Report has almost 650 mentions of director comeys name. And so the assembled group here has nearly that many things to ask him. The audience is made up of students and professionals from more than a dozen states living in the d. C. Area, and their questions are all their own. We also want to mention that director comey is the author of the book a higher loyalty which is just out in paper book and has a new forward. So with that, i want to welcome fbi director james comey. [ applause ] hi. Hi. So i want to get to the questions in a second. I want to start out with two questions for you. It was two years ago tonight, i believe it happened in the 7 00 hour on the east coast of the u. S. That you were fired. And i if the reporting is correct, you were at an fbi bureau i think in los angeles, and you actually saw it on cnn that you had been fired. Im wondering two years later, with all thats happened, how do you look back on that moment . I was numb because i didnt expect to be fired. I was actually in a room about this size talking to custodial staff employees about the importance of the fbis mission. I looked over their heads and saw first it said comey resigns, which i thought was probably a prank, and then it said comey fired. I know this sounds strange, but i didnt expect to be fired. It never entered my mind. I knew by that point the president didnt like me, but i thought thats okay because that will keep a separation. So it still feels a little bit numbing, frankly, like it happened yesterday and a lifetime ago. What happens when you see youve been fired on television . Like who do you call . What do you do . First of all, you finish i finished what i was saying to these folks and shook each of their hands, and then i said to them im going to go find out whether thats true. And the first call i took was my wife as i walked across the room. And she said have you been fired . She said the kids say its all over the internet. I say i have no idea. And then with the help of my assistant in washington, i figured out a guy was actually down knocking on the door of the fbi in pennsylvania saying he had a letter for me from the president that i was fired. Long before i got the letter the media was told. Thats how it happened. Before we go to questions, the president today talked about you. He said that bob mueller is, quote, in love with james comey. He likes james comey. They were very good friends, supposedly best friends. Maybe not, but supposedly best friends. You look at the picture file and you see hundreds of pictures of him and comey. Is mueller in love with you . I respect him. I dont think we have that kind of relationship. You just want to be friends with him. Hes certainly not obsessed with me in the way some others seem to be. All right. Lets go to the first question. This is zack schoenfeld. He is a student at the George Washington university where he works on the schools newspaper and he is from virginia. Zach . Thanks for taking my question. With your knowledge of president and your experiences with the fbi and bob mueller, does anything in the Mueller Report surprise you . No. There were a lot of facts in the Mueller Report that i didnt know, but i knew it would be high quality work if we got a chance as a country to read it. And what he describes about russias intervention in our election didnt surprise me at all. It confirmed what i knew from when i was at the bureau. And what he lied out about the president s efforts to obstruct justice was broader in scope than i personally knew, but given what i had seen, it didnt surprise me, honestly. With the references to you, do you think mueller got the parts about you right . I think so. Because the record was fairly clear with me. I tried to write down everything important that happened, and so he had the benefit of those things and my testimony under oath. Yeah, i think its right. Do you feel the Mueller Report vindicate youd . Because some of the things President Trump said you were lying about, mueller backed you up on, said that they werent lies. I knew i was telling the truth the whole time. I basically told that same story under oath in front of the senate at a time when the president was hinting that there were tapes of my of our conversations together. So i knew i was telling the truth. I think the country knew i was telling the truth, and mueller simply confirmed that. The president keeps making the point that the Mueller Report found no collusion. Is that something you accept . Well, thats actually not what the report says. Mueller says first of all, as you know, anderson, collusion is not a term that lawyers use or should use. He found there was not sufficient evidence to charge a conspiracy between americans and the russian effort. That strikes me as a reasonable conclusion, and i accept it. The next question is from sabereen wadan who will be starting law school this fall. Good evening, mr. Comey. The New York Times reported that the fbi sent an investigator posing as an assistant to meet with a trump aide, George Papadopoulos in 2016. Does that qualify as spying . Yeah, im not going to comment on a particular investigative step, because thats for the bureau to do, and im not in the government any longer, but the fbi doesnt spy to begin with. The fbi investigates. And you got to remember where we were in the end of july 2016. We knew the russians were engaged in a massive effort to attack our democracy, and then we learn from an allied ambassador that one of President Trumpelect candidate trumps advisers had been talking to a russian representative long before that about dirt they had on Hillary Clinton that the russians wanted to make available. We all should have been fired if when we learned that we didnt investigate to figure out is there a connection between any americans and this russian effort, and the fbi in my view took very reasonable steps, careful steps to try and understand is that true. And i cant believe republicans would have wanted it any other way, and we acted in a responsible, limited and constrained way. Im proud of the way we conducted ourselves. You said its not spying. Why do you think attorney general barr used the word spying which is obviously the word the president has used as well . I cant explain it. The only explanation i can think of is he used it because the president used it, which is really disappointing. He knows better than that, and knows that the fbi conducts electronic surveillance by going to federal judges and getting warrants based on probable cause. But sending an investigator under cover to meet with meet with somebody who is connected to the campaign, they claimed he was later on just a coffee boy. That is an extreme step, no . No, its a reasonable that was the guy, papadopoulos, who was the subject of the information we got from the australians that he had talked to the russians. Did you sign off on the investigator going . I dont remember talking about that particular step with my team. I knew they were trying to see if they could check it out. Thats a totally normal step. See if you can get somebody close to the person and see if theyll confirm what we heard from the australians. How involved were you overall overseeing the investigation . Again, this is an investigation where at this point from the papadopoulos donald trump had already been named the candidate for the Republican Party. Yeah, i was involved the way the director should be involved, but they kept me closely informed because i told them this is important. I want it kept very close hold, but do what you need to do under our authorities to figure out. So youre saying