[LI] The Special Counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller barely has gotten off the ground, and already there is a stench.That stench was created by former FBI Director James Comey, who admitted in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he leaked, through a friend, memoranda purporting to document improper conversations between Donald Trump and Comey. Most important among those conversations was a February 14, 2017, one-on-one meeting in which Trump supposedly told Comey that Trump "hoped" that Comey would see fit to "let go" of the investigation into Michael Flynn.
As described in Comey’s prepared statement (emphasis added):
The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, "He is a good guy and has been through a lot." He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." I replied only that "he is a good guy." (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would "let this go."Comey’s version of that conversation was leaked to the NY Times, though the precise timing is disputed. Comey asserted in his testimony that the leak came only after Trump tweeted: "James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
Trump’s attorney claims the leak came days earlier, as NY Times reporting contained language strikingly to the leaked memo as conveyed by Comey’s law professor friend to the NY Times.
Regardless of the timing, Comey says that he leaked the memoranda in order to create a need for a Special Counsel.