523 was not accepting Session’s resignation. 524 On May 19, 2017, the President left for a trip to the Middle East. Hicks recalled that on the President’s flight from Saudi Arabia to Tel Aviv, the President pulled Session’s resignation letter from his pocket, showed it to a 525 group of senior advisors, and asked them what he should do about it. During the trip, Priebus asked about the resignation letter so he could return it to Sessions, but the President told him that the letter was back at the White House, 526 somewhere in the residence. It was not until May 30, three days after the President returned from the trip, that the President returned the letter to Sessions 527 with a notation saying, “Not accepted.” 2. The President Asserts that the Special Counsel has Conflicts of Interest In the days following the Special Counsel’s appointment, the President repeatedly told advisors, including Priebus, Bannon, and McGahn, that Special 528 Counsel Mueller had conflicts of interest. The President cited as conflicts that Mueller had interviewed for the FBI Director position shortly before being appointed as Special Counsel, that he had worked for a law firm that represented people affiliated with the President, and that Mueller had disputed certain fees 529 relating to his membership in a Trump golf course in Northern Virginia. The President’s advisors pushed back on his assertion of conflicts, telling the 530 President they did not count as true conflicts. Bannon recalled telling the President that the purported conflicts were “ridiculous” and that none of them was real or could come close to justifying precluding Mueller from serving as 531 Special Counsel. As for Mueller’s interview for FBI Director, Bannon recalled that the White House had invited Mueller to speak to the President to 532 offer a perspective on the institution of the FBI. Bannon said that, although the White House thought about beseeching Mueller to become Director again, he 533 did not come in looking for the job. Bannon also told the President that the 534 law firm position did not amount to a conflict in the legal community. And Bannon told the President that the golf course dispute did not rise to the level of 535 a conflict and claiming one was “ridiculous and petty.” The President did not 536 respond when Bannon pushed back on the stated conflicts of interest.