President Trump did not ask the Department of Justice to find a way to fire former FBI Director James Comey, and instead asked for its recommendation after a meeting on Monday to discuss Comey, the White House said Wednesday.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed their complaints about Comey on Monday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. After their meeting, Trump asked them to put their concerns in writing.
That led to a memo outlining their complaints, which prompted Trump to fire Comey.
“He had a conversation with the deputy attorney general on Monday where they had come to him to express their concerns and he requested them to put those concerns in writing,” Sanders said.
Sanders said Wednesday that Trump already had reservations about Comey’s ability to do his job when he was elected, despite the positive statements Trump made about Comey near the end of the campaign and after he took office. She rejected the idea that Trump made up his mind to fire Comey and then tasked Sessions and Rosenstein with finding him a justification.
Even though Trump blew a kiss to Comey and warmly greeted him after being inaugurated, Sanders said Trump was skeptical of whether Comey could do his job properly since November.
She also said a statement last week from Comey that he didn’t tell his superiors at the Department of Justice what he would say at a press conference about Hillary Clinton’s email server in July 2016 was a startling admission.
“Director Comey made a pretty startling revelation that he had essentially taken a stick of dynamite and thrown it into the Department of Justice by going around the chain of command when he decided to take steps without talking to the attorney general or the deputy attorney general when holding a press conference,” she said.
