President Donald Trump's comments to former FBI Director James Comey about ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn were "very inappropriate," but were a "light touch" approach and did not constitute obstruction of justice, Sen. James Lankford said Sunday.
"As Jim Comey said it's awkward, to be able to have the president of the United States sitting down with someone in the FBI, the leadership of the FBI, to be able to have direct questions and for the issue to come up about the Michael Flynn investigation," the Oklahoma Republican, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CBS' "Face the Nation."
However, as Trump didn't follow up the the comments or push the matter further, "it looks like what I called a pretty light touch," said Lankford.
Comey also acted inappropriately by leaking memos to the the press through a friend in hopes of bringing in a special prosecutor to oversee the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and accusations of collusion with the Trump campaign, Lankford said.
The intelligence committee's work is "far from complete," he continued, despite Comey's dramatic testimony.
"[Comey's testimony] is one interview of about 36 that we've already done," he said. "We've gone through thousands of pages of documents. If in any way we left the impression this was the culmination of our process, that would be incorrect."
Further testimony will come this week from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who will speak before the committee on Tuesday. Lankford said the hearing will most likely be in open session, but the details aren't yet ironed out.
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Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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