Trump Told the Russians That 'Nut Job' Comey's Firing Relieved 'Great Pressure'

The president told the Russian foreign minister and ambassador that firing his FBI director had “taken off” the pressure he had faced, The New York Times reports.

By acknowledging the exchange with the Russians, the White House has effectively admitted it lied in explaining why Comey was fired. The “nut job” conversation is the latest confirmation that Trump’s motivation in firing Comey was not, as he and his aides initially claimed, Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails; nor was it, as they subsequently claimed, a result of Comey losing the confidence of FBI agents. Instead, as Trump suggested in an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt, he was upset about the Russia probe. A slew of other reports confirmed that behind closed doors, Trump was upset about the investigation, and Comey’s testimony under oath that Barack Obama had not “wiretapped” Trump, as the president claimed without evidence. His comments, and Spicer’s statement, also bolster allegations of political tampering and perhaps obstruction of justice by the president.

“If he knows that he personally faces criminal prosecution and his purpose in trying to shut down or slow down the investigation is to prevent him from getting caught, or if he knows that someone he knows or cares about is at criminal risk, like a friend or a family member, and the purpose is to protect them from criminal indictment, then I think anyone would view that as obstruction,” said Bruce Green, a law professor at Fordham and a former associate counsel for the independent counsel in the Iran-Contra case. Although it's not clear a sitting president could be prosecuted for obstruction, both that and related charges would turn on Trump’s state of mind, and whether he had what the law terms “corrupt intent.”

If Trump believed that the Comey firing would remove pressure, however, he was deeply mistaken. The dismissal has set off a cascade of damaging stories, and more leaks—including the one to the Post on Friday—adding fuel to Russia stories. And most consequentially, it led to the Justice Department on Wednesday appointing Robert Mueller, the former director of the FBI, as a special counsel to investigate ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Trump has long denied that he or his campaign have any ties to Russia. But while there is no public evidence thus far that the president himself has any involvement in interference in the election, there is a growing mountain of evidence to show that many members of his orbit have had unusual interactions with the Russians.

Former National-Security Adviser Michael Flynn was fired for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about conversations with Kislyak. A federal grand jury in Virginia recently issued subpoenas for records related to Flynn. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been forced to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s investigation on Russia after acknowledging he failed to disclose a meeting with Kislyak to Congress. Paul Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign chairman during the summer of 2016 and previously did worked with or for Kremlin clients in both business and politics, is also under investigation. So is Carter Page, a former low-ranking foreign-policy adviser whom Russian intelligence agents once tried to recruit. Reuters reported that there are at least 18 undisclosed contacts between Trump campaign officials and Kremlin-related individuals.

One person very close to Trump who is also tied up with Russia is the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner. He acknowledged in April that he, too, had failed to disclose dozens of contacts with foreign leaders and officials. Among them are Kislyak and an executive at Vnesheconombank, a Russian state-owned bank. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the bank financed a large deal with a business partner of Trump’s. While Trump ultimately issued a conciliatory and bland statement about Mueller’s appointment as special counsel, the Times reports that Kushner pushed, unsuccessfully, for Trump to fire back hotly at the decision.

Even if that were not all so, Trump’s friendliness toward the Russian officials would remain perplexing, especially given that he understood that the appearance of Russian collusion was politically damaging. Trump aides have tried to excuse it as simple naïveté. National-Security Adviser H.R. McMaster says that the president would not have known if information he gave to the Russians was classified or not, a not-very-comforting excuse that nevertheless comports with various reports that the president is disengaged in briefings and does not hold information well. Trump met with Lavrov and Kislyak in person because Putin had asked him to do so. Foreign countries have been seeking face-to-face meetings with Trump as they realize that he often makes major concessions in such settings.

- David Graham


My take: President Pence is what I'm hearing and probably sooner than later. You get the feeling Trump has had it and when, not if, the Democrats take over the Senate and probably the House and talk of impeachment proceedings begin Trump will step down in time for Pence to gear up for the election run. As it is Trump hasn't seen anything yet.