Trump accuses Comey of lying

Comey said it should be special counsel Robert Mueller's task to determine whether Trump had obstructed justice, and therefore, had opened himself up to possible impeachment proceedings, keeping the allegations on Russian Federation in mind.

President Trump and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis held a joint news conference in the White House Rose Garden.

He said Trump asked then if Comey wanted to continue as the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation even though he had already told him twice in previous conversations he did want to continue in office. Kasowitz has declared Trump "completely vindicated" by Comey's assertion that he told the president he was not personally a target of the FBI's investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with Russian Federation during the election.

"Lordy, I hope there are tapes", Mr Comey said, suggesting such evidence would back up his account over the president's.

Trump made the remarks while responding to questions on Comey's explosive testimony in which he accused the president of trying to stop a probe into the alleged Russian interference in the USA elections a year ago. Richman confirmed Thursday that he was the friend Comey testified who had discussed the memos with the press.

A section of the Republicans who are anti-Trump, has mooted the proposal that if the special counsel Mueller carries out the investigations and Trump gets implicated further, the GOP leadership should consider whether the change of Presidency can be brought about through negotiations with Trump by promoting vice president Pence under 25th amendment of the USA constitution.

It may come to pass that the president himself will fall under investigation for declaring that he fired his former director over the probe into Russian Federation.

"You can't have obstruction of justice when the president didn't commit a crime", he wrote.

The Republican National Committee has prepared a set of talking points to answer Comey's testimony on Thursday, but they're notably incoherent.

That came almost a decade after Comey, whom Trump recently derided as "a showboat", first stepped onto the national stage with testimony about his hospital visit with the attorney general to prevent the reauthorization of a domestic surveillance program.

Former FBI director James Comey's Thursday testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee made for pretty interesting television, not to mention reams and reams of post-hearing commentary. And she says the president should voluntarily hand them over to the Senate Intelligence committee and the special counsel.

His dry quip at a riveting Senate hearing that he was "between opportunities" vastly understates the career prospects now available to him - not to mention potential benefits from the public's fascination with a man who has commanded respect while drawing outrage from both political parties.

James B. Comey, Jr is not a Boy Scout. His decision to leak his memos (written to contain no classified information, so they could be spread around as necessary) to the press, instead of taking them to Congress, in order to prompt the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel is a reminder that Comey is a practiced manipulator of the media and the Washington bureaucracy.

It all underscored what's become a hardening dynamic of the Trump presidency: Republicans on Capitol Hill and off are mostly sticking with the president despite the mounting scandals and seemingly endless crises that surround him. "So that's what I am focused on, that's what I have been focused on", he said.

"They are more comfortable today than they have been in months", said Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser. There should be. It's clear that, at the very least, Trump behaved inappropriately, if not unethically or illegally. "We've obviously pressed the White House", he said.

"I don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct".

Comey said the FBI "had an investigation open at the time so that gave me a queasy feeling".

Jenny Beth Martin, the co-founder and president of Tea Party Patriots, said conservatives such as herself increasingly see the ongoing congressional and special counsel investigations as distractions created to hamper Trump's legislative agenda.

Significantly, Trump also used his appearance on Friday to deliver a broad hint that there are not, despite his earlier warning to Comey on Twitter, any tapes of their meetings and phone calls. Comey said he felt he needed to pay attention and was too stunned to react to the "hope" comment.