youre not sure if you knew they were sending somebody under cover. I dont want to confirm. I want to leave to the fbi to confirm what steps they took. That news article wasnt based on an official release. So i dont want to comment on particular steps. But in general. That would tell me were following through to try and understand whether there is evidence to establish this. The Inspector General, the attorney general, theyre now obviously looking into the origins of the investigation, the president and his campaign. Are you confident you did everything by the book, and that the fbi, the people around you did everything by the book . Yes. No doubt in my mind. But that doesnt mean im against review of it. Thats totally find. So you think the Inspector General will find nothing inappropriate . I dont think so. At least not that i know of. But if they do, they do. And they should be transparent about it. Cnn has spoken to people within the fbi that say they have concerns that the Inspector General could find something, and that they are bracing for what may be uncovered. Again, im a big believer in the truth. If the truth was there was something concerning, then lets hear it. I dont know of anything like that. This is trevor lyons. He is from connecticut, a graduate at Georgetown University studying chemistry. Trevor . Hi, mr. Comey. Based on your firing and attempted firing of other doj officials and the debate over whether or not this constitutes obstruction of justice, as a former prosecutor and fbi director, where do you think the line should be drawn between executive power and obstruction of justice . Well, hard to say in the abstract except maybe this, that the president is not above the law, and i dont accept the notion that because the president is the head of the executive branch, he cant ever obstruct justice in connection with the executive branch activities. Thats just are crazy and a recipe for lawlessness. So the question is did the president act in a way that manifested a corrupt intent, not the discharge of his constitutional duties, but a corrupt intent to interfere with an ongoing proceeding or to intimidate or tamper with a witness. Thats a factual question. There is a whole lot of facts laid out in bob muellers report that raise serious questions about whether there is a chargeable case for obstruction and witness tampering against this president. Do you think he had based on with a you have seen now in the Mueller Report . It sure looks like he did in connection with a couple of episodes, the direction to don mcgahn to get the special counsel fired is to my mind a flaming example. Of corrupt intent . Yes, of corrupt intent. And i know even the attorney general has said well, what the president meant was he wanted don mcgahn to convey his concerns. Well, really . Don mcgahn went and called his lawyer, packed his office and said he was going to quit. I dont think thats the reaction of the white House Counsel when its about conveying concerns. So in your opinion there was corrupt intent, at least in several of those episodes . It sure looks that way from the reports, the factual recitation. If there theyre now, what, i think its up to 800 former federal prosecutors who have worked in both republican and Democratic Administrations who have signed a statement saying that muellers findings would have produced obstruction charges against President Trump if he werent president. Do you agree . Yeah, i agree. No doubt . No doubt. Again, there is ten different episodes. I actually think the ones that would be most likely charge ready not necessarily the ones that involved me, but particularly this mcgahn episode and another episode where he was trying to get the attorney general to limit the investigation only to future elections are examples that any reasonable prosecutor would charge. Mueller basically was operating and going by department of justice guidelines that a sitting president cant be indicted. Was he right to do that . I dont know. He was trying i havent talked to him, but reading his report but he loves you. I keep forgetting that. I cant wait to see all the pictures of us hugging and kissing. Because theyre not in my icloud occasional. Maybe somebody else has them. Send them if you have them. He was trying i think to do something principled and fair. And i can tell you from personal experience, sometimes when you try to do that, people misunderstand you. He said i cant indict the president because of department of justice policy. And given that, it would be unfair to accuse him of a crime in a document when he cant vindicate himself through a trial. So what ill do is look at it and say could i say there is nothing there, which i could clear him, but if i cant say that, i ought to just lay out the facts for a future prosecutor. Its often overlooked that he says that in the report, so that a judgment can be made after he is president about whether to charge him and so the congress can discharge its duties. Now the problem is thats very nuanced and principled in an effort to be fair that the attorney general distorted with the way he described it and it confused a lot of people. Do you think he should be charged when he is out of office . Based on what mueller has shown . I think the Justice Department will have to take a serious look at that. Whether its a wise thing to do to a former president , i dont know. Thats a harder question, a much bigger question than the facts of the case. But you think the evidence is there to prosecute . Sure looks like its there with respect to at least a couple of those episodes of obstruction. I want you to meet andre strikeoff. He works here in washington as a Program Director for the Grant Training Center which helps individuals obtain grant funding. Your question . Hi, director comey. Having lived in russia, i can tell you that the Public Opinion of President Trump there is lukewarm to negative at best. It also seems that the personal relationship between putin and trump has cooled. So personal collusion is pretty hard to buy into. As such, do you think there are other russian goals behind u. S. Election interference beyond trying to destabilize our faith in american democracy and undermine our world leadership geopolitically . Well, they had three goals last election cycle, and donald trump was actually third on the list. The first, as you said, was they want to dirty up this democracy so its not an example for other nations around the world. Second, they wanted to hurt Hillary Clinton, who Vladimir Putin hated, and last, they wanted to help donald trump, who even they werent sure could win the election. So going into 2020, their goals, my common sense tells me will be to continue their overarching goal which is to damage the United States, and then to support President Trump. Because surely they think theyll do better with someone who jokes on the phone with Vladimir Putin that the russia thing is a hoax than they will with whoever else might be president. President trump says and very recently blamed the Obama Administration saying they didnt do enough about russian interference. What should have been done before . Could more have been done . You were at the fbi at that point. Thats a hard question. President obama faced a very difficult choice. The number one goal for the russians is to damage our democracy and undermine faith in our electoral process. If he makes an announcement that the russians are coming for the election, has he just accomplished their goal for them . And is he giving donald trump an excuse to say obama fixed the election. So i get why he struggled with it. He did a very