Trump: I was going to fire Comey even without recommendations
President contradicts aides’ earlier accounts
WASHINGTON — Contradicting previous White House explanations, President Donald Trump declared Thursday he had planned to fire FBI Director James Comey all along, regardless of whether top Justice Department officials recommended the stunning step. His assertions — differing from what White House officials had been saying for days — came as Mr. Comey’s temporary replacement joined in, contradicting other administration statements on the snowballing controversy.
Meanwhile, Mr. Comey believes that a one-on-one dinner with Mr. Trump seven days after the inauguration, in which the president asked if Mr. Comey would pledge loyalty to him — a promise the FBI director declined to make — was a harbinger of his firing, according to two people who have heard Mr. Comey’s account of the conversation.
In an interview with NBC News, Mr. Trump also said he’d asked Mr. Comey point-blank if he was under investigation and was assured three times he was not. Mr. Trump was seen as showing no concern that the request might be viewed as interference in an active FBI probe into his 2016 campaign’s possible ties to Russia’ selection meddling.
“I said, ‘If it’s possible, would you let me know am I under investigation?’ He said, you are not under investigation,” Mr. Trump told NBC. He said the discussions happened in two phone calls and at a dinner in which Mr. Comey was asking to keep his job.
Mr. Comey has not confirmed Mr. Trump’s account.
The White House initially cited a Justice Department memo criticizing Mr. Comey’s handling of last year’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails as the impetus for
Mr. Trump’s decision. But Mr. 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 Mr. Comey, whom Mr. Trump derided as a “showboat” and “grandstander,” added to a mounting sense of uncertainty in the West Wing, as aides scrambled to get their stories straight. Not even Vice President Mike Pence was spared of having told a version of events that was later discredited by Mr. Trump.
The White House’s explanations were viewed as continuing to crumble throughout the day Thursday. On Capitol Hill, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe strongly disputed the White House’s assertion that Mr. Comey had been fired in part because he had lost the confidence of the FBI’s rank-and-file.
“That is not accurate,” Mr. McCabe said. “Director Comey enjoyed broad support withinthe FBI and still does to thisday.”
Unfazed, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted she had heard from “countless” members of the FBI who welcomed the president’s decision.
Mr. McCabe promised lawmakers that he would inform them if the bureau’s investigation into possible ties between Mr. Trump campaign associates and Russia faces any political interference from the White House.
He also pointed out the remarkable nature of Mr. Trump’s version of his conversations with Mr. Comey. Mr. McCabe told a Senate panel it was not “standard practice” to tell an individual whether they are or are not under investigation.
The president on Thursday said Mr. Comey left the FBI in “virtual turmoil.” He said that while he received a scathing assessment of Mr. Comey’s performance from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Monday, that memo was not a catalyst for his dramatic decision as the White House had said earlier.
“Regardless of recommendation I was going to fire Comey,” Mr. Trump said.
But in the hours after Mr. Comey’s firing, multiple officials including Mr. Pence said the president was acting at the behest of Mr. Rosenstein — who reportedly threatened to resign over the way the Comey dismissal was attributed in part to the memo he wrote — and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
But it quickly became clear that the president had been stewing for days over the Russia investigation and Mr. Comey’s refusal to defend him in appearances before lawmakers. By Wednesday afternoon, the officials, like Mr. 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.
Mr. Trump also described a dinner conversation with Mr. Comey in which the director asked to have the meeting and the question of loyalty never cameup.
Ms. Sanders attributed the disconnect in the week’s explanations to the fact that she had not directly asked Mr. Trump when he’d made the decision to fire Mr. Comey until shortly before Thursday’s press briefing.
Mr. Trump had kept his decision to fire Mr. Comey from all but his closest advisers. Many were ill-prepared for the outraged response from Democrats and open concern from some Republicans.