It also goes back to what we talked about earlier. It has to -- it's not just some investigation; it's an investigation that is also related to the investigation -- or to Russia -- to the Russia matter that we were investigating, right? So it was not a free-standing independent investigation; it was something related to these other things. So it was alarming in that regard too.
Do you share Mr. Baker's concerns about the President asking the FBI to drop the investigation of his national security advisor? Do you agree that the Flynn investigation was related to the Russia matter?
Mr. Comey. I do.
Ms. Jackson Lee. The transcript continues: Is it alarming even if the FBI has no intention of dropping the investigation?
Well, we didn't have any intention of dropping the investigation, so -- but it's alarming nonetheless, yes, because we'll know at a minimum the existence of the fact of the -- at a bare minimum, the fact of this conversation. Just again, looks bad if it were ever to -- if it was ever -- would look bad if it was ever to become public, because it looks like the President's trying to put his finger on the scale to cause the investigation to go into a particular way, and that would hurt the FBI's credibility, reputation for independence. That was very alarming.
