During his time as acting director of the FBI under the Trump administration, James Comey took notes. Meticulously recorded and including shocking claims, these memos were cross-examined at a Congressional hearing in Washington DC.
Comey's testimony to Congress is the first time he has spoken publicly about his investigation into possible connections between the Trump administration and the Russian government. Before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey went on to say that while he believes no votes were altered in the US Presidential election, he has "no doubt" that Russia meddled in the electoral process. Furthermore, he has raised questions about Donald Trump's role in obstructing the investigation, referencing one instance when he claims Trump told him: "I need loyalty, I expect loyalty."
When asked why Comey created records of his conversations with Trump, he stated that: "I knew there would come a day that I might need a record, not just to defend myself, but to defend the FBI." He makes a point that he never felt the need to document meetings between President George W. Bush or Barack Obama.
His reasoning for recording his conversations with Trump is sobering: "I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting."
Last month, Robert S. Mueller III was appointed as the Special Counsel to examine the possibility of Trump's collusion with Russia in the 2016 election. He has since requested interviews with high-ranking former intelligence officials, who it has been suggested were asked by Trump to convince Comey to drop his investigation into the election. According to the New York Times, Mueller's actions hint at an investigation into Donald Trump's obstruction of justice. In response to Mueller's requests, Christopher Ruddy, a long-time friend of Trump's, claimed in an interview on Monday that Trump was considering firing Mueller, as he had done with Comey, but that sources inside the White House have advised him "not to do it".
To understand the significance of the Comey investigation, we look back to July 2016 – tracing the investigation from initial claims of hacking to the Senate Committee hearing on June 8 2017.
At its heart, the investigation is attempting to uncover the truth about claims the Trump administration has links to the Russian government. These concerns began when it was revealed the Democratic National Committee was hacked in June 2016 – shortly before the country's presidential election. This announcement soon sparked suggestions there had been Russian state interference in the election, and further questions as to how this related to the campaign of Donald Trump.
Appointed in 2013 by president Obama, Comey fought technology companies over encryption, opposed Snowden's leaks, oversaw investigations into Hillary Clinton's use of personal email addresses. Ultimately, it was these emails that Trump used to fire the FBI director. Read more: From the Editor: how Russia hacked the internet
In March 2017, then-FBI Director Comey confirmed at a Senate hearing that the FBI had been investigating the Trump campaign since July of 2016. This was followed by Sally Yates, former acting attorney general stating to a Senate subcommittee that Mike Flynn, National Security advisor to the Trump Administration, had not been truthful about his relationship with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. This led to claims that Flynn's role as an advisor to the Trump administration was compromised.
The next day, May 9, Trump unceremoniously fired Comey. This dismissal was met with criticism and concern, not least because of the phrasing of Comey's dismissal letter, in which president Trump thanked him for informing him "on three separate occasions" that he himself was not under investigation.
Bill Clinton's 1993 firing of Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) director William Sessions was the first time in history a president had fired the agency's chief. In March 2017, Donald Trump repeated the move with the dismissal of Comey. This came amid the FBI's investigations into Trump's links to Russia and the nation's attempts to influence political events around the world. (At the start of May, the NSA suggested Moscow was involved in the email hacking of French president Emmanuel Macron). Back in March 2017, Comey told the US House Intelligence Committee that investigations into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election would include members of the Trump team. This would directly be probing the presidential administration.
Comey says in his Congressional testimony that he was dismissed because Trump wanted him to bury the investigation into one of his Flynn's ties to Russia and that Trump's directions to him at the time were an obstruction of justice.
"I was fired because of the Russia investigation," Comey stated to Congress, "...to change the way the Russia investigation was being conducted."
Trump says the reason for Comey's dismissal is that he was doing a bad job and was a "nutjob."
Scott Lucas, a professor of American Studies, at the University of Birmingham told WIRED after the dismissal that "legally, Comey can be dismissed but it is quite clear this is for political reasons," US public law 94-503 states that FBI directors are appointed for a 10-year term but can be removed by a sitting president.
