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US President Donald Trump says the testimony of fired FBI director James Comey to Congress represents "total and complete vindication" in the Russian election-meddling political furore.
Key points:
- Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Comey was "a leaker!"
- Mr Comey admitted giving information to a friend, who shared it with a news outlet
- Republican senator says Mr Comey was "credible" but wring to leak
Mr Trump, who refrained from tweeting as Mr Comey accused the administration of spreading "lies", struck back with an early morning tweet on Friday.
Mr Comey had laid bare on Capitol Hill months of distrust of the president, asserting that Mr Trump had fired him to interfere with the probe of Russia's ties to the Trump campaign.
At his first congressional appearance since his abrupt firing last month, Mr Comey also revealed that he had orchestrated the public release of information about his private conversations with the president in an effort to further the investigation.
Mr Comey's testimony, at a hugely anticipated hearing that captured the country's attention, provided a gripping account of his interactions with Mr Trump and underscored the discord that had soured their relationship.
He portrayed Mr Trump as a chief executive dismissive of the FBI's independence and made clear that he interpreted Mr Trump's request to end an investigation into his former national security adviser as an order coming from the president.
Though Republicans worked to discredit Mr Comey and to blunt the impact of his testimony, the ex-director's statement deepened questions about the basis for his May 9 dismissal and about whether Mr Trump's actions constituted obstruction of justice.
The veteran lawyer and security official expressed confidence that could be a matter ripe for investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, though he declined to offer an opinion on whether it met such a threshold.
Mr Trump's private attorney, Marc Kasowitz, seized on Mr Comey's admission that he had told Mr Trump on multiple occasions that he was not personally under investigation.
Immediately after the testimony he said it was clear that Mr Trump "never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr Comey stop investigating anyone."
Comey was 'credible' witness: Republican senator
Despite White House efforts to discredit the former FBI boss, Republican member of the Senate Intelligence committee Susan Collins said she found him "credible, candid and thorough".
However, Ms Collins said Mr Comey was wrong to leak his private conversation with the president.
Ms Collins says Comey's motivation "may have been a good one," but says Comey should have given that document to the Senate committee and that Congress should obtain any tapes that Mr Trump might have of his conversations with the ousted FBI chief.
Senator Tim Kaine, the 2016 Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, said Mr Comey's testimony provided a wealth of information for both the congressional and special counsel investigations.
"What we're talking about is a sitting President of the United States and whether the administration took an action to fire the FBI director in a historic way because of a desire to take the pressure off the Russia investigation," he said.
AP/Reuters
Topics: world-politics, donald-trump, security-intelligence, courts-and-trials, united-states, russian-federation
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