 Section 15 of Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 presidential election. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org recording by Lynn Jarrow. Report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election by Robert Mueller. C. The President's reaction to public confirmation of the FBI's Russia investigation. Overview In early March 2017, the President learned that Sessions was considering recusing from the Russia investigation and tried to prevent the recusal. After Sessions announced his recusal on March 2, the President expressed anger at Sessions for the decision and then privately asked Sessions to unrecuse. On March 20, 2017, Comey publicly disclosed the existence of the FBI's Russia investigation. In the days that followed, the President contacted Comey and other intelligence agency leaders and asked them to push back publicly on the suggestion that the President had any connection to the Russian election interference effort in order to lift the cloud of the ongoing investigation. Evidence 1. Attorney General Sessions recuses from the Russia investigation. In late February 2017, the Department of Justice began an internal analysis of whether Sessions should recuse from the Russia investigation based on his role in the 2016 Trump campaign. On March 1, 2017, the press reported that, in his January confirmation hearing to become Attorney General, Sessions had not disclosed two meetings he had with Russian Ambassador Kislyak before the presidential election, leading to congressional calls for Sessions to recuse or for a special council to investigate Russia's interference in the presidential election. Also on March 1, the President called Comey and said he wanted to check in and see how Comey was doing. According to an email Comey sent to his Chief of Staff after the call, the President, talked about Sessions a bit, said that he had heard Comey was doing great and said that he hoped Comey would come by and say hello when he was at the White House. Comey interpreted the call as an effort by the President to pull him in, but he did not perceive the call as an attempt by the President to find out what Comey was doing with the Flynn investigation. The next morning, the President called McGahn and urged him to contact Sessions to tell him not to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. McGahn understood the President to be concerned that a recusal would make Sessions look guilty for omitting details in his confirmation hearing, leave the President unprotected from an investigation that could hobble the presidency and derail his policy objectives and detract from favorable press coverage of a presidential-addressed Congress the President had delivered earlier in the week. McGahn reached out to Sessions and reported that the President was not happy about the possibility of recusal. Sessions replied that he intended to follow the rules on recusal. McGahn reported back to the President about the call with Sessions, and the President reiterated that he did not want Sessions to recuse. Throughout the day, McGahn continued trying on behalf of the President to avert Sessions' recusal by speaking to Sessions' personal counsel, Sessions' chief of staff, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and by contacting Sessions himself two more times. Sessions recalled that other White House advisors also called him that day to argue against his recusal. That afternoon, Sessions announced a decision to recuse from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States. Sessions believed the decision to recuse was not a close call given the applicable language in the Code of Federal Regulations, CFR, which Sessions considered to be clear and decisive. Sessions thought that any argument that the CFR did not apply to him was very thin. Sessions got the impression, based on calls he received from White House officials, that the President was very upset with him and did not think he had done his duty as Attorney General. Shortly after Sessions announced his recusal, the White House Counsel's office directed that Sessions should not be contacted about the matter. Internal White House Counsel's office notes, from March 2, 2017, state, no contact with Sessions and no comms, serious concerns about obstruction. On March 3, the day after Sessions' recusal, McGann was called into the Oval Office. Other advisors were there, including Priebus and Bannon. The President opened the conversation by saying, I don't have a lawyer. The President expressed anger at McGann about the recusal and brought up Roy Cohn, stating that he wished Cohn was his attorney. McGann interpreted this comment as directed at him, suggesting that Cohn would fight for the President, whereas McGann would not. The President wanted McGann to talk to Sessions about the recusal, but McGann told the President that DOJ ethics officials had weighed in on Sessions' decision to recuse. The President then brought up former Attorneys General Robert Kennedy and Eric Holder and said that they had protected their Presidents. The President also pushed back on the DOJ contacts policy and said words to the Effective. You're telling me that Bobby and Jack didn't talk about investigations or Obama didn't tell Eric Holder who to investigate? Bannon recalled that the President was as mad as Bannon had ever seen him and that he screamed at McGann about how weak Sessions was. Bannon recalled telling the President that Sessions' recusal was not a surprise and that before the inauguration they had discussed that Sessions would have to recuse from campaign-related investigations because of his work on the Trump campaign. That weekend Sessions and McGann flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the President. Sessions recalled that the President pulled him aside to speak to him alone and suggested that Sessions should unrecuse from the Russia investigation. The President contrasted Sessions with Attorneys General Holder and Kennedy who had developed a strategy to help their Presidents where Sessions had not. Sessions said he had the impression that the President feared that the investigation could spin out of control and disrupt his ability to govern which Sessions could have helped avert if he were still overseeing it. On March 5, 2017 the White House Council's office was informed that the FBI was asking for transition period records relating to Flynn indicating that the FBI was still actively investigating him. On March 6, the President told advisors he wanted to call the Acting Attorney General to find out whether the White House or the President was being investigated, although it is not clear whether the President knew at the time of the FBI's recent request concerning Flynn. 