sensible thing. He tried to get the bipartisan leaders of congress to jointly tell the American People this is going on, and in my view, to their everlasting shame, the republicans refused. You offered to write an oped, didnt you . Yep. Warning the American Public about russian interference and that both the administrations said no . I offered it to the administration saying if you try and inoculate the American People, im happy to do it. Here is what i would tell the American People. But i get why president obama hesitated, and i agreed with his concern about not accomplishing the russian goal for them. This is josh kuttner. He is from new jersey. Is studying Political Science at George Washington university. He is director of Political Affairs at the Schools College of republicans. Josh . Thank you for being here, director comey. When Many Americans go to the ballot box next november, theyll have to make a judgment call on whether or not the economic benefits of the Trump Presidency outweigh trumps purported misbehavior as outlined in the Mueller Report. Youve previously called on americans to vote trump out of office in 2020. Why do you think that voters should prioritize trumps personal flaws over their own economic wellbeing . Thank you for the question, but i wouldnt frame it that way. I think we should start where i thought republicans always said we should start, with the nature and character of the leader and his respect for or attacks on our values, truth and the rule of law among them. Thats the most important level in american politics. The level down from that is important policy questions. To my mind, this question at the top level is so obviously answered, you cannot have a president whos a chronic liar. I dont care what your passions around tax cuts or regulation or immigration. I respect difference there. The president of the United States cannot be someone who lies constantly. I thought republicans agreed with that. Its one of the reasons im no longer a republican. I hope the American People will realize we have to start at that values level no matter what our political background and answer that question first. And if thats a close question in an election, then get to the important policy differences. Are we in a constitutional crisis, as jerry nadler [ applause ] are we in a constitutional crisis as jerry nadler and House Speaker pelosi says say we are . I actually dont think so. I think were in a time where our constitutional design, the genius of our founders is going to be tested, and i think its up for it, right. Congress has made demands, the newly awakened congress. Thank goodness theyre living out the design of the founders, trying to conduct oversight. The executive is resisting, and that battle is going to be fought out in the courts. All three branches of our government are going to be involved. A crisis would be if the United States courts say no, mr. President , you must comply with this demand, and he says no then. Were not there. Our system is being stresstested, but its up for it. Weve got a question i want to preface a little bit for our viewers at home in case they havent been following. The question is going to be about peter strzok and lease pa page and Andrew Mccabe. Strzok and page are officials raising questions of bias. Strzok played a role in Hillary Clinton investigation, worked briefly on muellers team. Strzok was eventually fired. Page resigned. Mccabe was comeys deputy at the fbi, lied to internal investigators about leaking information to the press. Christy mccampbell. Christy worked for more than 30 years in Law Enforcement including Homeland Security state of california. She currently works as a strategic consultant for Law Enforcement agencies. Good evening. Considering the high standards that we set for Law Enforcement, what do you think should have been the consequences for peter strzok, lisa page, and Andrew Mccabe . I thank you for the question. I think given the standards that we have and especially we in the fbi have, there should have been and was severe discipline around their behavior. As anderson said, very different episodes of behavior. Everyone has opinions about political issues and religious issues and sports issues. You cant bring them to work and have them affect your work. There have to be severe consequences. Fbi employees must tell the truth always. And if they dont, i dont care what its about, its going to be investigated and there will be severe consequences. Thats the way it should be in an organization of 38,000, people are going to do stuff they shouldnt do, and a message has to be sent to them and to everybody who follows them. So i have no problem at all with severe discipline. Andrew mccabe has said he didnt know about the text between strzok and page. He was their boss. He obviously worked closely with them. Do you believe its possible he wasnt even aware of their opinions . He may not have seen text messages, but that he wasnt aware of the opinions that they held about then candidate trump . Yeah, that strikes me as reasonable, because its reasonable that he wouldnt that they would never let him see that, just as they would never let me see that. You never heard from them anything negative about President Trump . Never. And if they had those opinions, which they clearly did in the texts, they would be risking their careers to let me hear about it, because they understood how i approach the job. If you had heard or if Andrew Mccabe had actually heard them expressing those things, what action would have been taken . Im confident they certainly wouldnt be working on investigations that touched the candidates or the political process at all, and they probably would have been disciplined. Do you acknowledge that this whole episode with strzok and page, that it damaged the reputation of the fbi and perhaps tarnished the investigation . Definitely. Very painful. It was important that it be investigated and important that there be discipline that follows it, but, yeah, it made us all look bad. Peter strzok is a very talented agency. Its a personal tragedy for him, but as much as i care about individuals, i care about the institution more. It hurt the institution. All right. Were going to be back with our 360 town hall with former fbi director james comey. Back in a moment. [ applause ] ive got an idea oooh, what is it . What if we give the people iphone xr, when they join tmobile . For a limited time, join tmobile and get the awesome iphone xr on us. Etsthe belongings to finwe hold on to. S. Etsy knows that moments, big and small, deserve things that really matter. Sold by real people and filled with things that last beyond the latest trends. Belongings dont just show what we care about. They show who we are. Shop etsy. Com forget about vacuuming for weeks. The new roomba i7 with Clean Base Automatic dirt disposal empties the roomba bin for you. So dirt is off your hands. