of bollox that needs to be ended. you won t i m firing you. then everyone touching the letter or saw the letter has a real problem. there is another piece of complexity to this ron, the new york times had something else interesting i want to highlight here. it said during the may 8 oval office meeting with mr. trump, mr. rosenstein was given a copy of the original letter and agreed to write a separate memo for mr. trump about why mr. comey should be fired. now this becomes hard to start connecting the dots. but on the face of it this seems unusual. rod rosenstein, james comey s boss, head of the russia investigation for all intents and purposes because the attorney general stepped aside, sees this screed or letter, whatever it is and takes it and says i m doing something with this. i think it calls into question what rod rosenstein was doing here. he saw the letter, knew the letter was written. drafted a different letter. the administration put it out and said this is why we re
i mean, like it is a damning chronology. you have a president of the united states sitting at home in his golf club with his son-in-law and daughter, and a 31-year-old aide drafting this letter, presenting it to his team, including the vice president on the monday, and then they all come out with this phoney line about they were acting on rosenstein s recommendation. this chronology is just being completely blown up. trump had blown it up with his interview with lester holt and other things he said. but the fact that pence was in the room in the oval that is what we call a bad fact. i don t know about the legality about this and the shifting because no one does because it s been kept very quiet. we can see who mueller is hiring, the caliber of investigators that he is hiring. we can now see that the white house is on the back foot. the credibility has been shot.
but honestly it wouldn t change the decision. politico reports once trump returned from the trip to new jersey it was clear he was not changing his mind. then the white house began frantically searching for how to explain the firing. press secretary sarah huckabee sanders was asked about the draft letter in the briefing room today. first of all can you confirm the existence of that letter? secondly, can that letter be made public? and thirdly, you report that don mcgahn thought it was appropriate. can you discuss whether or not you or the president believe the drafting of such a letter was appropriate at that time? i m not getting into any of that. i think we covered those things extensively during that time as ty cob said earlier today to the extent the special prosecutor is interested in these matters we will be fully transparent with his investigation. and frankly i don t have anything to add beyond that. and with that we bring in our leadoff panel. former u.s. attorney joyc
phone calls. did you call him? in one case i called him in one case he called me. did you ask am i under investigation? i actually asked him, yes. i said if it s possible would you let me know, am i under investigation? and he said you are not under investigation. now, while we do not know exactly what was in this draft letter, new reporting from the wall street journal gives us an idea. they write, paraphrasing the letter an administration official said mr. trump wanted in message sent. you told me three times i m not under investigation but you won t tell the world it s hampering the country. why was trump so upset with comey in that moment, that weekend in may? several reports indicate it was something comey said a few days before while he testified before the senate judiciary committee about the clinton email investigation. this was terrible. it makes me mildly nauseous to think we might have had some impact on the election.
general jeff sessions recused himself. the white house based the letter the president actually sent to comey on rosenstein s memo. but the new york times reports they made one significant revision adding a point personally important to mr. trump. and that was a line in the middle of the four paragraph letter that the president sent to let comey know why he was being canned. while i greatly appreciate you informing me three separate occasions i was not under investigation, i nevertheless concur with the judgment of the justice department that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau. it s a point that s been important to the president. he stressed it again the next week in an interview with nbc s lester holt. we had a very nice dinner. and at that time he told me you are not under investigation which i knew anyway then during the phone call he said it. and then during another phone call he said it. he said it once at dinner and then he said it twice during