Comey details what happened in the phone calls with Trump he did not include in his written testimony
In that testimony, Comey had provided information from five of his nine conversations with Trump. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas asked Comey during his blockbuster Thursday hearing about the other four conversations.
The first, Comey said, was a phone call that took place shortly before Trump took office. The former FBI director, fired by Trump in early May, said it was a follow up to a conversation from January 6, during which Comey gave Trump details about the Russia probe, including the contents of the unverified "dossier" which contained salacious allegations that involved Trump and Russian "hookers," as Comey said in his written testimony.
"He just wanted to reiterate his rejection of the allegation," Comey said of that subsequent phone call. "He thought about it more and why he thought it wasn't true. The unverified and salacious parts."
Comey added that Trump also told the FBI director that he should stay on at his post, and Comey said he was planning to do so.
The other three phone calls were run of the mill. Comey said one, he believes, was to invite him to a January dinner with the president. Another was unrelated to the Russia probe, he said, and about another FBI matter the president thought was important. Comey considered the call "totally appropriate." The remaining phone call was, as Comey said, "to check in with me" as he was boarding a helicopter flight in March.