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba. Welcome back to our 360 town hall with former fbi director james comey. He is also the author of a book, higher loyalty which is now out in paperback with a whole brandnew forward. Well go back to the audience in just a second. I want to ask you about the steele dossier. Just today Rudy Giuliani was raising questions about how well you, the fbi, vetted the dossier. Giuliani tweeted, quote, the steele dossier was unverified. He never tried to verify it. He deliberately avoided discovering the truth. A, what do you think about what he says and how much work did the fbi do to verify the dossier . Its false in two respects. First, i told President Trump that the particular allegation about him being involved with prostitutes in moscow was unverified, but i felt it important that he know about it. More broadly, the bureau began an effort after we got the steele dossier to see how much of it we could replicate. That work was ongoing when i was fired. Some of it was consistent with our other intelligence, the most important part. The steele dossier said the russians are coming for the american election. Its a huge effort. It has multiple goals, that i laid out for the audience, and that was true. There were a lot of spokes off of that that we didnt know whether they were true or false, and were trying to figure out what we could make of it. You said that you had told president or then president elect trump that it was unverified, the salacious at specks about the case. Yes. George stephanopoulos interviewed you about your book and i just want the play something you said about the tape. Do you believe his denial . I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but i dont know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in moscow in 2013. Its possible, but i dont know. So the investigation is over now. Nothing in the Mueller Report corroborated that salacious claim about the tapes and prostitutes. Do you regret making those comments which some would see as sort of stoking the fires or leaving as an open question . No, i was trying to give an honest answer, and my answer would be the same today. But you could have just said those were unverified. I thought thats what i was saying. I dont know whether its true or not. Its a crazy thing to have to say because any other leader i would say thats preposterous. I wouldnt possibly think that is true. There is a footnote in the Mueller Report that possibly makes a oblique reference to these tapes where someone in russia is alerting i think Michael Cohen in october, late october we stopped the flow of the tapes. I dont know exactly what he means by that. But mueller seems to connect it in some way to that allegation. Again, mueller didnt say it wasnt the case. He didnt disprove it, but he also didnt establish that it was the case. I think that person said that those tapes were false. Another important thing is the counterintelligence part of this work which is whether the russians had leverage over the president , that would be part of the counterintelligence investigation. Mueller left that with the fbi. His document is about a prosecutors look at whether there are crimes to be prosecuted. Do. You think the russians have leverage over President Trump . I dont know the answer to that. Think its possible . Yes. Our next question comes from adrice oconnor who works at Northern Virginia college. Hi, director comey. Do you think the policy for not indicting a sitting president should be revised by congress . The answer is i dont know. The policy on its face seems reasonable to me. Ao its primary motivation is to not put yourself in a situation where you distract our approximation. When our founders set up a sanction to remove a president , and second, you dont create the very strange situation of the executive branch indicting its own leader, which sets up really interesting legal questions. So im not sure that it should be revisited. I think we have the mechanisms in place in our constitution to respond to president ial misconduct if Congress Wants to take advantage of them. If you had been running the investigation, would you have subpoenaed the president . I dont know. I think or at least figured out a way to demand that he actually come for an interview . Yeah, id really want to interview him, which is one of the things that surprised me about the attorney generals judgments about the president s intent. How does he know that . We havent interviewed the man. I would have pushed for it, and i think i understand. It will be important for bob mueller to testify and claire this. You think mueller should testify . Oh, yeah, of course. And explain his thinking in a lot of these areas. I think his judgment was, look, we cant indict him anymore. Weve got lots of evidence of obstruction of justice. Were compiling it for a future prosecutor. So why engage in a really long battle over forcing him to give us answers. Well collect this information, preserve it for the future, and not waste the time with that battle. I dont know in hindsight whether that was the right call or not. Has mueller made a mistake by not speaking out, by remaining silent and allowing essentially attorney general barr to define the report or the narrative . I dont know whether its a mistake by bob mueller, because i dont know whether he anticipated the way in which the attorney general would act and the things he would say. In hindsight, maybe bob mueller would have approached it differently. But look, the president says this report is a complete exoneration of him. So why on earth wouldnt the special counsel be permitted to testify . He will give us important insight into exactly what his thinking was, because i could be wrong about it, but exactly what he was collecting the evidence for and his assessment of it. What do do you think of the way attorney general barr has behaved . Because you had talked earlier right before the summary came out or right after the summary came out that you needed to give him the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, and i said that because i think his career had earned that. And so i tried to withhold judgment. He did a very good thing in offering transparency. Most of the report is unredacted so we could see it. And then i think he acted in a way that is less than honorable in the way he described it in writing and described it during a press conference, and continues to talk as if he is the president s lawyer. That is not the attorney generals job. Its a political appointment by the president , but you lead an institution that belongs to the American People and not the president. You think hes behaving less than honorably . I do. Look, im sorry [ applause ] hes an accomplish and very smart person who had nothing to lose in taking this job but his reputation, but i really it doesnt make me happy to say this, but i think he has lost most of his reputation with the way he has conducted himself. Do you know why he is doing it . I dont. I can speculate, but i dont know. People are complicated, but it is deeply concerning. The attorney general barr said to congress the letter is a bit snitty, talking about the letter that mueller had written him with his concerns about the way barr had portrayed the report. He said the letter is a bit nitty, and i think it was written by one of his staff people. You know bob mueller. Would he sign off on some letter that a staffer had written that he did not agree with 100 with . No. To the extent the attorney general is suggesting that bob mueller is a captive of his snitty staff, its inconsistent with everything Everybody Knows about director mueller. And whats interesting is bill barr knows bob mueller better than most people. He knows better than to say that. I want you to meet from virginia studying law in society at american university. Good evening. My question is about attorney general william barr, who has come under a lot of heat because of his testimony before congress. And hes actually been the Judiciary Committee has voted to hold him in contempt of court in contempt of congress. In your opinion, what is the best course of action to deal with the situation if he actually did lie to congress . Well, those are two separate things. If someone lies to congress, the appropriate course is for congress to make