Trump changes story on Comey
WASHINGTON — Contradicting previous White House explanations, President Donald Trump declared Thursday that he had planned to fire FBI Director James Comey — whom Trump derided as a “showboat” and “grandstander” — all along, regardless of whether top Justice Department officials recommended the stunning step.
His assertions came as Comey’s temporary replacement joined in, contradicting other administration statements on the snowballing controversy.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump also said he’d
asked Comey point-blank if he was under investigation and was assured three times he was not. Trump showed no concern that the request might be viewed as interference in an active FBI probe into his 2016 campaign’s possible ties to Russia’s election meddling.
“I said, ‘If it’s possible, would you let me know am I under investigation?’ He said you are not under investigation,” Trump told NBC. He said the discussions happened in two phone calls and at a dinner in which Comey was asking to keep his job.
On Tuesday, when Comey was fired, the White House initially cited a Justice Department memo criticizing Comey’s handling of last year’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails as the impetus for Trump’s decision. But Trump on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that the Russia investigation — which he dismissed as a “made-up story” — was also on his mind as he ousted the man overseeing the probe.
The shifting accounts of the decision to fire Comey added to a mounting sense of uncertainty and chaos in the West Wing, as aides scrambled to get their stories straight and appease an angry president. Not even Vice President Mike Pence was spared the embarrassment of having told a version of events that later was discredited by Trump.
The White House’s explanations continued to crumble throughout the day Thursday. On Capitol Hill, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe strongly disputed the White House’s assertion that Comey had been fired in part because he had lost the confidence of the FBI’s rank-and-file.
Unfazed, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that she had heard from “countless” members of the FBI who welcomed the president’s decision.
McCabe also pointed out the remarkable nature of Trump’s version of his conversations with Comey. McCabe told a Senate panel it was not “standard practice” to tell an individual whether they are or are not under investigation.
The ousted director himself is said to be confident that his own version of events will come out, possibly in an appearance before Congress, according to an associate who has been in touch with him since the firing.
Trump and Comey’s relationship was strained early on, in part because of the president’s explosive and unsubstantiated claims that Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. Comey found the allegations confounding, according to his associate, and wondered what to make of what he described as strange thoughts coming from his new boss.
The president was no kinder to Comey on Thursday, calling him names and saying he’d left the FBI in “virtual turmoil.” He said that while he received a scathing assessment of Comey’s performance from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein this week, that memo was not a catalyst for his dramatic decision.
“I was going to fire Comey,” Trump said. “Regardless of recommendation I was going to fire Comey.”
That’s far different that the White House’s initial account in the hours after Comey’s firing. Multiple officials, including Pence, said the president was acting at the behest of Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
But it quickly became clear that the president had been stewing for days over the Russia investigation and Comey’s refusal to defend him in appearances before
lawmakers. By Wednesday afternoon, the officials, like Trump, were saying he had, in fact, been considering ousting the FBI director for months because of a lack of confidence in his ability to lead the agency.
And the Russia investigation was still on his mind.
“In fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,’” he said.
Also in the interview, Trump said he had no intention of trying to stop or hinder the FBI’s Russia probe. Trump said he wants the probe “to be absolutely done properly.”
“I want that to be so strong and so good,” Trump told NBC anchor Lester Holt. He added: “I want to get to the bottom. If Russia hacked, if Russia did anything having to do with our election, I want to know about it.”
The White House said Trump is weighing options for replacing Comey, a decision that could have broad implications for the future of the Russia investigation.
Some senior officials have discussed nominating Rep. Trey Gowdy, the South Carolina Republican who ran the House committee that investigated Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s actions in connection with the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.