President Trump said Friday the testimony of fired FBI Director James B. Comey exonerated him of accusations that he tried to pressure Mr. Comey to drop any investigations or demanded loyalty from him.
“Yesterday showed no collusion, no obstruction,” Mr. Trump said in a White House press conference in the Rose Garden with the president of Romania.
He said the allegations of collusion between his campaign officials and Russians were “just an excuse” raised by Democrats who were angry at losing the election.
“We were very, very happy” with Mr. Comey’s testimony, Mr. Trump said. “Frankly, James Comey confirmed a lot of what I said.”
The president denied Mr. Comey’s contention in a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday that Mr. Trump had demanded his loyalty.
“I hardly know the man,” Mr. Trump said. “I’m not going to say I want you to pledge allegiance. What would do that? Who would ask a man to pledge allegiance under oath? Think of that. I hardly know the man.”
The president fired Mr. Comey last month, saying he had lost confidence in his ability to do the job.
Asked if there were tape recordings of his conversations with Mr. Comey, the president said he would reveal that soon.
“You’ll be very disappointed in the answer,” he said. “I’ll tell you something about that maybe sometime in the very near future.”
Referring to Mr. Comey’s acknowledgement that he had leaked a memo detailing conversations with the president after he was fired, Mr. Trump said, “He’s a leaker.”
“But we want to get back to running our great country,” the president said. “Jobs, trade deficits. We want them to disappear fast. North Korea, big problem. Middle East, a big problem.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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