an official referral to the u. S. Attorney in the district of columbia. If it relates to the testimony by the attorney general, there will probably have to be some separation where the attorney general is recused from it and professional prosecutors take a look at it. Contempt as i understand it, the issue here is separate. Is he refusing to testify and abide by subpoenas from congress . There is also a mechanism for enforcing those things, but its a separate question from this question of perjury. Im not suggesting that the man committed perjury, but thats how it would go. Do you think he did commit perjury . I i dont know. He certainly gave misleading testimony. Because he was asked by senator van hollen did bob mueller support your conclusion. That was on the 42019. I dont know whether bob mueller supported my conclusion. And we now know march 27th mueller wrote him a letter saying the summary did not capture the substance of the finding. I think there is room. Purge i have a hard thing to prove, and it should be. It requires a very specific intent. You know youre lying when you utter those words, and it leaves lots of room below that for people to give lawyerly narrow answers. My view of it is i think the most reasonable conclusion is he was giving a very lawyerly, narrow answer, and he wasnt violating the perjury statute. But again so you dont think he lied . On the face of it, it doesnt look like he committed perjury. But i hope thats not the standard for the attorney general testifying in front of congress. The department of justice has a duty of candor to the courts and to congress. The testimony was not candid, whether it was purgious is a much higher barr. I want you to meet a student at the George Washington university studying Political Science and policy. Whats your question . Hi, director comey. Based on the things you found, do you think the u. S. Government is doing enough to protect our election infrastructure and do you think the u. S. Is adequately equipped for the kind of cyber war the russians are engaging us in. Thanks for that question. No and no is the answer. To take the election, protecting our election, the president is the commander in chief. The president denies that the russians attacked us in 2016. How can we possibly be adequately prepared to protect ourselves if our leader wont acknowledge that it happened . Thats the first thing. I know there is lots of work being done at lower levels to try and protect us, but its being done out of the sight and without the direction of the president. And i heard leaders of the nsa and other agencies say were not doing enough. If we were given authorities, were given permission, there is more we could do. So the answer is were not doing enough. The good news for all of us is our election machinery is a totally hairball, and there is comfort in that. Its decentralized. Its not nice old lady putting a voting machine under the basketball hoop. Its not connect odd the internet. Its very hard to hack. I dont feel worried about that. I worry very much about the kind of intervention we saw last time, to confuse us, to drive us apart, to make us even more polarized than we are now. Were not equipped to respond. And you have no doubt theyre going to try again . Of course. They exceeded their wildest expectations in 2016. Look at us. Were at each others throats. We have a president who is denying what his own Intelligence Community says is true. They will be back to build on that success. There was an extraordinary report in the New York Times that in the months before Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to resign as director of Homeland Security, she tried to get the white house to focus on preparing for any future attempts by russia to meddle in an election. He is according to the New York Times was told by mick mulvaney, the chief of acting staff not to talk about it in front of the president because it would upset him, because as hope hicks told mueller, that is his achilles heel. He thinks it reflects poorly on his election or its legitimacy. Does it really matter if the president is not Holding Meetings as long as the folks of the fbi and the state department and the Justice Department are working to prevent interference . Of course it matters, because the president is in charge of the executive branch. So if youre trying to protect the American People by sneaking around so the boss doesnt find out what were doing, youre going to be dysfunctional by definition, and youre never going to get the resources and the authorities you need, because those come from the top. So its a crazy situation to be in where the president is the only person in the executive branch who denies that the russians attacked us, but it has really important consequences. Our next question is from brian callahan. Brian works as a congressional lobbyist for a nonprofit focused on addresses poverty and hunger. He is also a graduate at George Washington university. Hi, director comey. If you could, would you go back in time to july 5th, 2016 and not hold your press conference . Or would you rephrase your words describing the conclusion of the fbis investigation into secretary clinton . Thats a good question. If i can go back in time, i would find a way not to be involved at all. But if i dont have that magic wand, i i think id likely do it the same way. Here was my problem. I and the fbi needed the American People to trust that this wasnt a Political Fix job, that this was done in a credible, fair, independent way. Secretary clinton had engaged in conduct that was way beyond what the normal carelessness was. So how do we explain to the American People that its not the ordinary stuff, but it doesnt rise to the level that you would be locked up for it . So i have to characterize the behavior in some way, not to attack her, but so that the American People understand this is the basis for their judgment. Its not criminal, but its not the ordinary stuff. I probably should have said really sloppy or something, but i had to characterize it. The goal was to offer transparency to foster trust. I actually think youve seen it now. We all realize the importance of it now with the Mueller Report. The Mueller Report contains far more detail about individuals who are not charged than we ever even considered offering in the clinton case, but its important for all of us to understand the basis of the decisions being made. So you would have used words other than extremely careless . Only because this is a technical thing, but the republicans in congress got all wrapped around the axle on those words because they said ahha, that sounds like gross negligence which is a violation of the law passed in 1919. I would have said something more plainspoken and said really sloppy. The Inspector General, though, called your decision not to inform the bosses about the Clinton Press conference, they called it extraordinary, insubordinate. They also said your letter to congress about reopening the Clinton Emails investigation to the emails was based on your personal views even if it meant rejecting Longstanding Department policy or practice. Yeah, thats fair criticism. Is it true . Is it true . Extraordinary and insubordinate and that it rejected longstanding policy practices . Yes, except for the insubordinate part. We were facing a 500year flood. We had never been in a situation like this, and we were put, the fbi in a position where we had to do something i never imagined . But isnt that why policies and procedures are in place, for exactly 500year floods . No. Policies are great because they reliably produce good results in most