According to a newly unredacted report from the committee, Former FBI Director James Comey testified to the House Intelligence Committee that FBI agents did not believe that national security adviser Michael Flynn, intentionally lied about talks with Russia’s ambassador.
“Director Comey testified to the Committee that the agents…discerned no physical indications of deception, They didn’t see any change in posture, in tone, in inflection, in eye contact. They saw nothing that indicated to them that he knew he was lying to them.’” said a new version of the report obtained on Friday.
Former FBI Director Comey has suggested his testimony about Michael Flynn had been misunderstood.
“No, I saw that in the media,” Comey said last week on Fox News’ “Special Report.” “Someone misunderstood something I said. I didn’t believe that and didn’t say that.”
However, the House Intelligence Committee report also states that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said FBI didn’t “detect deception” from Michael Flynn in the interview.
“Deputy Director McCabe confirmed the interviewing agent’s initial impression and stated that the ‘conundrum that we faced on their return from the interview is that although [the agents] didn’t detect deception in the statements that he made in the interview … the statements were inconsistent with our understanding of the conversation that he had actually had with the ambassador,’” the report states.
McCabe also acknowledged that “the two people who interviewed [Flynn] didn’t think he was lying, [which] was not [a] great beginning of a false statement case.”