mr. rosenstein played a key role in the dismissal, writing a memo that rebuked mr. comey over his handling of an investigation into hillary clinton, but in the meeting at the justice department, mr. rosenstein added a new detail. he said the president had originally asked him to reference russia in his memo. to mr. mccabe that seemed like possible evidence that mr. comey's firing was actually related to the fbi's investigation into the trump campaign's ties to russia. and that mr. rosenstein helped provide a cover story by writing about the clinton investigation. trump lashed out on twitter this morning writing, quote, not that it matters, but i never fired james comey because of russia. the corrupt mainstream media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it isn't true. but it's not just the media pushing the narrative, mr. president, it's you. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time