Page:Comey-interview-12-17-18-redacted.pdf/33

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
33

the whole thing?

Mr. Comey. I don't think -- again, I could be wrong that he brought it up, but I don't think he brought it up in the first session, because it wasn't central to the conclusions of the joint intelligence community assessment. There were lots of other sources to support the conclusions, and because it wasn't important to the conclusion, I don't think he brought it up in his oral presentation.

It was brought up in my -- just that piece, it was brought up privately, because the goal of the private session was to alert the incoming President to this piece of it that we thought was about to become public.

Mr. Jordan. Okay.

Second page of your memo, at least the way my copy is, the third-to-last paragraph: I said I was -- I said I wasn't saying this was true, only that I wanted to let him know that it had been reported and that reports were in many hands.

Do you see that?

Mr. Comey. Yes, I do.

Mr. Jordan. Next sentence, you said: I said media like CNN had them, and they were looking for a news hook.

What is a news hook?

Mr. Comey. As I understood the term used by the press people of the FBI, it was an excuse to publish some event, some reason to say something was news.