According to Comey’s account of the meeting, once they were alone, the President began the conversation by saying, “I want to talk about Mike 235 Flynn.” The President stated that Flynn had not done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but had to be terminated because he had misled the 236 Vice President. The conversation turned to the topic of leaks of classified information, but the President returned to Flynn, saying “he is a good guy and 237 has been through a lot.” The President stated, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let 238 this go.” Comey agreed that Flynn “ is a good guy,” but did not commit to 239 ending the investigation of Flynn. Comey testified under oath that he took the President’s statement “as a direction” because of the President’s position and 240 the circumstances of the one-on-one meeting. Shortly after meeting with the President, Comey began drafting a 241 memorandum documenting their conversation. Comey also met with his senior leadership team to discuss the President’s request, and they agreed not to inform FBI officials working on the Flynn case of the President’s statements so 242 the officials would not be influenced by the request. Comey also asked for a meeting with Sessions and requested that Sessions not leave Comey alone with 243 the President again. 8. The Media Raises Questions About the President’s Delay in Terminating Flynn After Flynn was forced to resign, the press raised questions about why the President waited more than two weeks after the DOJ notification to remove Flynn and whether the President had known about Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak 244 before the DOJ notification. The press also continued to raise questions 245 about connections between Russia and the President’s campaign. On February 15, 2017, the President told reporters, “General Flynn is a wonderful 246 man. I think he’s been treated very, very unfairly by the media.” On February 16, 2017, the President held a press conference and said that he removed Flynn because Flynn “didn’t tell the Vice President of the United States the facts, and 247 then he didn’t remember. And that just wasn’t acceptable to me.” The President said he did not direct Flynn to discuss sanctions with Kislyak, but “it