Russia hearing: Comey says no information to confirm Trump's wiretap claims – as it happened

Mike Conaway, Republican of Texas, and Comey have a “Who’s on first” moment.

Comey explains that “Putin hated secretary Clinton so much, that the flipside of that coin was that” he favored the opponent of his hated adversary.

Conaway asks whether and when the Russians switched from opposing Clinton’s loss to favoring Trump’s win.

“They were inseparable. It’s a two-person event,” Conaway said.

They go back and forth, confusingly.

Comey says that as summer went on, “the Russians sort of gave up” and focused on harming Clinton as much as possible.

Here’s the committee chairman tossing out the red herring Trump tossed out this morning on Twitter, about a Clinton-Russia nexus.

Nunes: Comey, you mentioned that you are investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia! But, if we come to information about the Clinton campaign or associates or foundation, will you add that to your investigation?

Comey: We’ll evaluate it. Folks send us stuff all the time.

Nunes: Is it possible that the Russians did not try to get at the Clintons?

Comey: No specific comment but sure Russia wants to get in wherever they can.

Nunes: I hope that you will take info about other campaigns seriously.

Comey: Of course we would.

Now Terri Sewell, Democrat of Alabama. Does the FBI assume that Russian ambassadors are intelligence agents?

Comey: No comment.

Sewell: Would it be weird if one of your agents had a secret meeting with the Russian ambassador?

Comey and Rogers: Yes.

Sewell: Flynn did it four times and failed to disclose. Why is this acceptable?

Comey: I can’t speak to what the disclosures are for other people in the government.

Rogers: What he said.

Stone wants to... say it all under oath?

Himes, the Connecticut Democrat, said the president will attack anyone, “but there’s one person and one country that’s immune.”

“No matter if Vladimir Putin kills political opponents.”

Himes says Trump, Flynn, Sessions, Manafort, Page have an “odd connection” and “weird links” to Russia that they’ve dissembled about.

Now Himes asks about Manafort. He asks Comey to explain law requiring people acting as agents of non-US government entity to register as such.

Comey explains it.

Himes: Would you agree that guarding against foreign espionage falls under this heading? Is willful failure to comply in some cases a crime leading to counterintelligence concerns?

Comey: Yes.

Himes: Manafort ran a campaign to lobby and push favorable media coverage for pro-Russian Ukrainian parties. But it was not publicly disclosed. It was disclosed through reporting. “Did Manafort ever register as a foreign agent under Fara?”

Comey: No comment.

Himes: Wasn’t Manafort Trump’s campaign manager?

Comey: It’s obvious from the public record but I don’t want to talk specifically to individuals.

Himes: The Republican platform changed ... It appears, from our standpoint, that we had perhaps somebody who registered under Fara pulling the strings there.

Back to Schiff, for Comey: did you know Stone played role in Trump campaign? Did you see Stone’s bragging about political dirty tricks? Did you know that on 17 August Guccifer communicated to Stone saying let me know if I can help?

That sounds like quite a communication. No comment from Comey.

Schiff: Do you know Stone bragged about talking to Assange? Do you know whether Russian intelligence dealt directly with Wikileaks?

Comey: We assess they used some kind of cutout.

Schiff: Do you know Stone tweeted confidence that Assange would educate Americans? And then Wikileaks started publishing Podesta’s emails?

Comey: No comment.

“What we are reauthorizing this fall has nothing to do with what we are discussing,” Gowdy admits. But he says the public does not draw the distinction.

Here’s the Gorsuch hearing:

Gowdy says there were “nefarious” motives behind the leaks. Has the FBI begun its investigation?

Comey: “I can’t say because I don’t want to confirm that that was classified information.”

Gowdy: But you confirmed the investigation into the Trump camp Russia ties. And aren’t these leaks a matter of life and death?

Comey: Leaks are terrible and taken very seriously. But “there’s a whole lot of wrong information” in newspapers. We don’t want to help and compound the offence that’s committed.

Gowdy: “wiretap has a very specific meaning.” Can you assure people that FBI will investigate leaks.

Comey: I can’t confirm that.