Trump issued his warning online on May 12, three days after Comey was sacked and four days before the newspaper reported on the information in the memo, which was recounted by Comey associates.
Comey said in his statement that in a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office on Feb.14, Trump asked him to drop an investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn that is part of a wider probe into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) said we're still learning about more about contact between Trump campaign officials and Russian Federation, including Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
It's a discrepancy that a recording could resolve, if one exists.
Kasowitz accused Comey of misleading senators about the timing of his leak - Comey said he did it only after being alarmed by a tweet in which the president said the fired Federal Bureau of Investigation boss "better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
Administration officials now aren't saying whether those conversations were indeed recorded. Comey said he showed copies of his memo memorializing his talks with Trump to people outside the Justice Department and "asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter". That and her private tarmac meeting with former president Bill Clinton before the FBI's decision on whether Hillary Clinton may have criminally mishandled government information led Comey to disclose the agency's findings ahead of schedule last summer. The veteran lawman expressed confidence that could be a matter ripe for investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, though he declined to offer an opinion on whether it met such a threshold. He said Lynch asked him to call the Clinton email probe "a matter" instead of an investigation. The ruling rejected Nixon's claim of executive privilege.
The probe into Flynn was part of a wider FBI investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and possible collusion with Trump campaign aides. The White House has denied collusion with Moscow. But if they win majorities in Congress in the 2018 midterm, Democrats eager to oust Trump from office will likely argue that it does.
Mr Risch targeted the president's usage of the word "hope", which he said did not amount to obstruction of justice.
Al Franken: Kathy Griffin can recover from 'horrible mistake'
Admitting the images were "too disturbing", Griffin said she asked Shields to take down the photo. "I beg for your forgiveness". Bobby Edwards, CEO of Squatty Potty , called the tweets disturbing and said they contradicted the values of the company.
Until Friday morning's tweet at 6:10 a.m. ET, Trump had not posted on Twitter for nearly two days.
Meanwhile, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives said today there was no question that Mr Trump abused his power in interactions with Mr Comey but she said it remained to be seen if he had obstructed justice.
"No, no. Next question", the president said.
Former FBI Director James Comey takes his seat after being sworn in during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 8, 2017, in Washington.
The former FBI director said he interpreted that "as a direction to get rid of this investigation".
Wittes, who is also the editor of the influential Lawfare blog, has said he and Comey are meet-now-and-then-for-lunch friends, but not close friends. "I took it as, 'This is what he wants me to do.' I didn't obey that, but that's the way I took it", Comey said in an exchange with Idaho Republican Sen. "I didn't move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed".
Comey also said Trump told him during a one-on-one dinner on January 27 that he needed "loyalty".
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