Comey also said he had, as the president divulged, told Trump at the time that he wasn't personally the target of an investigation.
News that Mueller is now investigating Trump for obstruction of justice comes amid reports that Trump has discussed whether to remove the special counsel.
Mueller is overseeing a host of investigations involving people who are or were in Trump's orbit, people familiar with the probe said.
"I'm going to acknowledge we had a meeting with the special counsel Mueller, but I'm not going to get into the contents", Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters later. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the investigators were looking into possible obstruction of justice.
The White House has denied any collusion, and Trump has repeatedly complained about the probe, saying Democrats can not accept his election win.
Comey testified under oath to Congress last week that he believed he was sacked 'because of the Russian Federation investigation'. The Post report did not name the Federal Bureau of Investigation as its source. "Nice", Trump tweeted Thursday morning. For example, "it appears he has recruited an experienced Justice Department trial attorney, Lisa Page, a little-known figure outside the halls of Main Justice but one whose résumé boasts intriguing hints about where Mueller's Russian Federation investigation might lead".
These two file photos show US President Donald Trump (TOP) meeting with leaders of the pharmaceutical industry in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 31, 2017 in Washington, DC.
Fed raises interest rates, 4th increase since Dec
The yen climbed after the Washington Post reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether U.S. Regarding inflation, the Fed sees it stabilizing but remaining below 2 percent (y/y) in the next 12 months.
It was far from the first time Trump used that term to define one of the several investigations into his campaign and associates.
The president and his surrogates are already on the warpath, falsely suggesting that Comey engaged in improper or illegal conduct in leaking his memos and, putting out the line via Kellyanne Conway, that members of Mueller's legal team had given to Democratic politicians (and therefore were biased). The Wall Street Journal suggested that Mueller has also requested to interview the N.S.A.'s freshly retired deputy director, Rick Ledgett, who reportedly wrote a memo documenting a call between Rogers and the president, in which Trump challenged the intelligence community's belief that Russian Federation had interfered with the election, and pressured Rogers to say there was no evidence of collusion.
- This report asserts the obstruction inquiry began before Mueller took over.
Asked if he thought the alleged comment was an attempt to obstruct, Comey said it wasn't for him to say, but "I'm sure the special counsel will work towards, to try and understand what the intention was there, and whether that's an offense".
Justice Department policy is that a sitting president can not be indicted by a grand jury, the Post also reported Wednesday.
However, any findings of criminal activity would put pressure on the Republican-controlled Congress to use them as the basis for launching impeachment proceedings against Trump.
If that's the case, Trump is saying that law enforcement failed to nail him down on the "phony" Russian Federation story and so is now pursuing the obstruction charge.
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