Former FBI Director James Comey Thursday refused to answer, in open session, whether he believes President Donald Trump colluded with Russia.
"That's a question I don't think I should answer in an open setting," Comey said in his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee. "When I left, we did not have an investigation focused on President Trump. But that's a question that will be answered by the investigation, I think."
However, the Russia investigation was frustrating Trump, Comey said, as it was taking up "so much time and energy."
"I think he meant of the executive branch but in the public square in general, and it was making it difficult for him to focus on other priorities," said Comey. "I could be wrong, I think what he meant by the cloud is the entire investigation is 'making it hard for me to focus on things I want to focus on. I, the president, am not under investigation.'"
Comey admitted that he did tell Trump that he would see what he could do about the probe, but that was 'kind of a slightly cowardly way of trying to avoid telling him we're not going to do that . . . it was a way of getting off the phone, frankly. Then I turned and handed it to the acting deputy attorney general."
The former director said during one of the two phone conversations he documented in his memos, his chief of staff was sitting in front of him and heard his end of the conversation. And, he said he believes they were as shocked as he was over the Trump requests, and told him that they had never experienced such things being said.
"Then the conversation turned to, 'So what should we do with this information?'" Comey. said "That was a struggle for us, because we are the leaders of the FBI, it's been reported to us, and I heard it and now I've shared it."
However, there was a concern about sharing the information and infecting the investigative team, but still he took the request as a directive to end the investigation.
"We considered whether to tell the attorney general, but we decided that didn't make sense, because rightly we believed he was going to recuse . . . we were going to hold it, keep it in a box, document it as we have already done," Comey said.
He said he did not tell the president, however that he thought he was wrong with his request about dropping Flynn's investigation.
"What came to my mind was be careful what you said. So I agreed Flynn is a good guy," said Comey.
The former director also discussed the number of leaks that have occurred, saying he does not know why Trump himself was not under investigation. However, Comey did admit he was responsible for one leak, and that was about his memos about the Trump meetings.
He told the hearing he shared them with his friend, a Columbia University law professor, to reveal the information that he'd kept memos, and about the content of the documents to the media.
"I didn't do it myself for a variety of reasons, but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel," Comey said. "The president tweeted on Friday after I got fired that I better hope there's not tapes. I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, because it didn't dawn on me originally, there might be corroboration, a tape. And my judgment was I need to get that out into the public square. So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter."
Comey reiterated that as of the time he was dismissed on May 9, Trump was not under investigation.
"I wasn't trying to hide some criminal investigation of the president," he said.
Comey also insisted that Trump is wrong with his statements calling Russia's involvement in the election a "hoax."
"There should be no fuzz on this whatsoever," Comey said. "The Russians interfered in our election during the 2016 cycle. They did with purpose, they did with sophistication. They did it with overwhelming technical efforts and it was an active measure campaign driven from the top of that government. There is no doubt on that. It is a high competence judgment of the entire intelligence community and the members of this committee have seen the intelligence. It's not a close call."
Comey said he couldn't answer if he thought it was odd that Trump did not seem to be concerned, as he didn't know what other conversations the president had on the matter.
But he does believe Russia will try to interfere with future elections, and it won't matter whether there is a Democrat or a Republican running for office.
"They're going to come for whatever party they choose to try and work on behalf of," Comey said. "They're not devoted to either, in my experience. They're about their own advantage and they will be back."
Meanwhile, Trump has told millions through his Twitter account that he was not happy about the Russia investigation, but it was different how he handled it in the White House.
"There's a big difference in kicking superior officers out of the Oval Office, looking the FBI director in the eye and saying 'I hope you let this go,'" Comey said. "I think if the agents, as good as they are, heard the president of the United States did that, there's a real risk of a chilling effect on their work. That's why we kept it so tight."
There is much that's being reported by the about the Russia investigation, though, that is "dead wrong," Comey said.