situations. Norms are great because they reliably guide you in most situations. This was not most situations. We had a little bit of gallows hum humor. We would say get me the book that explains how we deal with this. We were in a situation none of us ever imagined. We did our best to try to act in the interests of the institutions. And as painful as it is to me even today, i think i would do the same thing again. And if i had an october conceal from the American People that we restarted that investigation in a way that might lead to a different result, i think i would be criticized as brutally as ive been criticized, even more brutally for that decision. I want you to meet victoria ortega. She is a lawyer here in washington and a board member of the hispanic association. Good evening. Have you seen Hillary Clinton facetoface since the election . And if so, can you describe the experience . No. Ive never met secretary clinton, ever. And so ive never youve never, ever met her . Never. Ive never been in her physical presence. Never have spoken to her on the phone or otherwise . What would you say . Well, i would hope that i could have a conversation. Look, i feel badly that she feels like she said in her book i think that i shived her. I would hope to give her the chance i would hope to give her the chance to understand why we made the decisions we made. It wasnt about trying to hurt her or hurt donald trump or help donald trump. I was married to an amazing, still married to an amazing woman who really wanted a woman to be elected to the United States, and she did not get it at all. Once she understood and was able to tell my wife why we made these decisions, her reaction, which is the reaction of a lot of people when they finally see it is oh, i get it. I would hope that i could have that conversation with secretary clinton. All right. Were going to take a quick break. Were going to right back from our 360 town hall with former fbi director james comey. T gear. Matters. Introducing the allnew 2019 ford ranger, its the right gear. With a terrain Management System for. This. A bash plate for. That. An electronic locking Rear Differential for. Yeah. This. Heading to the supermarket . Get any truck. Heading out here . Get the ford ranger. The only adventure gear built ford tough. Its a revolution in sleep. 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Yep, theyve been doing it for years. What are you doing . Big steve . Thanks, man. There he is. Get to know geico and see how much you could save on homeowners and renters insurance. And welcome back to our 360 town hall with former fbi director james comey. Hes the author of the book higher loyalty, which is now out in paperback with a new forward. Our next question comes from jason brown. He is an Elementary School teacher. He interned for Gabby Giffords in tucson, arizona and in her washington office. Jason . Good evening. As an educator, i cringe on a seemingly weekly basis now as i see School Shooting after School Shooting being reported on the news, including the most recent one in colorado this week. What can be done to stop this endless these senseless acts of murder . And is there a bipartisan solution . Yeah. Incredibly difficult question. I can speak as a former Law Enforcement leader, one of the things we can do much better at is connecting our educators, our Law Enforcement and our public health, Mental Health community. Ive learned from educators and cops and docs all over the country that there is all kinds of impediments to sharing information in a good way so we can identify troubled souls earlier and get them the help they need, the intervention they need much more quickly. The answer in my experience as someone who has been around firearms most of my life is not to arm teachers. [ applause ] to carry a firearm on behalf of the federal bureau of investigation, you to train and qualify every three months. You have to shoot hundreds of rounds to be trusted with that weapon. On the streets of america, to trust someone with a weapon in a classroom filled with children would require, in my view, far more training and certification than that. Its just not a workable solution. Our next question comes from melody magli. She is a student at the George Washington university studying political communication, currently interning for the nonpartisan womens congressional institute. Welcome. How do you believe the Trump Presidency has affected political corruption and the ability for bad actors to get away with corruption . I think the Trump Presidency risks sending a message that leadership doesnt have to have a moral component, that its not important in this country for a leader to have external ethical reference points, and that its okay for a leader to only have one reference point, which is what will be good for me. Leaders matter because of what they say, but most importantly, they matter like parents do because of the way in which theyre watched. And the way in which theyre watched, as a parent, you shape a family. As a leader, you shape a company, a part of a government, or the entire country. We really risk sending a message that it is okay to act in the way this president acts. We are becoming numb to the fact that the leader of the free world lies constantly. And even if you support him, you have to look in the mirror and say yeah, he lies constantly. Were so numb to it that were forgetting its not okay. And thats a recipe for a melting of our standards much more broadly. I want to follow up on that, because you wrote something i found really interesting. You wrote an oped in the New York Times last week. Its called how trump coopts leaders like big barr. In it you said, part of it, quote, people lacking inner strength can resist the charges of President Trump. It takes mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites. Explain how you believe the president of the United States is eating peoples souls and how that process takes place. Yeah. It doesnt make me happy to write that, but its what i believe. This president because hes an amoral leader shapes those around him. And that shaping sometimes pushes out someone that is a strong person of integrity that stands up and says not going to have it but far more often it shapes and bends and pulls in weaker souls and he does it. It has happened to me. The man lies constantly. In public youve seen it and in private it happened. He talks constantly. So i sat there at dinner with him and he went on about how he had the largest inauguration crowd in history. And youre sitting there thinking thats not true. Thats not true. Thats not what, but you dont interrupt and say mr. President i saw the tape, you made fun of a disabled reporter. Instead it washes over you and all of a sudden you realize im part of a silent circle of asse assent. Did i just agree that thats true because i didnt speak and then there are ritual, these rituals of praise of the leader and pretty soon youre wrapped so tightly in this web that theres no way out for you. Were you aware of that in that moment . When you left the dinner, wow my silence seems like assent. Yes. So the next time i was alone with him and he told something that was obviously false, which was very, very important. He was saying in the oval office a torrent of words coming at me. I remember the day, february 8th of 2017 and among the words were his saying we are the same kind of killers that Vladimir Putin is. He was defending his moral equivalency between us and putin and i interrupted and said, mr. President , no, were not the kind of killers that putin is and when i said that, a shadow crossed