2. FBI Director Comey publicly confirms the existence of the Russia investigation in testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, HIPSI. On March 9, 2017 Comey briefed the Gang of Eight congressional leaders about the FBI's investigation of Russian interference, including an identification of the principal U.S. subjects of the investigation. Although it is unclear whether the President knew of that briefing at the time, notes taken by Annie Donaldson, then McGahn's Chief of Staff, on March 12, 2017 state, POTUS in panic chaos need binders to put in front of POTUS. 1. All Things Related to Russia The week after Comey's briefing, the White House Council's office was in contact with Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Senator Richard Byrd about the Russia investigations and appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation. On March 20, 2017, Comey was scheduled to testify before HIPSI. In advance of Comey's testimony, congressional officials made clear that they wanted Comey to provide information about the ongoing FBI investigation. Dana Bente, who at the time was the Acting Attorney General for the Russia investigation, authorized Comey to confirm the existence of the Russia investigation and agreed that Comey should decline to comment on whether any particular individuals, including the President, were being investigated. In his opening remarks at the HIPSI hearing, which were drafted in consultation with the Department of Justice, Comey stated that he had been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of its counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. And that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed. Comey added that he would not comment further on what the FBI was doing and whose conduct it was examining because the investigation was ongoing and classified. But he observed that he had taken the extraordinary step in consultation with the Department of Justice of briefing this Congress's leaders in a classified setting in detail about the investigation. Comey was specifically asked whether President Trump was under investigation during the campaign or under investigation now. Comey declined to answer, stating, Please don't overinterpret what I've said as, as the chair and ranking know. We have briefed him in great detail on the subjects of the investigation and what we're doing, but I'm not going to answer about anybody in this forum. Comey was also asked whether the FBI was investigating the information contained in the steel reporting, and he declined to answer. According to McGahn and Donaldson, the President had expressed frustration with Comey before his March 20th testimony, and the testimony made matters worse. The President had previously criticized Comey for too frequently making headlines and for not attending the intelligence briefings at the White House, and the President suspected Comey of leaking certain information to the media. McGahn said the President thought Comey was acting like his own branch of government. Press reports following Comey's March 20th testimony suggested that the FBI was investigating the President, contrary to what Comey had told the President at the end of the January 6th, 2017 intelligence assessment briefing. McGahn, Donaldson, and Senior Advisor Stephen Miller recalled that the President was upset with Comey's testimony and the press coverage that followed because of the suggestion that the President was under investigation. Notes from the White House Counsel's office dated March 21st, 2017 indicate that the President was, beside himself, over Comey's testimony. The President called McGahn repeatedly that day to ask him to intervene with the Department of Justice, and, according to the notes, the President was getting hotter and hotter, get rid. Officials in the White House Counsel's office became so concerned that the President would fire Comey that they began drafting a memorandum that examined whether the President needed cause to terminate the FBI director. At the President's urging, McGahn contacted Bente several times on March 21st, 2017 to seek Bente's assistance in having Comey or the Department of Justice correct the misperception that the President was under investigation. Bente did not specifically recall the conversations, although he did remember one conversation with McGahn around this time, where McGahn asked if there was a way to speed up or end the Russia investigation as quickly as possible. Bente said McGahn told him the President was under a cloud and it made it hard for him to govern. Bente recalled telling McGahn that there was no good way to shorten the investigation, and attempting to do so could erode confidence in the investigation's conclusions. Bente said McGahn agreed and dropped the issue. The President also sought to speak with Bente directly, but McGahn told the President that Bente did not want to talk to the President about the request to intervene with Comey. McGahn recalled Bente telling him in calls that day that he did not think it was sustainable for Comey to stay on as FBI director for the next four years, which McGahn said he conveyed to the President. Bente did not recall discussing with McGahn or anyone else the idea that Comey should not continue as FBI director. Three, the President asks intelligence community leaders to make public statements that he had no connection to Russia. In the weeks following Comey's March 20, 2017 testimony, the President repeatedly asked intelligence community officials to push back publicly on any suggestion that the President had a connection to the Russian election interference effort. On March 22, 2017, the President asked Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coates and CIA Director Michael Pompeo to stay behind in the Oval Office after a presidential daily