Trump told his story of dinner with Comey. Here's the FBI's.
The FBI is disputing nearly every part of President Trump's version of the events that took place at a dinner with former FBI Director James Comey, NBC News reports.
President Trump admitted to NBC News' Lester Holt on Thursday that he had directly asked Comey over dinner if he was being investigated for ties to Russia. Trump claimed Comey told him he was not being investigated, prompting NBC News to note that "it would be highly unusual for someone who might be the focus of an FBI probe to ask whether he was under investigation and to be directly told by the FBI director that he was not." Trump also implied that Comey had asked for the dinner in order to make a case for keeping his job as the director of the FBI.
Current and former FBI officials say nothing of the sort happened. A former senior official claimed that even though Trump twice told Holt that Comey had requested the dinner, "the president is not correct. The White House called [Comey] out of the blue. Comey didn't want to do it. He didn't even want the rank and file at the FBI to know about it."
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The official said Comey never confirmed Trump was not being investigated, either. "He tried to stay away from [the Russian-ties investigation]," the official said. "He would say, 'Look sir, I really can't get into it, and you don't want me to.'"
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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