the president s face and the meeting was over because i just popped that cocoon he was trying to draw around us so at that point i went back to the fbi and i said my relationship with this man is over and thats not a bad thing. It is him making everybody around him praise him which we have seen actually in cabinet meetings where he has people go around but why do so many people want to stay . Look at rod rosenstein. The president tried to get him to lie and say he was the one wanting you fired and brought it up. He refused to do that but then as hes leaving he praises the president for respecting the rule of law. I think people like that who are people of accomplishment find themselves trapped. They justify their being trapped which is yeah hes awful but the country needs me. Republicans are doing this in congress. Yeah its awful but if i speak ill get defeated and this nation needs me here right now so they start to make little compromises to stay on the team. Talk about collusion saying thats what i need to do to survive and in the process he has eaten their soul. So thats what happens to so many people. And they end up making compromises. Hes not a person of a strong no, i dont think so. When they would go around the table and praise the president ritually the only person that didnt was general mattis. He always said its an honor to represent the men and women of the United States military. He never said its an honor to work for you. I dont know whether mr. President noticed that. But in this Current Administration thats the exception. The rest are the web is tight around them and they make compromises that destroy their own reputations. We should point out mattis is no longer in the administration. Thats correct. Well be right back with more from our 360 town hall from former fbi director james comey. Forget about vacuuming for weeks. The new roomba i7 with Clean Base Automatic dirt disposal empties the roomba bin for you. So dirt is off your hands. If its not from irobot, its not a roomba. You ever wish you werent a motaur . Sure. Sometimes i wish i had legs like you. Yeah, like a regular person. No. Still half bike half man, just the opposite. Oh, so the legs on the bottom and motorcycle on the top . Yeah. Yeah, i could see that. For those who were born to ride, theres progressive. Yeah, i could see that. 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The most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. Life. To the fullest. Welcome back to our town hall with former fbi director james comey. The author of a higher loyalty which is now out in paperback with a new forward. I wanted to ask you about something that Sarah Sanders said that was in the Mueller Report because its directly about you. The report reads, when a reporter indicated that the vast majority of fbi agents supported comey, sanders said look we heard from countless members of the fbi that say different things. Following the press conference sanders spoke to the president that told her she did a good job and didnt point out inaccuracies in her comments. She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank and file fbi agents lost confidence in comey was a comment she made in the heat of the moment that was not founded on anything. When you read that, what did you think . I wasnt shocked. I knew it was a lie when it was first said at the time. And it was gratifying to hear her admit that it was and if i need to explain to you what her deal is, i cant help you. A student at George Washington university. If your book higher loyalty you talk about the importance of political norms in our government. Do you think if House Democrats dont move toward impeachment for obstruction of justice they will be putting politics over principles . Its a hard question. I dont know what the right answer is and im not qualified to answer it because i think only people in the house can answer that question. I hope theyll stair closely at facts and their responsibilities under our constitution but i kind of hope there isnt an impeachment because i think it will leave us in a situation where were off the hook. We need an election where the American People stand up and say we have important differences over immigration and guns and abortion and really important issues but we have something in common and its nonnegotiable. Our president must reflect the values of this country. And theres a lot of pain and polarization in this country but i hope that can unite democrats, republicans and indepen did he want independents and an impeachment process might derail that and let us off the hook. A counter argument to that is made by Elizabeth Warren right now. Not only is the it the constitutional duty but every member of congress should have to go on the record for our democracy and history to vote as to whether or not they think this kind of behavior from a president is acceptable. Is there value in that idea . There is certainly value in the second part of that. I think everybody ought to read the Mueller Report and then answer this question, is that behavior consistent with what we should expect from the president of the United States . Republicans should be able to answer that and democrats. Theres great value in that. Again because it will elevate the conversation to focus on values which are the things most at risk with this president. The majority of the American People have not read the full Mueller Report. 448 pages. Should mcgahn, mueller, should there be do you want to see them all testify . Thats another argument some democrats are making which is theres a lot of power in having public hearings in which people can watch it on television and actually hear from these people . I believe transparency is always good for democracy. I think we ought to have as full a development of the facts as possible. I want you to meet garrett. Thank you. What do you think is the biggest misconception thats been spread about you in the media and why do you think that misconception has resinated . Probably the biggest misconception is that i was on somebodys side during the 2016 election. Its a weird thing where the trump people say i was on the trump side and the clinton people say i was on the trump side but that idea that i and the fbi must have been acting with a partisan bias is disturbing but also understandable because so much of our country is divided were seeing this world with partisan lenses. Its hard to imagine a group of people not on anybodys side. So i get why that sense has been fostered but its painful and damaging to the institution. Yolanda, welcome. Good evening. Are you considering running for public office, and if so, which office and under what party . Im assuming it wont be the Republican Party . Actually the question is easier to answer than that. No, never. I admire good people that run for office. We need good people on both sides of the aisle running for office. Its not my thing but theres lots of ways to contribute and to serve your community and country without running for office. You canvassed for a democratic candidate in virginia. Would you canvas for democrats in the upcoming election . Yes. I think its very important first of all, i thought it very important that one house of congress be in the hands of the Opposition Party so the design of the founders would work and there would be oversight and its very important that donald trump not because of his policy positions but because he is amoral and unif it to lead this nation that somebody be elected president. If things are as bad as you have been saying they are with this administration, the threat to the country