briefing. According to Coates, the President asked him whether they could say publicly that no link existed between him and Russia. Coates responded that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI, has nothing to do with investigations, and it was not his role to make a public statement on the Russia investigation. Pompeo had no recollection of being asked to stay behind after the March 22 briefing, but he recalled that the President regularly urged officials to get the word out that he had not done anything wrong related to Russia. Coates told this Office that the President never asked him to speak to Comey about the FBI investigation. Some ODNI staffers, however, had a different recollection of how Coates described the meeting immediately after it occurred. According to senior ODNI official Michael Dempsey, Coates said after the meeting that the President had brought up the Russia investigation and asked him to contact Comey to see if there was a way to get past the investigation, get it over with, end it, or words to that effect. Dempsey said that Coates described the President's comments as falling somewhere between musing about hating the investigation and wanting Coates to do something to stop it. Dempsey said Coates made it clear that he would not get involved with an ongoing FBI investigation. Edward Gestaro, another ODNI official, recalled that right after Coates' meeting with the President on the walk from the Oval Office back to the Eisenhower Executive Office building, Coates said that the President had kept him behind to ask him what he could do to help with the investigation. Another ODNI staffer who had been waiting for Coates outside the Oval Office talked to Gestaro a few minutes later and recalled Gestaro reporting that Coates was upset because the President had asked him to contact Comey to convince him there was nothing to the Russia investigation. On Saturday, March 25, 2017, three days after the meeting in the Oval Office, the President called Coates and again complained about the Russia investigations, saying words to the effect of, I can't do anything with Russia. There's things I'd like to do with Russia, with trade, with ISIS. They're all over me with this. Coates told the President that the investigations were going to go on and the best thing to do was let them run their course. Coates later testified in a congressional hearing that he had never felt pressure to intervene or interfere in any way and shape, with shaping intelligence in a political way or in relationship to an ongoing investigation. On March 26, 2017, the day after the President called Coates, the President called NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers. The President expressed frustration with the Russia investigation, saying that it made relations with the Russians difficult. The President told Rogers the thing with the Russians was messing up his ability to get things done with Russia. The President also said that the news stories linking him with Russia were not true and asked Rogers if he could do anything to refute the stories. Deputy Director of the NSA Richard Leggett, who was present for the call, said it was the most unusual thing he had experienced in 40 years of government service. After the call concluded, Leggett prepared a memorandum that he and Rogers both signed documenting the content of the conversation and the President's request and they placed the memorandum in a safe. But Rogers did not perceive the President's request to be in order and the President did not ask Rogers to push back on the Russia investigation itself. Rogers later testified in a congressional hearing that as NSA Director, he had never been directed to do anything he believed to be illegal, immoral, unethical, or inappropriate, and did not recall ever feeling pressured to do so. In addition to the specific comments made to Coates, Pompeo, and Rogers, the President spoke on other occasions in the presence of intelligence community officials about the Russia investigation and stated that it interfered with his ability to conduct foreign relations. On at least two occasions, the President began presidential daily briefings by stating that there was no collision with Russia and he hoped a press statement to that effect could be issued. Pompeo recalled that the President vented about the investigation on multiple occasions, complaining that there was no evidence against him and that nobody would publicly defend him. Rogers recalled a private conversation with the President in which he vented about the investigation, said he had done nothing wrong and said something like, the Russia thing has got to go away. Coates recalled the President bringing up the Russia investigation several times and Coates said he finally told the President that Coates' job was to provide intelligence and not get involved in investigations. For the President asked Comey to lift the cloud created by the Russia investigation. On the morning of March 30th, 2017, the President reached out to Comey directly about the Russia investigation. According to Comey's contemporaneous record of the conversation, the President said he was trying to run the country and the cloud of this Russia business was making that difficult. The President asked Comey what could be done to lift the cloud. Comey explained that we were running it down as quickly as possible and that there would be great benefit if we didn't find anything to our good housekeeping seal of approval, but we had to do our work. Comey also told the President that congressional leaders were aware that the FBI was not investigating the President personally. The President said several times, we need to get that fact out. The President commented that if there was some satellite which Comey took to mean an associate of the Presidents or the campaign that did something, it would be good to find that out. But that he himself had not done anything wrong and he hoped Comey would find a way to get out that we weren't investigating him. After the call ended, Comey called Bente and told him about the conversation, asked for guidance on how to respond, and said he was uncomfortable with direct contact from the President about the investigation. On the morning of April 11, 2017, the President called Comey again. According