Trump says ‘Russia thing’ on his mind when firing FBI director

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Thursday he was thinking of 'this Russia thing” when he decided to fire FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading the counterintelligence investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

Recounting his decision to dismiss Comey on Tuesday, Trump told NBC News that 'In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.'”

Trump's account flatly contradicts the White House's initial version of how he arrived at his decision, undercutting public denials by his aides that the move was influenced in any way by Trump's growing fury with the Russia probe.

Later in the same interview, Trump said he had no intention of trying to stop or hinder the FBI's Russia probe, which is examining whether any Trump associates coordinated with Russians to influence last year's election.

'I want that to be so strong and so good,” Trump told NBC anchor Lester Holt. He added: 'I want to get to the bottom. If Russia hacked, if Russia did anything having to do with our election, I want to know about it.”

Trump's account of his decision to fire Comey - whom he denigrated as 'a showboat” and 'a grandstander” - exposes the explanations made earlier by White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, as misleading and in some cases false.

Initially, Trump aides had said the president fired Comey simply at the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who wrote a memorandum detailing what he considered to be Comey's flawed handling of the investigation into Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Officials insisted that Trump's decision was not shaped in any way by his growing anger with the Russia controversy.

But Trump made clear Thursday that Russia indeed was on his mind.

'Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation,” Trump told Holt.

The White House struggled Thursday to explain its evolving and contradictory accounts.

'Nobody was left in the dark,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the principal deputy White House press secretary, insisted at Thursday's news briefing. She added, 'It was a quick-moving process. We took the information we had as best we had it, and got it out to the American people as quickly as we could.”

In interview, Trump also shed light on three conversations he said he had with Comey about the Russia investigation.

The president said the FBI director assured him in each that he was not under investigation - once at a White House dinner when Comey was seeking to stay in his post and in two phone calls. Trump said Comey initiated one of the calls.

'I said, ‘If it's possible, would you let me know, am I under investigation?' He said, ‘You are not under investigation,'” Trump said.

In offering more details about the assertion he made when firing Comey - that Comey had repeatedly assured him he was not under investigation - the president raised new questions about his conduct toward the FBI probe.

In the NBC interview, Trump said Comey came to eat dinner with him at the White House.

'I think he asked for the dinner ... And he wanted to stay at the FBI, and I said I'll, you know, consider and see what happens ... But we had a very nice dinner, and at that time he told me, ‘You are not under investigation.'”

That exchange, if accurate, is remarkable since Trump said the FBI director was discussing an ongoing investigation with him - something Justice Department policy generally prohibits - at a time Comey was seeking to keep his job.

Legal experts expressed doubts over Trump's account.

'I just can't even begin to think about that comment being true,” said Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor who had worked in the Justice Department. 'It defies belief in general because of the practices of not commenting on investigations and it would especially defy belief in the case of Comey who prides himself on strict observance of propriety.”