US President Donald Trump on Friday branded his former FBI director a "leaker", a day after James Comey gave testimony in which he accused Trump of trying to quash an investigation and lying about him and the FBI.
Pundits and legal experts have been divided on whether Trump's actions rose to the level of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offence, while Comey said that decision was now in the hands of Mueller, who is also a former Federal Bureau of Investigation director.
Michael Flynn was sacked as National Security Adviser after it emerged he had lied to Vice-President Mike Pence over a meeting with Russian officials.
Donald Trump has a well-deserved reputation for shameless, pathological mendacity.
The U.S. President has insinuated that there are recordings of their conversations.
Trump's firing of Comey after he refused to drop the investigation is viewed by Democrats and some Republicans as possible evidence of an effort to obstruct justice, something the president and his defenders vehemently reject.
"No collusion. No obstruction", Trump said Friday. "But we want to get back to running our great country".
Trump says he's willing to speak with the special counsel investigating Russian government efforts to meddle in the 2016 USA election.
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"I didn't say that", Trump said. "And there'd be nothing wrong with it if I did say that, according to everybody that I read today, but I did not say that".
In his testimony to Congress last Thursday, Mr Comey laid bare on Capitol Hill months of distrust of the President, asserting that Mr Trump had fired him to interfere with the probe of Russia's ties to the Trump campaign. I hope there are tapes" tore through the Internet, with the inevitable T-shirts following, and Comey then dared Trump to release the tapes: "The President surely knows if there are tapes.
Comey, on the other hand, said during his Senate Intel Comittee testimony "Lordy, I hope there are tapes", so there seems to be some confusion between the two men over who would benefit from audio of their talks leaking.
Asked if he was willing to give his side of the story, Mr Trump replied: "100 per cent".
"I think we kicked off the game yesterday". "Don't worry", Trump said. "I'll tell you about it over a short period of time".
The president's personal lawyer on Thursday denied that Trump asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation.
But there is no known evidence of collusion between Russian Federation and the USA, and President Donald Trump has dismissed the story as "fake news".
"Well, I'll tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future", he said at the media conference. "I'm not hinting anything".
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