White House says Trump pressed envoy on Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Wednesday with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ahead of rare Oval Office talks with Donald Trump, whose firing of his Federal Bureau of Investigation chief again put the spotlight on Moscow's alleged meddling in last year's US election.

Mr. Trump said they had a "very, very good meeting", and that the US and Russia are making progress toward a cease fire in Syria, where the Russian military is backing the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad the brutal six-year-long civil war.

Tillerson further stressed the need to fully implement the Minsk agreements in Ukraine, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Trump and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed various issues during the closed-door meeting - which the president called "very good" - including the ongoing terror and civil wars in Syria.

Trump fired now-former FBI Director James Comey, who told Congress earlier this year that his agency has been investigating Russia's actions - and possible ties to anyone associated with the Trump campaign - since last July.

Apparently the White House has not yet learned that sneaking around with Kislyak is a bad look.

During his appearance with Tillerson, Lavrov feigned surprise when asked whether Comey's firing as Federal Bureau of Investigation director cast a shadow over the U.S. -Russia talks. "You are kidding! You are kidding!" The US secretary of state did not mention the matter.

Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are looking for tangible results of Wednesday's talks.

Donald Trump's White House takeover has not brought the former Cold War adversaries closer to seeing eye to eye - and in early April the U.S. even launched direct military action against the Syrian regime in retaliation for a chemical attack for which it was blamed. Peskov called it "an entirely domestic matter" for the US.

The president himself seemed outwardly untroubled by the furor or the comparison to Nixon, even bringing in former Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, an old friend, for consultations on Syria and Russian Federation.

While the President has the legal authority to remove the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I am disappointed in the President's decision to remove James Comey from office.

Comey was sacked on Tuesday.

It was only the second time in the nation's history that a president has fired the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On the Senate floor, Senate majority leader Senator Mitch McConnell ruled out any such appointment.

The Trump administration and GOP lawmakers say Comey was sacked for other reasons, including his handling of the Clinton email probe.

U.S. authorities seize former NY congressman Anthony Weiner's laptop and mobile devices as part of a probe into allegations he sent sexually explicit text messages to a 15-year-old. "They are going to see each other in July". Sessions had been asked directly during his confirmation if he'd had contacts with Russian officials during the election campaign and he had said no.

Lavrov and Tillerson have said relations between Moscow and Russian Federation are worse than they have been in decades.