to Comey's contemporaneous record of the conversation, the President said he was, following up to see if Comey did what the President had asked last time, getting out that he personally is not under investigation. Comey responded that he had passed the request to Bente but not heard back, and he informed the President that the traditional channel for such a request would be to have the White House Council contact DOJ leadership. The President said he would take that step. The President then added, because I've been very loyal to you, very loyal, we had that thing, you know? In a televised interview that was taped early that afternoon, the President was asked if it was too late for him to ask Comey to step down. The President responded, No, it's not too late, but you know, I have confidence in him. We'll see what happens. You know, it's going to be interesting. After the interview, Hicks told the President she thought the President's comment about Comey should be removed from the broadcast of the interview, but the President wanted to keep it in, which Hicks thought was unusual. Later that day, the President told senior advisors, including McGahn and Priebus, that he had reached out to Comey twice in recent weeks. The President acknowledged that McGahn would not approve of the outreach to Comey because McGahn had previously cautioned the President that he should not talk to Comey directly to prevent any perception that the White House was interfering with investigations. The President told McGahn that Comey had indicated the FBI could make a public statement that the President was not under investigation if the Department of Justice approved that action. After speaking with the President, McGahn followed up with Bente to relay the President's understanding that the FBI could make a public announcement if the Department of Justice cleared it. McGahn recalled that Bente said Comey had told him there was nothing obstructive about the calls from the President, but they made Comey uncomfortable. According to McGahn, Bente responded that he did not want to issue a statement about the President not being under investigation because of the potential political ramifications and did not want to order Comey to do it because that action could prompt the appointment of a special counsel. Bente did not recall that aspect of his conversation with McGahn, but did recall telling McGahn that the direct outreaches from the President to Comey were a problem. Bente recalled that McGahn agreed and said he would do what he could to address that issue. Analysis. In analyzing the President's reaction to Sessions' recusal and the requests he made to Coates, Pompeo, Rogers, and Comey, the following evidence is relevant to the elements of obstruction of justice. A. Obstructive Act. The evidence shows that, after Comey's March 20, 2017 testimony, the President repeatedly reached out to intelligence agency leaders to discuss the FBI's investigation, but witnesses had different recollections of the precise content of those outreaches. Some ODNI officials recalled that Coates told them immediately after the March 22 Oval Office meeting that the President asked Coates to intervene with Comey and stop the investigation, but the first-hand witnesses to the encounter remember the conversation differently. Pompeo had no memory of a specific meeting, but generally recalled the President urging officials to get the word out that the President had not done anything wrong related to Russia. Coates recalled that the President asked that Coates state publicly that no link existed between the President and Russia, but did not ask him to speak with Comey or to help end the investigation. The other outreaches by the President during this period were similar in nature. The President asked Rogers if he could do anything to refute the stories linking the President to Russia, and the President asked Comey to make a public statement that would lift the cloud of the ongoing investigation by making clear that the President was not personally under investigation. These requests, while significant enough that Rogers thought it important to document the encounter in a written memorandum, were not interpreted by the officials who received them as directives to improperly interfere with the investigation. B. Nexus to a proceeding. At the time of the President's outreaches to leaders of the intelligence agencies in late March and early April 2017, the FBI's Russia investigation did not yet involve grand jury proceedings. The outreaches, however, came after and were in response to Comey's March 20, 2017 announcement that the FBI, as part of its counterintelligence mission, was conducting an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Comey testified that the investigation included any links or coordination with Trump campaign officials and would include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed. C. Intent. As described above, the evidence does not establish that the President asked or directed intelligence agency leaders to stop or interfere with the FBI's Russia investigation. And the President affirmatively told Comey that if some satellite was involved in Russian election interference, it would be good to find that out. But the President's intent in trying to prevent Sessions recusal and in reaching out to Coates, Pompeo, Rogers, and Comey following Comey's public announcement of the FBI's Russia investigation is nevertheless relevant to understanding what motivated the President's other actions toward the investigation. The evidence shows that the President was focused on the Russia investigation's implications for his presidency and specifically on dispelling any suggestion that he was under investigation or had links to Russia. In early March, the President attempted to prevent Sessions recusal, even after being told that Sessions was following DOJ conflict of interest rules. After Sessions recused, the White House Counsel's office tried to cut off further contact with Sessions about the matter, although it is not clear whether that direction was conveyed to the President. The President continued to raise the issue of Sessions recusal and, when he had the opportunity, he pulled Sessions aside and urged him to unrequise. The President also told