is as serious as you say it is, why not do more than write occasional opeds and then have your voice out there . Why not take another step and run for something . It doesnt suit me for a bunch of different reasons. Its not my thing but theres plenty of ways to contribute. Look, im not loving this phase of my life. I thought this was going well. Sorry. Im kidding. I love being with you. Yeah. And obviously i love bob mueller i found out tonight. But this isnt fun, but i cant do anything else. After the election what is the next phase then for you . I dont know but probably involving students and teaching which i love doing but i have to try to contribute to a conversation which i hope will urge republicans and democrats to say whats the glue that holds america together . Its not our belief about taxes or regulation, its our values. We care about the truth and the rule of law. Our leader has to reflect that set of values and we have to start there when we choose a leader. We will get there but we have to shorten this period where we lost that focus on values in the white house and there has to be Inflection Point in november of next year. Good evening mr. Comey. You lost one of your children when he was an infant. Your wife and yourself have been foster parents. You come from irish descendents. What is your personal take on how immigrants and especially immigrant children are being treated by the Current Administration . Every so often in our nations history, the giant which is the great lump in the middle of america where bell curve stirs, in 1963 little girls were murdered at the 16th Street Baptist Church in sunday school and the giants stirred. Republicans and democrats voted for the Voting Rights act and Civil Rights Act and changed our country. The images and reality at our border is a stain on this country and if theres anything good that can come from that, it will be a stirring of the giants. Tortures in charlottesville, children in cages, wake up. Think about what america is and vote those values. Our next question comes from a lawsuit at howard university. Hes from georgia and served in the army for seven years. What is your question . Thank you. What is your advice to those interested in joining the fbi and cia but seek to do so with no political affiliation or allegiance. Come. We dont want your political affiliation or allegiance. We need character and ability and physicality. One of my proudest achievements in the fbi was attracting a broader swath of america. Come, you wont regret it. Its a residence lapolitical or and once you taste work with moral content, you never want to let it go. So come i would say. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Cuomo primetime starts right now. Chris. Thank you. Jim comey said he Still Believes it is possible that russia has something on this president and then he dropped this bomb. I think its up to 800 former federal prosecutors worked both republican and Democratic Administration that assigned a statement saying that muellers findings would have produced obstruction charges against President Trump if he werent president. Do you agree . I agree. No doubt. No doubt. Thats right. The former fbi director just accused this president of a crime and also of potentially being compromised by russia and i havent got yet to what he said about bill barr and deputy ag rod rosenstien. This is going to make waves in the media and political circles but can he substantiate the claims . We have a democratic senator here that is a big hand in what happens next. His reaction to comey and why senator Richard Bloomenthal thinks the president s son should go to jail if he doesnt show to testify. Lets open this up with cuomos court. Thanks to both of you. So asha. The idea of comey sitting there, didnt even think in response to andersons question. Oh, yeah. Obstruction. Significance . Well, i think hes speaking as a former prosecutor. When you look at the Mueller Report and the fact that he went through three potential counts element by element and comey pointed out two particular instances and one was asking mcgahn to get rid of the special counsel and the other to future investigations but i think he was actually being quite conservative by saying there was two in particular even though the report suggests there could be as many as 8 counts that have evidence that would substantiate obstruction of justice and i also think he made it clear that the American Public isnt aware or doesnt fully understand that the evidence layed out in muellers report is potentially for future prosecutors to be able to prosecute trump after he leaves office. Mel, do we have the sound of the president yet . About the just in this context because of where i want to set up in terms of conversation. I want you to hear what the president of the United States said today about the Mueller Report. The Mueller Report came out. Thats the bible. The Mueller Report came out and they said he did nothing wrong. Hes talking about his son. Well put that aside. Garrett, the trump line there is from the president , the Mueller Report is the bible. I see those as haunting words. Comey tees up an absolute need to hear from mueller. We have to hear if mr. Mueller shares the analysis of jim comey. And what do you think we will hear from mueller . To add to what she was saying, we think of jim comey today as the former fbi director but he spent most of his career on the federal prosecutor side. He was a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of virginia where Paul Manafort was tried. He was the u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york where cases were being handled and he was the Deputy Attorney general that sat in rods chair before rod. We have to take his word and his weight here seriously. And hes not out of line. This is well within the bounds of what most serious federal prosecutors have said over the last couple of weeks since the Mueller Report came out. But thats why its so important. He left it undecided and confusing and he needs to clarify it. Comey was generous in the way he layed this out in the town hall. He felt he had been barred from indicting the president and it was unfair to make criminal allegations short of something that the president could be tried on. I hear you on that but very to hear it. We have to hear muller articulate how it is that mr. Bar and mr. Rosenstein found it. It wasnt just about obstruction. It was about possible compromise of our president. Do you think the russians have leverage over President Trump . I dont know the answer to that. Do you think its possible . Yes. Now why does he keep saying that . I know people will want to play it as new tonight. It isnt. He has said it before. I know theres redactions but its less than 10 of the entire report. We get the straight sense that no criminal conspiracy. No proof of compromise. Why would comey say this knowing the heft that it has when he says it . Yeah. So comey explained this. That the Counter Intelligence part of the investigation remained with the fbi. Muellers report actually notes this early on in this report. So he was not overseeing the Counter Intelligence part. He was overseeing the criminal probe and his report reflects what he found in terms of evidence that may or may not be sufficient to sustain criminal charges. What comey was basically saying is that there is other evidence that could be collected on the Counter Intelligence side that may not be relevant to particular criminal charges but could wait to whether and how people might have been targeted, assessed, developed or even compromised to act on russian interests