100 per cent willing to testify over Comey conversations: Trump

Washington:  Donald Trump has said he was “100 per cent” willing to testify over his conversations with James Comey after the sacked FBI chief made explosive revelations to Congress, alleging that the President tried to stop a probe into the Russian interference in the US polls.

Trump’s assertion came after he branded Comey as a “leaker” and claimed “total and complete vindication” after ousted FBI director’s testimony before a Senate Committee.

Trump said he is “100 per cent” willing to testify under oath on Comey meetings and tell the FBI Special Consul Robert Muller that he never asked FBI to stop investigating. Trump also denied asking Comey for a pledge of loyalty. “One hundred per cent….I would be glad to tell him (special counsel Robert Mueller) exactly what I told you,” Trump said at a joint news press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House with the visiting Romanian President.

Trump made the remarks while responding to questions on Comey’s explosive testimony in which he accused the president of trying to stop a probe into the alleged Russian interference in the US elections last year. “No collusion, no obstruction, he’s a leaker, but we want to get back to running our great country,” Trump said. “Yesterday showed no collusion, no obstruction. We are doing really well,” he said.

President Trump, however, refused to say whether his private conversations with Comey were taped. He said people would know about it very soon. “I’ll tell you about that maybe sometime in the near future,” Trump said. “That was an excuse by the Democrats who lost an election that some people think they shouldn’t have lost, because it’s almost impossible for the Democrats to lose the Electoral College, as you know. You have to run up the whole East Coast and you have to win everything as a Republican, and that’s just what we did,” Trump said. “So it was just an excuse. But we were very, very happy and, frankly, James Comey confirmed a lot of what I said. And some of the things that he said just weren’t true,” he added.

Earlier, in a characteristic early morning tweet, Trump said, “Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication… and WOW, Comey is a leaker!” During his Congressional briefing organised by the powerful Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday, Comey confessed that he leaked the information about his interaction with the US president.

The information was leaked to a reporter of ‘The New York Times’ through a professor from the Columbia Law School. Comey also said that he believed the president had fired him because of the Russia probe, told “lies” about his record at the bureau and sought to redirect the probe away from former national security adviser Michael Flynn. (PTI)