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<\/a>President Donald Trump responded to the release of prepared remarks of former FBI Director James Comey a day before his testimony before Congress. (SAUL LOEB\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n
Former FBI Director James Comey set the media\u2019s hair on fire when he released his prepared statement<\/a> for his highly anticipated testimony set for Thursday. While some are saying there are bombshell implications to the testimony, President Trump has released only a three sentence response.<\/p>\n The statement was made through Marc E. Kasowitz, the president\u2019s private legal counsel on the Russia investigations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe president is pleased that Mr. Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the President was not under investigation in any Russian probe,\u201d the statement read.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe president feels completely and totally vindicated,\u201d it continued. \u201cHe is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement appears to refer to allegations in the media that Trump had embellished the truth in his statement after firing Comey in May.<\/a>\u00a0The statement awkwardly proclaimed, \u201cWhile I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation,\u201d something that many found bizarre, including conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer.<\/a><\/p>\n Comey\u2019s prepared statements released<\/a> Wednesday appeared to confirm that contention that he had, indeed, informed the president multiple times that he was not personally under investigation.<\/p>\n Comey discussed telling the president he was not under investigation before a January 6th briefing. \u201cI discussed with the FBI\u2019s leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure President-Elect Trump that we were not investigating him personally,\u201d he said in his statement.<\/a> \u201cThat was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him. We agreed I should do so if circumstances warranted. During our one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, based on PresidentElect Trump\u2019s reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking the question, I offered that assurance.\u201d<\/p>\n However, others have noted that the other portions of his testimony point to what some might consider to be obstruction of justice, including conversations where the president appears to pressure Comey to stop the investigation into Mike Flynn, who at the time had just been fired from the administration. CNN\u2019s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin opined<\/a>, \u201cIf [this] isn\u2019t obstruction of justice, I don\u2019t know what is.\u201d<\/p>\n