Former FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that Donald Trump's request for the FBI to stop investigating Michael Flynn did not slow down any investigation into the president's ex-national security adviser.
Comey was testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee when Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) brought up Trump's request for Comey to drop the federal probe into Flynn's Russia ties.
Comey said that after the president's initial request in February, no one in the Trump administration, including Trump himself, asked him to stop the Flynn probe.
"The key aspect here is if this seems to be something the president is trying to get you to drop it, this seems like a pretty light touch to drop it, to bring it up at that moment, the day after he had just fired Flynn," Lankford said. "To come back in and say, 'I hope we can let this go,' but then it never reappears again."
"Did it slow down your investigation or any investigation that may or may not be occurring with Michael Flynn?" Lankford asked.
"No, although I don't know there were any manifestations, outward manifestations, of the investigation between Feb. 14 and when I was fired, so I don't know that the president would have any way of knowing whether it was effective or not," Comey said.