advisors that he wanted an Attorney General who would protect him the way he perceived Robert Kennedy and Eric Holder to have protected their Presidents. The President made statements about being able to direct the course of criminal investigations, saying words to the Effective. You're telling me that Bobby and Jack didn't talk about investigations? Or Obama didn't tell Eric Holder who to investigate? After Comey publicly confirmed the existence of the FBI's Russia investigation on March 20, 2017, the President was, beside himself, and expressed anger that Comey did not issue a statement correcting any misperception that the President himself was under investigation. The President sought to speak with Acting Attorney General Bente directly and told McGahn to contact Bente to request that Comey make a clarifying statement. The President then asked other Intelligence Community leaders to make public statements to refute the suggestion that the President had links to Russia, but the leaders told him they could not publicly comment on the investigation. On March 30 and April 11, against the advice of White House advisors who had informed him that any direct contact with the FBI could be perceived as improper interference in an ongoing investigation, The President made personal outreaches to Comey, asking him to lift the cloud of the Russia investigation by making public the fact that the President was not personally under investigation. Evidence indicates that the President was angered by both the existence of the Russia investigation and the public reporting that he was under investigation, which he knew was not true based on Comey's representations. The President complained to advisors that if people thought Russia helped him with the election, it would detract from what he had accomplished. Other evidence indicates that the President was concerned about the impact of the Russia investigation on his ability to govern. The President complained that the perception that he was under investigation was hurting his ability to conduct foreign relations, particularly with Russia. The President told Coates he can't do anything with Russia. He told Rogers that the thing with the Russians was interfering with his ability to conduct foreign affairs. And he told Comey that he was trying to run the country and the cloud of this Russia business was making that difficult. D. Events leading up to and surrounding the termination of FBI Director Comey. Overview. Comey was scheduled to testify before Congress on May 3, 2017. Leading up to that testimony, the President continued to tell advisors that he wanted Comey to make public that the President was not under investigation. At the hearing, Comey declined to answer questions about the scope or subjects of the Russia investigation and did not state publicly that the President was not under investigation. Two days later, on May 5, 2017, the President told Close Aids he was going to fire Comey. And on May 9, he did so, using his official termination letter to make public that Comey had on three occasions informed the President that he was not under investigation. The President decided to fire Comey before receiving advice or a recommendation from the Department of Justice. But he approved an initial public account of the termination that attributed it to a recommendation from the Department of Justice based on Comey's handling of the Clinton email investigation. After Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein resisted attributing the firing to his recommendation, the President acknowledged that he intended to fire Comey regardless of the DOJ recommendation and was thinking of the Russia investigation when he made the decision. The President also told the Russian Foreign Minister, I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off. I'm not under investigation. Evidence 1. Comey testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee and declines to answer questions about whether the President is under investigation. On May 3, 2017, Comey was scheduled to testify at an FBI oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. McGahn recalled that in the week leading up to the hearing, the President said that it would be the last straw if Comey did not take the opportunity to set the record straight by publicly announcing that the President was not under investigation. The President had previously told McGahn that the perception that the President was under investigation was hurting his ability to carry out his presidential duties and deal with foreign leaders. At the hearing, Comey declined to answer questions about the status of the Russia investigation, stating the Department of Justice had authorized him to confirm that the Russia investigation exists. And he was not going to say another word about it until the investigation was completed. Comey also declined to answer questions about whether investigators had ruled out anyone in the Trump campaign as potentially a target of the criminal investigation, including whether the FBI had ruled out the President of the United States. Comey was also asked at the hearing about his decision to announce 11 days before the presidential election that the FBI was reopening the Clinton email investigation. Comey stated that it made him mildly nauseous to think that we might have had some impact on the election, but added that, even in hindsight, he would make the same decision. He later repeated that he had no regrets about how he had handled the email investigation and believed he had done the right thing at each turn. In the afternoon following Comey's testimony, the President met with McGahn, Sessions, and Sessions Chief of Staff Jody Hunt. At that meeting, the President asked McGahn how Comey had done his testimony, and McGahn relayed that Comey had declined to answer questions about whether the President was under investigation. The President became very upset and directed his anger at Sessions. According to notes written by Hunt, the President said, This is terrible, Jeff. It's all because you recused. AG is supposed to be the most important appointment. Kennedy appointed his brother. Obama appointed Holder. I appointed you, and you recused yourself. You left me on an island. I can't do anything. The President said that the recusal