Here's confirmation from the Washington Post that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice, just as James Comey implied during his testimony last week.
The president has railed against the Russian Federation investigation, which was taken over by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller last month, as a "witch hunt".
Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week that he was certain his firing was because of the president's concerns about the Russian Federation probe, rather than about his handling of a now-closed FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state, as the White House had initially asserted.
As a part of the reported probe, Mueller plans to interview Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers and Richard Ledgett, former deputy director of the NSA.
A spokesman for Trump's attorney Marc Kasowitz fiercely denied the allegations.
"Chris was speaking for himself and did not speak to the president", a White House official told Roll Call in an email late Monday.
Comey's firing is a "central moment that's being looked at" in the investigation, Post reporter Devlin Barrett told NPR's Ari Shapiro, "but it's not the only thing".
After Comey's testimony, Trump said he had been vindicated because his former FBI director confirmed telling Trump on three occasions that he was not under investigation.
Coats' appearance comes after he promised to answer questions about whether Trump pressured him to rebut stories about the focus of the federal Russian Federation probe.
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Other lawmakers were stunned in the aftermath of the event, which raised questions about the security of members of Congress. A House Democratic aide said it was his understanding that Bailey was not shot, but had twisted his ankle during the attack.
The possibility that Trump might at some point want to fire Mueller has to be viewed quite seriously.
Former United States attorney Barbara McQuade, who served under the Barack Obama administration, told the Daily Beast if Trump fired Mueller "and it could be shown that his objective was to impede the investigation, it could be additional evidence of obstruction of justice".
Despite that, Trump is stewing over the Mueller-led investigation in the same way he did with Comey.
A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment.
But Ruddy opened a new line of questions about Mueller's impartiality - the fact that Trump had considered Mueller for the Federal Bureau of Investigation director's job before he was named special counsel.
Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the president's requests, officials told The Washington Post.
"He had a private conversation with the President on his views about all sorts of matters potentially about the investigation", Ruddy said.
However, Mr Comey has since suggested that Mr Trump attempted to get him to shut down the investigation into his sacked former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
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