Trump: 'I was going to fire' Comey regardless of recommendation

President Trump said Thursday that he had decided to remove FBI Director James Comey long before his deputy attorney general recommended he do so, and said Comey had informed him that he was not under investigation during a previously unreported private dinner.

“What I did is, I was going to fire Comey. My decision,” Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt just two days after dismissing the FBI director. Previously, his White House had suggested that it was the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that prompted Comey’s termination.