Political Glance
Two days after firing Michael Flynn as his national security adviser in February, President Donald Trump told several aides and friends he should have kept him instead.
Trump, several people close to him say, sometimes appears to question decisions even after they’ve been made. He told New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie that he could still be labor secretary even after he’d publicly named Alexander Acosta to the role. He privately told former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani he could potentially still name him as attorney general after he’d offered Jeff Sessions to the job.
Trump told aides firing Flynn was a mistake
Trump to Russian diplomats: Firing 'nut job' James Comey took 'great pressure' off me
President Donald Trump told Russian diplomats in an Oval Office meeting last week that his firing of "nut job" FBI Director James Comey had taken "great pressure" off of him, The New York Times reported Friday.
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. White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not dispute the comments to the Times.
"I just fired the head of the FBI," Trump said. "He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off."
"I'm not under investigation," he added.
Rosenstein to Congress: My Memo Didn’t Tell Trump To Fire Comey
“In one of my first meetings with then-Senator Jeff Sessions last winter, we discussed the need for new leadership at the FBI,” Rosenstein said, according to prepared remarks released by the Justice Department. “Among the concerns that I recall were to restore the credibility of the FBI, respect the established authority of the Department of Justice, limit public statements and eliminate leaks.”
Comey is said to have become unsettled by interactions with Trump
President Donald Trump called the FBI director, James B. Comey, weeks after he took office and asked him when federal authorities were going to put out word that Trump was not personally under investigation, according to two people briefed on the call.
Comey told the president that if he wanted to know details about the bureau's investigations, he should not contact him directly but instead follow the proper procedures and have the White House counsel send any inquires to the Justice Department, according to those people.
Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians
Michael Flynn and other advisers to Donald Trump’s campaign were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails during the last seven months of the 2016 presidential race, current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges told Reuters.
The previously undisclosed interactions form part of the record now being reviewed by FBI and congressional investigators probing Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election and contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Senators: Rosenstein knew Comey would be fired before writing memo
Rod Rosenstein already knew James Comey was going to be fired as FBI director when he wrote the three-page memo that the White House would later assert had sealed Comey’s fate, multiple senators said Thursday as they left a highly-anticipated briefing with the deputy attorney general.
Rosenstein learned Comey was being ousted on May 8, according to Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), but the memo is dated May 9 — the day the firing took place.
Michael Flynn's lawyers say he won't honor subpoena, GOP Senator says
A lawyer for fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has informed the Senate Intelligence Committee he will not honor its subpoena for private documents. That's according to the panel's chairman, Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina.
Burr told reporters Thursday about the response from Flynn's lawyer. Burr says the panel's members are not surprised and says, "We'll figure out on Gen. Flynn what the next step, if any, is."
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