WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s explanation for why he fired FBI Director James Comey has shifted again.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s new attorney, said in an interview on Fox News that Trump fired Comey last year “because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target” of the special counsel’s Russia investigation. The explanation was at least the third offered by Trump and his advisers.
It also comes as the president’s legal team is debating whether to allow Trump to be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. Mueller has shown an interest in questioning Trump about his motivation for firing Comey as his investigators probe possible obstruction of justice.
Giuliani said Trump fired Comey last May “because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target” of the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
In announcing the firing, Trump initially cited the FBI director’s handling of the probe into Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s emails. He later told NBC’s Lester Holt that he was thinking of “this Russia thing.”
On Fox News Wednesday night, Giuliani said Trump did the Lester Holt interview “to explain to the American people the president was not the target of the investigation.”
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Associated Press writer Chad Day contributed to this report.
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