Trump Asked FBI’s Comey to Drop Flynn Inquiry

The request was made after The New York Times reported that Comey detailed in a memo a conversation he had with Trump a day after former national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign.

The Times cited a White House document that “has been circulated as the official account of the meeting”.

The Post said its sources would not further identify the official, who was described as a person close to Mr Trump. The report did not name the adviser. While that alone raised many, many eyebrows, the allegation that Trump pressured Comey to ease up on Flynn is, as the New York Times described it, “the clearest evidence that the president has tried to directly influence the Justice Department and F.B.I. investigation into links between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russian Federation”.

Unimpressed, Elijah Cummings, top Democrat on a key House oversight panel, said: “Speaker Ryan has shown he has zero, zero, zero appetite for any investigation of Donald Trump”.

The White House pointed to Rosenstein’s memo last week as justification for Trump’s abrupt decision to dismiss Comey.

An increasing number of Republicans, too, have joined in calling for Congress to dig deeper, especially after Mr Trump fired FBI director James Comey who had been leading the bureau’s probe. The addition of Robert Mueller as special counsel is consistent with this goal, and I welcome his role at the Department of Justice.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Mueller would have “complete discretion to take the investigation” where it needs to go.

“No. No. Next question”, Trump responded curtly to a reporter during a press conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday afternoon. “This renewed my confidence that we should not have confidence in this administration”.

“I think it divides the country”, he went on. But he added, “I wrote it”.

“This is about what I believe”. “The appointment of former FBI director and respected lawyer Robert Mueller as special counsel for the Russian Federation investigation is a positive development and will provide some certainty for the American people that the investigation will proceed fairly and free of political influence”, Senator Richard Burr said and Mark Warner, chairman and ranking member of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said. Rosenstein denounced that as “profoundly wrong and unfair”.

In this May 3, 2017, file photo, FBI Director James Comey listens on Capitol Hill in Washington. They also looked at ways to mitigate Trump’s habit of saying the exact wrong thing. “I stand by it”, he said, according to the opening statement provided by senior Justice Department officials. An investigation headed by a special counsel, on the other hand, can result in criminal charges.

It’s a he-said, he-said of historic proportions – one that could build a case against the president for obstruction of justice and conceivably lead to impeachment proceedings.

Mueller’s broad mandate gives him not only oversight of the Russian Federation probe, but also “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation”.

Rosenstein denied media reports from last week that Comey had asked him for additional resources for his investigation before Trump fired him.