CNN's Jeffrey Toobin: Comey's statements on Trump highlight president's 'obstruction of justice

Jeffrey Toobin, CNN legal analyst and staff writer for The New Yorker, was fired up over former FBI James Comey's prepared remarks on Wednesday, calling President Donald Trump's purported maneuvers an "obstruction of justice."

During his appearance on CNN, Toobin blasted Trump and said, "There is a criminal investigation going on of one of the President’s top associates, his former national security adviser, one of the most — handful of most important people in the government. He gets fired. He’s under criminal investigation and the President brings in the FBI director and says, 'Please stop your investigation.' If that isn’t obstruction of justice, I don’t know what is.”

In his remarks, Comey claimed that Trump prompted him to drop a federal investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, who was dismissed over his failure to disclose Russian communications.

Comey's statement outright made allegations that the president had high hopes that the former FBI Director would drop the investigation of Flynn.

“[Trump] then said, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go,’” Comey wrote in his prepared remarks. “I replied only that ‘he is a good guy.’ … I did not say I would ‘let this go.’”

Comey's statement also added that Trump put pressure on him to "lift the cloud" of the Russian investigation, which was initiated to look into possible election interference by the Russians. Comey claimed that Trump said to him, "I need loyalty. I expect loyalty."

Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee is set to begin at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday.

See Toobin's remarks in the video below.

"If [this] isn't obstruction of justice, I don't know what is": Jeffrey Toobin reacts to Comey's prepared testimony https://t.co/fCg15m1Sdn pic.twitter.com/qDicj7Ceeh

— CNN (@CNN) June 7, 2017