Transcript: James Comey's Full Interview With Steve Inskeep And Carrie Johnson

Transcript: James Comey's Full Interview With Steve Inskeep And Carrie Johnson Enlarge this image toggle caption Elias Williams for NPR Elias Williams for NPR Nearly a year after President Trump fired James Comey, the former FBI director is out with a new memoir, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, And Leadership. By the end of — by the beginning of July I made a decision that to protect the institutions — both the justice institutions, both the Justice Department and the FBI — the least bad alternative was to announce — the attorney general having said she would accept my recommendation rather than recuse herself — announce that recommendation and show transparency to the American people, to try to show them this was done in an independent, honest and competent way, rather than just do it in the normal fashion and just send it over to Justice. And honestly — it's easy to say because he's not here — but I honestly think he would have said "I think you have reasonable arguments to do what you're doing." I just — it doesn't make sense, and I can't responsibly offer an opinion from my vantage point Inskeep: If you were the special counsel, or if you were just a prosecutor as you once were, would it complicate your job if a very prominent, very knowledgeable witness said, "having experienced these events, I'm not sure they are obstruction of justice?" No, I don't think so, and I think your questions — one of the things I've been worried about with my work this week is that people think it's a book about Donald Trump, and it's not.