privately that he was not a target of the investigation. It's remarkable really.BLUMENTHAL: Have you ruled out anyone in the campaign that you can disclose?
COMEY: I don't feel comfortable answering that, Senator because I think it puts me on a slope to talking about who we're investigating.
BLUMENTHAL: Have you -- have you ruled out the president of the United States?
COMEY: I don't -- I don't want people to over interpret this answer, I'm not going to comment on anyone in particular, because that puts me down a slope of -- because if I say no to that then I have to answer succeeding questions. So what we've done is brief the chair and ranking on who the U.S. persons are that we've opened investigations on. And that's -- that's as far as we're going to go, at this point. (5/3/17)
If what he'd told Trump was that he was not a target of the investigation, though he could potentially become one, I don't see why he couldn't testify as much and simply walk it back if the circumstances changed.
From the article:
As the Mueller report details, Trump’s frustration mounted later that March when Comey’s first public statement acknowledging a probe into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election left the impression that Trump himself was a target. When Comey refused in May 3, 2017 Senate testimony to rule out anyone in the Trump campaign as a potential target of the criminal investigation, including "the president" — the opposite of what he had intimated to the president -- Trump fumed to then-White House Counsel Don McGahn that it was “the last straw.”
Just a few days later, on May 9, Trump unceremoniously fired the FBI director. In response, Comey’s deputy McCabe ordered agents to formally open investigative files on Trump for espionage and obstruction of justice. “It’s pretty clear that Comey’s firing is what prompted McCabe’s fury," former federal prosecutor and independent counsel Solomon L. Wisenberg said.
So Comey cast a shadow over the entire Trump campaign almost from the very beginning, and did nothing to defuse concern that the President of the United States was involved in a Russian conspiracy against the US. It really set the tone for the following months/years of Trump/Russia speculation.