The hearing of James Comey, former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, ended today with many questions answered and just as many unanswered.

Comey addressed President Donald Trump’s allegations that the FBI was improperly managed, saying Trump chose to defame both him and the agency.

“(The president said) the organization was in disarray and that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. Those are lies. Plain and simple,” he said.

Several Senators asked about the content of the investigation, and if Comey thought the Trump administration was directly involved with the Russian influence in the election. Comey said he could not answer in a public meeting but could do so in the classified meeting that would happen after the hearing.

When asked about the severity of Russian influence and the importance of the investigation, Comey gave a passionate response.

“The reason this is such a big deal is we have this big, messy, wonderful country where we fight with each other all the time, but nobody tells us what to think, what to fight about, what to vote, except other Americans,” he said. “We’re talking about a foreign entity — through technological intrusion and other methods, tried to change what we think and how we vote. That is a big deal.”