While Trump went on to offer praise for deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who has handled press briefings during a chaotic week at the White House, he appeared frustrated with the performance of his top spokesman, Sean Spicer.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation probe and parallel congressional investigations have cast a cloud over Trump's presidency since he took office on January 20, threatening to overwhelm his policy priorities. Trey GowdyTrey GowdyInterest builds over Trump's FBI pick Rubio "very encouraged" Trump considering politicians to lead FBI Cornyn, Gowdy on shortlist to replace Comey at FBI: report MORE (R-S.C.) were being considered for the role.
The question now is whether there exist 22 House Republicans whose loyalty to the United States exceeds their loyalty to the Republican Party, who would join with House Democrats in seeking a bill of impeachment.
Comey instead told the Republican president he could count on his honesty, the Times said.
Lee arrived at the Justice Department just before 1 p.m. Trump said he would not talk about the existence of any tapes.
Mr Comey's farewell letter to the FBI seemed to indicate he felt the Russian Federation investigation should continue.
US likely to expand airline laptop ban to Europe
Kelly is also scheduled to meet President Donald Trump on Friday but a DHS official said the meeting is about a different topic. A congressional official said Homeland Security was likely to expand the ban soon, but did not say when or to what airports.
Comey declined an invitation to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed meeting on Tuesday for scheduling reasons, said Warner's spokesman.
Four candidates are meeting with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Saturday, including Andrew McCabe, the acting Federal Bureau of Investigation director.
Trump also hit back on Friday at media reports questioning the credibility of White House accounts of why Comey was sacked, which have changed over the course of the week and threatened an end to regular White House press briefings. He said most are "very well known" and of the "highest level". "I happen to have some lawyers that were unrelated lawyers and they were saying 'wow, [Clinton's] guilty here, guilty, guilty, guilty.' Then [Comey] gets to the end and he said she's free as a bird".
The White House Correspondents' Association responded to the tweets with a statement from President Jeff Mason saying that the briefings "provide substantive and symbolic opportunities for journalists to pose questions to officials at the highest levels of the US government".
That sparked some speculation as to whether Trump's tweet hyping the segment was intended as a dig at Ryan, which the White House denied.
Ms Fisher was an assistant attorney general for the justice department's criminal division.
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