Trump then followed a typical pattern: assault Comey’s character (“He’s a showboat, he’s a grandstander…”); attack Comey’s institution as evidence of leadership failure (“The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that. I know that. We all know that.”); then insist that getting rid of the negligent official is a victory. Draining the swamp, as it were.
Speaking less than 48 hours after he claimed he had “accepted the recommendation” of top Justice Department officials to dismiss Comey, Trump said the decision was made independently of the recommendation. Apparently we live in a world where 2+2=4 on Tuesday and 2+2=5 on Thursday.
The president claimed that Comey’s ousting had nothing to do with the FBI’s investigation into alleged collusion between Russian operatives and associates of the Trump campaign. Again, the president did his best to put the focus of the conversation on his favorite topic: himself. “I know I’m not under investigation,” Trump reiterated on Thursday, after bizarrely featuring the line in Tuesday’s brief statement on Comey’s dismissal.
Trump “actually” asked the FBI chief directly whether he was under investigation, the president said Thursday. “[Comey] said, ‘You are not under investigation,’” according to Trump’s account. Trump also thanked Comey in the letter informing him of his dismissal, for assuring the president he wasn’t the target of a probe on three separate occasions.
Some of Trump’s comments Thursday contradict Comey’s previous testimony before Congress. On March 20, Comey revealed that he had been authorized by the Justice Department to confirm a counterintelligence mission that was investigating "the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election," which entails tracking "the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign."
There were many part-time, temporary and unofficial advisers and counselors to Trump during his campaign, but the candidate himself was, of course, central to the entire operation and did then as he does now give the impression of listening to no one but himself.
What’s more, it isn’t standard practice for the FBI to tell individuals that they are not under investigation. Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe on Thursday could not confirm to Congress "any conversations the director may have had with the president," when asked about the three conversations between Trump and Comey.
According to McCabe, the widely reported story that Comey’s ouster was spurred by a request for more resources to investigate Trump’s Moscow ties isn’t true. The FBI only makes requests for more resources in public view, before Congress, so there would be a public record of Comey asking appropriations and funding committees in Congress for the investigation if that were the case.
“The Russia investigation is adequately resourced,” McCabe said.