was unfair and that it was interfering with his ability to govern and undermining his authority with foreign leaders. Sessions responded that he had no choice but to recuse, and it was a mandatory rather than discretionary decision. Hunt recalled that Sessions also stated at some point during the conversation that a new start at the FBI would be appropriate and the President should consider replacing Comey as FBI Director. According to Sessions, when the meeting concluded, it was clear that the President was unhappy with Comey, but Sessions did not think the President had made the decision to terminate Comey. Bannon recalled that the President brought Comey up with him at least eight times on May 3 and May 4, 2017. According to Bannon, the President said the same thing each time. He told me three times I'm not under investigation. He's a show-boater. He's a grandstander. I don't know any Russians. There was no collusion. Bannon told the President that he could not fire Comey because that ship had sailed. Bannon also told the President that firing Comey was not going to stop the investigation, cautioning him that he could fire the FBI Director, but could not fire the FBI. Two. The President makes the decision to terminate Comey. The weekend following Comey's May 3, 2017 testimony, the President traveled to his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey at a dinner on Friday, May 5, attended by the President and various advisors and family members, including Jared Kushner and Senior Advisor Stephen Miller. The President stated that he wanted to remove Comey and had ideas for a letter that would be used to make the announcement. The President dictated arguments and specific language for the letter, and Miller took notes. As reflected in the notes, the President told Miller that the letter should start, while I greatly appreciate you informing me that I am not under investigation concerning what I have often stated is a fabricated story on a Trump-Russia relationship pertaining to the 2016 presidential election. Please be informed that I, and I believe the American public, including these and ours, have lost faith in you as Director of the FBI. Following the dinner, Miller prepared a termination letter based on those notes and research he conducted to support the President's arguments. Over the weekend, the President provided several rounds of edits on the draft letter. Miller said the President was adamant that he not tell anyone at the White House what they were preparing because the President was worried about leaks. In his discussions with Miller, the President made clear that he wanted the letter to open with a reference to him not being under investigation. Miller said he believed that fact was important to the President to show that Comey was not being terminated based on any such investigation. According to Miller, the President wanted to establish as a factual matter that Comey had been under a review period and did not have assurance from the President that he would be permitted to keep his job. The final version of the termination letter prepared by Miller and the President began in a way that closely tracked what the President had dictated to Miller at the May 5th dinner. Dear Director Comey, while I greatly appreciate your informing me on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation concerning the fabricated and politically motivated allegations of a Trump-Russia relationship with respect to the 2016 presidential election. Please be informed that I, along with members of both political parties, and most importantly the American public, have lost faith in you as the Director of the FBI and you are hereby terminated. The four-page letter went on to critique Comey's judgment and conduct, including his May 3rd testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, his handling of the Clinton email investigation, and his failure to hold leakers accountable. Miller stated that Comey had asked the President at dinner shortly after inauguration to let Comey stay on in the Director's role, and the President said that he would consider it, but the President had concluded that he had no alternative but to find new leadership for the Bureau, a leader that restores confidence and trust. In the morning of Monday, May 8th, 2017, the President met in the Oval Office with senior advisors, including McGahn, Priebus, and Miller, and informed them he had decided to terminate Comey. The President read aloud the first paragraphs of the termination letter he wrote with Miller and conveyed that the decision had been made and was not up for discussion. The President told the group that Miller had researched the issue and determined the President had the authority to terminate Comey without cause. In an effort to slow down the decision-making process, McGahn told the President that DOJ leadership was currently discussing Comey's status and suggested that White House Counsel's office attorneys should talk with Sessions and Rod Rosenstein, who had recently been confirmed as Deputy Attorney General. McGahn said that previously scheduled meetings with Sessions and Rosenstein that day would be an opportunity to find out what they thought about firing Comey. At noon, Sessions, Rosenstein and Hunt met with McGahn and the White House Counsel's office attorney, Utam Dillon, at the White House. McGahn said that the President had decided to fire Comey and asked for Sessions and Rosenstein's views. Sessions and Rosenstein criticized Comey and did not raise concerns about replacing him. McGahn and Dillon said the fact that neither Sessions nor Rosenstein objected to replacing Comey gave them peace of mind that the President's decision to fire Comey was not an attempt to obstruct justice. An Oval Office meeting was scheduled later that day so that Sessions and Rosenstein could discuss the issue with the President. At around 5 p.m., the President and several White House officials met with Sessions and Rosenstein to discuss Comey. The President told the group that he had watched Comey's May 3 testimony over the weekend and thought that something was not right with Comey. The President said that Comey should be removed and asked Sessions and Rosenstein for their views. Hunt, who was in the room, recalled that Sessions