Trump On Comey Testimony: 'No Collusion, No Obstruction, He's A Leaker'
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork) -- Calling James Comey "a leaker," President Donald Trump said the former FBI director's testimony shows there was "no collusion, no obstruction."
The president was speaking Friday at a joint news conference with visiting president of Romania Klaus Iohannis.
"Yesterday showed no collusion, no obstruction. We are doing really well," the president said. "That was an excuse by the Democrats who lost an election that some people think they shouldn't have lost."
Trump said he would be "100 percent'' willing to give his version of the events under oath and said Comey "confirmed a lot of what I said and some of the things that he said just weren't true."
Trump would not say whether or not tapes do exist of their conversations, saying, "I'll tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future.''
When asked a second time by reporters off camera if there are tapes, the president responded, "Oh, you're going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer."
He denied Comey's claim that he asked the former FBI director for loyalty.
"I hardly know the man," Trump said. "I'm not going to say, 'I want you to pledge allegiance?' Who would do that?"
He also denied asking Comey to drop the FBI investigation into fired national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Reporter: "He did say under oath you told him -- you said you hoped the Flynn investigation he could let go."
Trump: "I didn't say that."
Reporter: "So he lied about that?"
Trump: "Well, I didn't say that. I mean I will tell you, I didn't say that."
Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee gave both the White House and Comey two weeks to turn over any memos or recordings they have of the meetings.
Earlier Friday, the president responded to Comey's testimony on Twitter, saying, "Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!" Trump said.
That may refer to a memo Comey admitted he gave to a friend, a professor at Columbia University, detailing some of his interactions with the president that he told him to leak to the media.
The former FBI director said he did so in response to a tweet from Trump after his firing that said Comey should hope there are "no tapes" of their conversations.
"There might be corroboration of our conversation, there might be a tape," Comey said. "My judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square."
The president's personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, said Thursday that Comey should be investigated for releasing "privileged communications."
"Mr. Comey has now admitted that he is one of these leakers," he said. "We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated along with all the others that are being investigated."
Kasowitz also insisted Comey's testimony vindicated the president, saying it "makes clear that the president never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election."
Still, the president's lawyer says he'll file a complaint with the justice department, CBS2's Tony Aiello reported.
The president returned to his home in Bedminster, New Jersey later Friday, where he will be spending the weekend.
