Special counsel
Robert Mueller is reviewing a letter drafted by President Donald Trump and a top aide laying out in detail why the president wanted to get rid of then-FBI director James Comey.
WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller is reviewing a letter drafted by President Donald Trump and a top aide in the days before the firing of FBI Director James Comey laying out in detail why the president wanted to get rid of the country’s top law enforcement official, according to people familiar with the Mueller probe.
The multi-page letter enumerated Trump’s long-simmering complaints with Comey, according to people familiar with it, including Trump’s frustration that Comey was unwilling to say publicly that Trump was not personally under investigation in the FBI’s inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Trump drafted the letter with senior policy adviser Stephen Miller on an earlyMay weekend visit to his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., and then shared it with senior aides during an Oval Office meeting the day before the firing, according to people familiar with the discussions.
Some aides urged caution, these people said. And Trump ultimately sent Comey a far shorter letter that described his decision as having been prompted by recommendations from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who served as Comey’s direct supervisors — a description that was echoed in initial public statements by White House officials.
The letter, which was first reported by The New York Times,along with internal White House communications before Comey’s ouster, could now become key evidence for Mueller as he examines whether the Comey firing was part of an effort to obstruct the Russia investigation. The contents of the letter were described in detail by several people who had read versions of it.
The letter documents what the White House eventually acknowledged in the days after Comey’s termination — that Trump had already decided to let the FBI director go before he solicited recommendations from Sessions and Rosenstein.
Mueller is likely to look into whether Trump, in consulting the Justice Department’s top two officials, was seeking a pretense to remove the FBI director or, as some White House advisers said Friday, he was simply persuaded by his staff that their opinions should play a role in the process.
A Mueller spokesman declined to comment.