Mr. Jordan. Could a news hook be the fact that you had actually just briefed the President-elect on this material? Could that be a news hook, in and of itself?
Mr. Comey. I didn't think of it that way, but I think that when CNN or one of them ultimately reported, that was, in part, the hook they had used, that it had been briefed.
Mr. Jordan. Last sentence in that paragraph: I said that it was inflammatory stuff and that they would get killed for reporting it straight up from source report.
What did you mean by that sentence?
Mr. Comey. I think what it says: that it was salacious and unverified material that a responsible journalist wouldn't report without corroborating in some way. Reporting it straight from the source reports wouldn't be corroborating it.
Mr. Jordan. So that's what I'm not understanding, is you felt this was so important that it required a private session with you and the President-elect, you only spoke of the salacious part of the dossier, but yet you also say there's no way any good reporter would print this.
But you felt it was still critical that you had to talk to the President-elect about it. And I would argue you created the very news hook that you said you were concerned about.
Mr. Comey. I didn't hear a question, Mr. Jordan.
Mr. Jordan. I guess the question is, if it's so inflammatory that reporters would get killed for reporting it, why was it so
