One key question though - if this was indeed the real reason Mr Comey was sacked, why did the White House wait until now?
Meanwhile, Donald Trump's administration was left red-faced Thursday after the Moscow surprised it by releasing pictures of a closed-door meeting between the USA president and Russia's top diplomat.
Seeking to bolster Trump's case that he has had no concealed dealings with Russia, his lawyers said in a letter released by the White House on Friday that a review of Trump's tax returns from the past 10 years showed no income from Russian sources outside of a few exceptions, and indicated he did not owe money to Russian lenders. All I want is for Comey to be honest.
According to the sources close to Comey, the Federal Bureau of Investigation director told them about this conversation on the grounds that they not discuss it publicly while he served as Federal Bureau of Investigation director. According to an account of the conversation which Comey conveyed to some associates, he told the president he could not give that pledge. It included Trump's altogether implausible assertion that Comey had assured Trump three times that he was not himself under investigation.
From left, President Donald Trump and NBC anchor Lester Holt.
Mr Comey had been due to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to speak on Russian Federation on Thursday - its chairman, Richard Burr, said he was "troubled by the timing and reasoning of Director Comey's termination". Then at least one possibly credible body not subject to the president's discharge power would be on the hunt for the real story of why Trump fired the main investigator on his trail and precisely what he has been trying to hide.
Comey was investigating allegations of Trump's campaign aides being in contact with Russian Federation, which the U.S. intelligence concluded was meddling in the 2016 presidential election to damage Hillary Clinton's chances and tilt the scales in Trump's favour. "He said, 'You are not under investigation'".
In addition to the Friday morning tweet barrage, Trump called Comey, who was leading the FBI's Russian Federation probe, a "showboat" and "grandstander" in the NBC interview, and contradicted the timeline of the firing outlined by his aides and Vice President Michael Pence.
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Legal analyst Bradley Moss, who specializes in national security issues, called such an exchange "highly inappropriate" at a minimum.
Instead, Clapper stressed that it was his practice as director to always defer to the FBI during ongoing investigations, and insisted that he was focused on compiling a report on Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
"And we think that we've actually, by removing Director Comey, taken steps to make that happen", she added.
The No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Richard Durbin, slammed the President after Friday's tweets, telling MSNBC that the President is "dangerous because he may be obstructing justice in terms of the investigation. and secondly his credibility has been destroyed".
Trump asserts in Thursday's interview he would have fired Comey even if top Justice Department officials had not recommended it, calling former President Barack Obama's appointee "a showboat". "We don't believe this to be an accurate account", deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told The Times.
President Donald Trump lashed out in a series of tweets Friday morning amid a firestorm over the abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey, defending the shifting narrative and timeline his administration has offered for the decision.
Rosenstein was upset with suggestions made by the White House that his memo suggested he called for Comey's firing Tuesday, according to The Washington Post and ABC News.
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