James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday that he took notes after his meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump because he felt that he might “lie” or be “non-truthful.”
“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting and so I thought it really important to document,” he said.
Comey noted that he didn’t take notes following his meetings with former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
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“I got to write it down and I got to write it down in a very detailed way,” Comey recalled thinking during his conversation with the president, which he described as different from other leaders.
“I knew something was going to happen that I need to pay very close attention to,” he added.
During one interaction, Trump asked if he personally was under investigation. Comey says he told him he was not at that time.
In his written statement released Wednesday, Comey recounted a January 27 private dinner with the president when he demanded “loyalty” from Comey.
“I need loyalty, I expect loyalty,” Trump said, according to Comey.
Comey described his reaction: “I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed.”
In an exchange with the committee’s Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner Thursday, Comey added that he was careful not to include classified information in his notes because he wanted them to be public.
“I knew that there might come a day when I would need a record of what had happened, not just to defend myself, but to defend the FBI,” Comey said.
Warner thanked Comey for the notes, saying they “will be very important to our investigation.”