Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., said Friday that if former FBI director James Comey testifies that President Donald Trump pressured him to back off the investigation into his ties with Russia, that "points in the direction of obstruction of justice."
Earlier this week, reports emerged that Comey will testify that Trump tried to have him drop the FBI investigation into former national security advisor Mike Flynn, according to CNN and The Wall Street Journal.
When asked about this on CNN’s "New Day," Himes said "that would be a serious charge, right?
"It points in the direction of obstruction of justice. You know, this is in the context of the course of the firing itself. We got three stories from the White House and president himself and people about why James Comey was fired. As we know, the president told of all people the Russian foreign minister he fired him because it lifted a great deal of pressure off him with respect to the Russia investigation."
The congressman added that "We need to get to the details of what the president and president's people said to James Comey and what other forms of pressure they may have put on the justice department or FBI. This gets to the question of whether there was a systematic or a casual offhand attempt to slow down or stop the investigation."