Of course when I go to lunch, a big story blows up.
Trump is now changing the White House story on how the firing of Comey happened, in at least one sense. He told NBC News in an interview that he had already made the decision to fire Comey and would have done so regardless of the recommendation by the Deputy AG:
BREAKING: I was going to fire Comey anyway, Pres. Trump tells @LesterHoltNBC in exclusive interview at White House https://t.co/MAmo1PE1RL
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) May 11, 2017
So he’s not changing the entire story. He still asserts that it was the recommendation of the Deputy AG, but it sounds like he’s taking much more ownership of the decision to fire Comey, which lends some credence to the fact that Rosenstein may have been at least somewhat upset about the initial White House narrative.
On that point, NBC News is reporting that two DOJ officials are putting the kibosh on the earlier reporting that Rosenstein threatened to resign:
Two Justice Department officials are refuting a report that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein threatened to resign unless his role in writing the Comey memo was better defined so that the impression wasn’t left that he was the “prime mover” in the firing. “Didn’t happen,” one official told NBC News. “He did not threaten to resign” said another.
Even Rosenstein himself said he didn’t threaten to quit:
Also I should note that in the interview above, which I highly recommend you watching, Trump details the instances where he said Comey told him that he wasn’t under investigation. One was when they had dinner together earlier this year and the other two instances were when they had telephone conversations.
Trump said in one conversation he asked Comey, that if it were possible, to tell him if he was under investigation. Comey said affirmatively he was NOT under investigation. In the other two instances Comey apparently volunteered the information.
Trump was careful to point out that he’s not talking about his campaign or anything else, that Comey told him directly that he, individually, wasn’t under any investigation.
Watch the video for more…