responded that he had previously recommended that Comey be replaced. McGahn and Dillon said Rosenstein described his concerns about Comey's handling of the Clinton email investigation. The President then distributed copies of the termination letter he had drafted with Miller and the discussion turned to the mechanics of how to fire Comey and whether the President's letter should be used. McGahn and Dillon urged the President to permit Comey to resign, but the President was adamant that he be fired. The group discussed the possibility that Rosenstein and Sessions could provide a recommendation in writing that Comey should be removed. The President agreed and told Rosenstein to draft a memorandum, but said he wanted to receive it first thing the next morning. Hunt's notes reflect that the President told Rosenstein to include in his recommendation the fact that Comey had refused to confirm that the President was not personally under investigation. According to notes taken by a senior DOJ official of Rosenstein's description of his meeting with the President, the President said, put the Russia stuff in the memo. Rosenstein responded that the Russia investigation was not the basis of his recommendation, so he did not think Russia should be mentioned. The President told Rosenstein he would appreciate it if Rosenstein put it in his letter anyway. When Rosenstein left the meeting, he knew that Comey would be terminated and he told DOJ colleagues that his own reasons for replacing Comey were not the President's reasons. On May 9, Hunt delivered to the White House a letter from Sessions recommending Comey's removal and a memorandum from Rosenstein addressed to the Attorney General titled, Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI. McGahn recalled that the President liked the DOJ letters and agreed that they should provide the foundation for a new cover letter from the President accepting the recommendation to terminate Comey. Notes taken by Donaldson on May 9 reflected the view of the White House Counsel's office that the President's original termination letter should not see the light of day and that it would be better to offer no other rationales for the firing than what was in Rosenstein's and Sessions's memoranda. The President asked Miller to draft a new termination letter and directed Miller to say in the letter that Comey had informed the President three times that he was not under investigation. McGahn, Priebus and Dillon objected to including that language, but the President insisted that it be included. McGahn, Priebus and others perceived that language to be the most important part of the letter to the President. Dillon made a final pitch to the President that Comey should be permitted to resign, but the President refused. Around the time the President's letter was finalized, Priebus summoned Spicer and the press team to the Oval Office, where they were told that Comey had been terminated for the reasons stated in the letters by Rosenstein and Sessions. To announce Comey's termination, the White House released a statement which Priebus thought had been dictated by the President. In full, the statement read, today, President Donald J. Trump informed FBI Director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office. President Trump acted based on clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. That evening, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was summoned to meet with the President at the White House. The President told McCabe that he had fired Comey because of the decisions Comey had made in the Clinton email investigation and for many other reasons. The President asked McCabe if he was aware that Comey had told the President three times that he was not under investigation. The President also asked McCabe whether many people in the FBI disliked Comey and whether McCabe was part of the resistance that had disagreed with Comey's decisions in the Clinton investigation. McCabe told the President that he knew Comey had told the President he was not under investigation, that most people in the FBI felt positively about Comey, and that McCabe worked very closely with Comey and was part of all the decisions that had been made in the Clinton investigation. Later that evening, the President told his communications team he was unhappy with the press coverage of Comey's termination and ordered them to go out and defend him. The President also called Chris Christie and, according to Christie, said he was getting killed in the press over Comey's termination. The President asked what he should do. Christie asked, did you fire Comey because of what Rod wrote in the memo? And the President responded, yes. Christie said that the President should get Rod out there and have him defend the decision. The President told Christie that this was a good idea and said he was going to call Rosenstein right away. That night, the White House press office called the Department of Justice and said that the White House wanted to put out a statement saying that it was Rosenstein's idea to fire Comey. Rosenstein told other DOJ officials that he would not participate in putting out a false story. The President then called Rosenstein directly and said he was watching Fox News, that the coverage had been great and that he wanted Rosenstein to do a press conference. Rosenstein responded that this was not a good idea because if the press asked him he would tell the truth that Comey's firing was not his idea. Sessions also informed the White House Council's office that evening that Rosenstein was upset that his memorandum was being portrayed as the reason for Comey's termination. In an unplanned press conference late in the evening of May 9, 2017, Spicer told reporters, It was all Rosenstein, no one from the White House, it was a DOJ decision. That evening and the next morning, White House officials and spokespeople continued to maintain that the President's decision to terminate Comey was driven by the recommendations the President received from Rosenstein and Sessions. In the morning on May 10, 2017, President Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in the Oval Office. The media subsequently reported that during the May 10 meeting the President brought up his decision the prior day to terminate Comey telling