At the time of Comey's dismissal, WIRED spoke to Clodagh Harrington, a senior lecturer in politics at De Montfort University: "I would be astounded if they ceased their investigation into the Russia issue. Trump's administration doesn't need to add to the accusation of tin-pot dictatorship style behaviour by scuppering an investigation that will possibly uncover some inconvenient truths."
In addition, civil rights organisations criticised Trump's sacking of Comey, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation saying the act was "deeply troubling", while the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) added it "raises serious alarm bells for our system of checks and balances".
"This Whitehouse has been so haphazard – like when they appointed Michael Flynn without proper vetting," Lucas says. "We're beyond the rational now this is absolute chaos."
Read more: FBI director says companies should ditch encryption
Since Trump's inauguration as president, there has been an apparently difficult relationship with the FBI. On one occasion, Trump appeared to blow a kiss at Comey. However, more pressingly, in February 2017, the president tweeted that the FBI is "totally unable" to stop security information being given to the press.
Trump's comments followed CNN reporting Trump's aides had been in contact with Russia. Lucas explained the Comey firing was likely to anger the Bureau.
"The problem is going to be that [Trump's] alienated the agency. In the same way he has alienated the CIA," Lucas adds. "It's also going to lead to further leaks to the media; further attempts to try to unsettle Trump's position that are coming from inside a whole network of people".
Just days after the firing, Lucas' prediction started to emerge. The Hill reported Comey's firing has set off new rounds of leaks from the FBI and the Department of Justice.
These stories included rumours of Trump's "festering anger" at the Russia investigation and that senior officials in Trump's staff advised him the time was not right to fire Comey. These suggestions have also clearly riled Trump himself.
The tweeting president publicly sent messages saying allegations he is linked to Russia were "fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election" and the "fake media" is working overtime. He also directly attacked Comey.
Speaking about the credibility of the FBI, Comey has rebuffed Trump's allegations, stating: "Those were lies, plain and simple. And I am so sorry that the FBI workforce had to hear them and I’m so sorry that the American people were told them.”
Comey's memos are meticulously detailed and his claims are shocking. At the Congressional hearing, the language used in the memos came under particular scrutiny. Comey alleges that Trump made this statement: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go,” in reference to the Flynn investigation. However, Republican Sen. James Risch has noted that the word 'hope' is not a clear directive. Comey said he "took [this] as a direction" but "didn't obey that."
When asked about Russia's involvement in the US Presidential Election, Comey stated his belief that "they will be back". Accusations of electoral tampering or political influence have dominated the media since Trump was elected. The reason for this focus is perhaps best described in Comey's own words:
“The reason this is such a big deal is we have this big messy wonderful country where we fight with each other all the time but nobody tells us what to think, what to fight about, what to vote for except other Americans. And that's wonderful and often painful. But we're talking about a foreign government that using technical intrusion, lots of other methods tried to shape the way we think, we vote, we act. That is a big deal. And people need to recognize it.”
Cyberattacks have the potential to challenge the norms associated with liberal values and democratic systems. They challenge the notion of truth and in doing so, spread confusion. Comey's accusations reach beyond the United States, posing serious questions about the current political climate.
David Omand, former director of GCHQ, believes that this kind of cyber interference has the potential to subvert Western institutions, and that the UK "must find ways of managing" this threat. He likens addressing the problem of disinformation to "countering terrorism" and states that it requires the "full engagement of the UK intelligence community."
In May, the United Kingdom witnessed the chaos created by cyberattacks when National Health Systems were attacked. Comey's claims that the electoral process of the United States was somehow vulnerable to influence by a foreign government do not just outline a threat against one nation, but implies a threat to the sanctity of democratic systems.
Cyberspace is becoming the platform for a new type of warfare, and as the Comey investigation suggests, this issue will only grow more urgent over time.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
