Explainer-The 2020 Senate testimony that led to charges against ex-FBI chief Comey

By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Former FBI Director James Comey was criminally charged on Thursday with false statements and obstruction over congressional testimony he gave in September 2020 about the investigation into contacts between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government.

When Comey appeared for that hearing, beamed in remotely from Virginia because of COVID-era restrictions, it had been more than three years since Trump fired him as FBI director and more than a year since the end of the Russia investigation that led to the unraveling of his relationship with Trump.

Republican lawmakers, who had long claimed the probe was designed to undermine Trump’s first term, wanted to question Comey weeks ahead of the 2020 election, which pitted Trump against Democrat Joe Biden.

WHAT IS COMEY ACCUSED OF LYING ABOUT?

U.S. prosecutors alleged Comey made false statements when he stood behind 2017 Senate testimony in which he said he did not disclose or approve the disclosure of information to the news media about FBI investigations into either Trump or his 2016 opponent Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“I stand by the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017,” Comey told Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Prosecutors claim that statement was false because Comey allegedly authorized a leak related to an FBI investigation. The indictment does not name the investigation, but it appears to relate to a Wall Street Journal report from October 2016 about an FBI probe into the Clinton family's charitable foundation.

Cruz questioned Comey at the hearing about Comey's deputy, Andrew McCabe, who has admitted to being a source for the report. Comey has said that he did not authorize the disclosure and was not aware of it before the article was published. 

WHY WAS COMEY TESTIFYING?

The Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee was investigating errors the FBI made in the early stages of the Russia probe that had been documented by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog months earlier.

Republicans questioned Comey about the FBI’s use of an unverified and now largely discredited dossier of reports and rumors about Trump’s ties to Moscow. FBI investigators used that dossier to secure a warrant to secretly surveil a former Trump campaign aide.

“This is a system failure,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, then the Republican chair of the committee, told Comey.

HOW DID COMEY RESPOND?

Comey acknowledged errors in the warrant application were concerning, but defended the Russia investigation, arguing it was “essential that it be done” and “in the main conducted in the right way.”

The investigation, which was taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller after Comey’s 2017 firing, unearthed numerous contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials but did not establish evidence of a conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.

WHAT DID DEMOCRATS SAY?

Democrats on the Senate panel dismissed the 2020 hearing as a political errand for Trump.

“I think a lot of people are wondering why we are having this hearing right now,” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said during the hearing. “I think most people would think we should be talking about other things. Except maybe President Trump.”

(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Scott Malone and Diane Craft)