Trump lawyer says James Comey made ‘unauthorized disclosures’ of privileged talks

[Old Warrior in Exile]

Trump lawyer says James Comey made ‘unauthorized disclosures’ of privileged talks

David Jackson , USA TODAY Published 2:12 p.m. ET June 8, 2017

WASHINGTON — While President Trump stayed unusually silent on James Comey, his lawyer stressed Thursday that Comey's testimony proved that Trump did not collude with Russia during last year's election nor try to obstruct justice in the FBI investigation — and went on to accuse the former FBI director of directing unauthorized news leaks designed to damage the president.

Comey’s testimony, attorney Marc Kasowitz said, "makes clear that the president never sought to impede the investigation into attempted Russian interference in the 2016 election."

"And in fact, according to Mr. Comey, the president told Mr. Comey 'it would be good to find out” in that investigation if there were “some ‘satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong.'"

In attacking Comey's testimony — as Trump surrogates did throughout the day — Kasowitz said the ex-director "admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president."

Trump's lawyer was referring to the memos Comey kept on conversations he had with the president.

In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey said he moved to make aspects of his contemporaneous memos public by enlisting a friend to share contents of his own notes with a reporter, after the president suggested in a tweet there might be secret recordings of his conversations with Comey.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/06/08/donald-trump-james-comey-hearing-marc-kasowitz/102588032/