By TATIANA PROPHET
In written remarks submitted to the U.S. Senate intelligence committee, James Comey described a dinner between him and the President in which Trump asked him for loyalty; and also separately confirmed that he had informed Trump that he was not under criminal investigation. This was a claim Trump made in a tweet shortly after firing Comey.
The former FBI director wrote in his testimony: "It is important to understand that FBI counter-intelligence investigations are different than the more-commonly known criminal investigative work. The Bureau’s goal in a counter-intelligence investigation is to understand the technical and human methods that hostile foreign powers are using to influence the United States or to steal our secrets."
This information was confirmed at the time in articles describing the investigation into Trump campaign involvement in Russian meddling in the U.S. election as a counterintelligence investigation, not a criminal one. Yet many media articles in May, after Comey's firing, expressed incredulity that Trump would assert Comey had told him that he was not under investigation.