Did James Comey just get caught fibbing?
Today the former FBI director testified today that he only leaked notes of his meetings with President Trump after Trump tweeted that Comey "better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
Not true, says Trump's lawyer, Marc Kasowitz.
The reality, Kasowitz said, is that the New York Times was quoting from Comey's memos the day before Trump's tweet.
"Although Mr. Comey testified that he only leaked the memos in response to a tweet," Kasowitz said after Comey's testimony, "the public record reveals that The New York Times was quoting from those memos the day before the referenced tweet, which belies Mr. Comey's excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to be entirely retaliatory.
Kasowitz is referring to the May 11th report from the New York Times, "In a Private Dinner, Trump Demanded Loyalty. Comey Demurred."
The next day, on May 12th, Trump tweeted, "James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
Comey said today that his decision to leak his memo came in the middle of the night following Trump's tweet.
Trump "tweeted on Friday after I got fired that I better hope there is not tapes," he said. "I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, because it didn’t dawn on me originally, that there might be corroboration for our conversation, there might be a tape, and my judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square and so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter -- didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to, because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. So I asked a close friend of mine to do it.”
Trump's lawyer is now warning legal action against Comey may be warranted.
"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 said.