J. Brien Comey had an important visitor coming to his home here in this quiet suburban town on Saturday.
Reached by phone Saturday morning about an interview, the father of former FBI Director James Comey expressed a willingness to speak to a CNN reporter. But he was expecting “company,” he said, and asked that the reporter call back in a few hours.
When CNN rang again in the early afternoon, another man answered the phone.
“His company is his son, Jim,” the man answered, identifying himself as that company, the ex-FBI director who delivered extraordinary testimony before Congress this week about his interactions with President Donald Trump before he was fired last month.
Comey was visiting his father and about to leave the house, he said before noting that, in fact, his father would not be speaking to press.
Asked for his reaction to the events of this week, including his testimony in the Senate on Thursday, Comey answered, “You can ask, but I’m not going to talk about that.”
He then wished CNN luck.
Last month, J. Brien Comey told CNN in a phone interview that his son was a “straightforward and honest guy” and was fired “because Jim tells the truth, (while) Trump runs around lying most of the day.”