Trump tells Russians Comey was a ‘nut job’

‘I wrote it. I believe it. This was apparently typical of Trump’s relationship with the Justice Department: they work for him, so of course they should provide him with anything he needs.

Reports surfaced soon after Comey was sacked that he had asked the Justice Department for additional resources for the probe, but Rosenstein on Friday pushed back against those claims.

Wittes also exposes some possible tension between Comey and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who recommended to Trump that Comey be fired.

Rosenstein, according to members coming out of the classified briefing, wouldn’t say.

Yesterday, Rosenstein spoke to the Senate on his own role in Comey’s dismissal.

The President also reiterated that he was not personally under investigation.

Wittes, a Trump critic who is editor-in-chief of the Lawfare blog, told the Times that “he never meant to publicly discuss his conversations with Mr. Comey”.

“To me, it was significant that he stated that he knew that the decision to fire [Mr] Comey had been made the day before he drafted the memo”, said Senator Angus King.

“Right in the end, Trump singles (Comey) out in a fashion that (Comey) regarded as sort of calculated”, Wittes said.

The Justice Department on Friday distributed prepared remarks that Rosenstein delivered to Congress in separate briefings. “I stand by it”, Rosenstein said in his statement, while calling Comey’s press conference on the results of the Clinton investigation “profoundly wrong and unfair”.

He added, “I chose the issues to include in my memorandum”.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein was returning to the Capitol on Friday for another closed-door session, this time with all members of the House. Risch has expressed more anger with the leaks than what they reveal.

As special counsel, Mueller is “authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters”, according to the Justice Department order Rosenstein signed. “There was an additional sensitivity here too, because many Democrats blamed Comey for Trump’s election, so he didn’t want any shows of closeness between the two that might reinforce a perception that he had put a thumb on the scale in Trump’s favor”.

Trump has reacted furiously to the appointment of a special counsel, a prosecutor with wide authority to investigate Russia’s interference and other potential crimes uncovered.

“Mueller’s in charge, completely in charge of this investigation”, said Durbin.

“There were questions well outside the Russian scope in there”, Issa said.

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

The comments were read to the Times by an American official and were from a White House document summarizing the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak.

Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, recently penned a letter to acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, requesting access to Comey’s notes when Trump allegedly asked him to pull the plug on the inquiry over Flynn.