GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Should you have said more there? Should you have said, "Mr. President, I can't discuss this with you. You're doing something improper?"
JAMES COMEY: Maybe. I mean, that-- that's also a fair criticism. Maybe I should have. Although, as I've thought about it since, if he didn't know he was doing something improper, why did he kick out the attorney general and the vice president of the United States and the leaders of the intelligence community? I mean, why am I alone if he's-- doesn't know the nature of the request?
But it's possible that in the moment I shoulda-- you know, another person would have said, "Sir, you can't ask me that. That's a criminal investigation. That could be obstruction of justice." Again, it's one of these deals where I'm so-- even though I knew something important was going to happen, it didn't occur to me he was going to ask me to drop a criminal investigation. And so a little bit of it is the shock of it, and part of it is just from the environment I think I had a good gut sense that he knows what he's doing.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: With that direction, was President Trump obstructing justice?
JAMES COMEY: Possibly. I mean, it's certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice. It would depend and-- and I'm just a witness in this case, not the investigator or prosecutor, it would depend upon other things that reflected on his intent.
So..... potentially, possibly, but, well, maybe, woulda, coulda, shoulda. Lot's and lot's of those answers in the interviews. For a person in the position he once held, those aren't the kind of answers anyone wants to hear, let alone the new President. While I don't buy everything Trump and Comey have said about the situation, Comey, aside from what he has to keep secret, seems to be anything but upfront and direct. I can see why Trump may not have liked him and didn't want him to remain in that type of position any longer. Trump obviously values people who are upfront and direct about situations, and Comey doesn't seem to fit those values. Trump not knowing Comey very well, also values loyalty and wanted it from him, showing allegiance to the Country and it's President, yet Comey wouldn't offer that either. Trump being a businessman and patriot, wouldn't like that very much.