Lavrov and Kislyak, I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy. A real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off. I'm not under investigation. The President never denied making those statements, and the White House did not dispute the account, instead issuing a statement that said, By grandstanding and politicizing the investigation into Russia's actions, James Comey created unnecessary pressure on our ability to engage and negotiate with Russia. The investigation would have always continued, and obviously the termination of Comey would not have ended it. Once again, the real story is that our national security has been undermined by the leaking of private and highly classified information. Hicks said that when she told the President about the reports on his meeting with Lavrov, he did not look concerned and said of Comey, he is crazy. When McGahn asked the President about his comments to Lavrov, the President said it was good that Comey was fired, because that took the pressure off by making it clear that he was not under investigation so he could get more work done. That same morning on May 10, 2017, the President called McCabe. According to a memorandum McCabe wrote following the call, the President asked McCabe to come over to the White House to discuss whether the President should visit FBI headquarters and make a speech to the employees. The President said he had received hundreds of messages from FBI employees indicating their support for terminating Comey. The President also told McCabe that Comey should not have been permitted to travel back to Washington D.C. on the FBI's airplane after he had been terminated and that he did not want Comey in the building again even to collect his belongings. When McCabe met with the President that afternoon, the President, without prompting, told McCabe that people in the FBI loved the President, estimated that at least 80% of the FBI had voted for him and asked McCabe who he had voted for in the 2016 presidential election. In the afternoon of May 10, 2017, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders spoke to the President about his decision to fire Comey and then spoke to reporters in a televised press conference. Sanders told reporters that the President, the Department of Justice, and bipartisan members of Congress had lost confidence in Comey and, most importantly, the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director. Accordingly, the President accepted the recommendation of his Deputy Attorney General to remove James Comey from his position. In response to questions from reporters, Sanders said that Rosenstein decided, on his own, to review Comey's performance and that Rosenstein decided, on his own, to come to the President on Monday, May 8 to express his concerns about Comey. When a reporter indicated that the vast majority of FBI agents supported Comey, Sanders said, Look, we've heard from countless members of the FBI that say very different things. Following the press conference, Sanders spoke to the President who told her she did a good job and did not point out any inaccuracies in her comments. Sanders told this office that her reference to hearing from countless members of the FBI was a slip of the tongue. She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank and file FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey was a comment she made in the heat of the moment that was not founded on anything. Also on May 10, 2017, Sessions and Rosenstein each spoke to McGahn and expressed concern that the White House was creating a narrative that Rosenstein had initiated the decision to fire Comey. The White House Counsel's Office agreed that it was factually wrong to say that the Department of Justice had initiated Comey's termination and McGahn asked attorneys in the White House Counsel's Office to work with the press office to correct the narrative. The next day, on May 11, 2017, the President participated in an interview with Lester Holt. The President told White House Counsel's office attorneys in advance of the interview that the communications team could not get the story right so he was going on Lester Holt to say what really happened. During the interview, the President stated that he had made the decision to fire Comey before the President met with Rosenstein in Sessions. The President told Holt, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation. Rosenstein made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it. The President continued, and in fact, when I decided to do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump in Russia is a made-up story. It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won. In response to a question about whether he was angry with Comey about the Russia investigation, the President said, as far as I'm concerned, I want that thing to be absolutely done properly. The President added that he realized his termination of Comey probably maybe will confuse people with the result that it might even lengthen out the investigation, but he had to do the right thing for the American people and Comey was the wrong man for that position. The President described Comey as a showboat and a grandstander and said that the FBI has been in turmoil and said he wanted to have a really competent, capable director. The President affirmed that he expected the new FBI director to continue the Russia investigation. On the evening of May 11, 2017, following the Lester Holt interview, the President tweeted, Russia must be laughing up their sleeves, watching as the U.S. tears itself apart over a Democrat excuse for losing the election. The same day, the media reported that the President had demanded that Comey pledge his loyalty to the President in a private dinner shortly after being sworn in. Late in the morning of May 12, 2017, the President tweeted, Again, the story that there was collision between the Russians and Trump campaign was fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election. The President also tweeted, James Comey better hope that there are no tapes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press and, when James clobber himself and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt says there is no collusion, when does it end? End of section 15.