Page:Comey-Interview-12-7-18-Redacted.pdf/23

23 something and then to think about their explanation. I don't know what it would be, and maybe there's none, but -- yeah, that's how I would think about it.

Is there some explanation for this? If there is, tell me what it is, and then I'll make a judgment based on that. I can't get inside the head of people writing texts that I never saw, so that's why it's a little tricky for me to answer.

Mr. What was the Russia investigation? When you hear the phrase "Russia investigation," what do you think?

Mr. To my mind, the term "Russia investigation" often refers to two different things: First, the investigation to understand what are the Russians doing to interfere in our election during the 2015-16 period; and then, second, it's often used to refer to the counterintelligence investigations that the FBI opened in late July.

And so I hear it used interchangeably there, and those two things obviously connect, but I've always thought of it in two separate elements.

Mr. Okay. We'll go with that. Late July of 2016, the FBI did, in fact, open a counterintelligence investigation into, is it fair to say the Trump campaign or Donald Trump himself?

Mr. It's not fair to say either of those things, in my recollection. We opened investigations on four Americans to see if there was any connection between those four Americans