In an interview Wednesday with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, fired FBI Director James Comey held out the possibility that President Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election, even though Attorney General William Barr reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no collusion between any American and Russia.
Holt: “The President is taking the Mueller news as complete vindication.”
Trump: “It was just announced there was no collusion with Russia.”
Holt: “He’s making it based on a pretty bold claim in that four page letter we got from Attorney General Barr that there was no coordination, there was no collusion. The language was pretty clear there was nothing between this campaign and Russia. So on that basis should he be breathing a sigh of relief?”
Comey: “I don’t know that I read the letter from the attorney general that way. I read him as saying, “the special counsel didn’t find that the evidence established that there was any conspiracy between an American and the Russians.” What other evidence there is, what evidence there might be that falls short of that standard, I have no idea.”
Holt: “‘Establish’ is the word that you’re honing in on there?”
Comey: “Correct. And so I don’t know what the special counsel found. And I’m prepared, I hope everybody is, to wait and get the transparency that we need.”
