had been terminated for the reasons stated in the letters by Rosenstein and 447 Sessions. To announce Comey’s termination, the White House released a 448 statement, which Priebus thought had been dictated by the President. In full, the statement read: “Today, President Donald J. Trump informed FBI Director James Comey’s that he has been terminated and removed from office. President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney 449 General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.” That evening, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was summoned to 450 meet with the President at the White House. The President told McCabe that he had fired Comey because of the decisions Comey had made in the Clinton 451 email investigation and for many other reasons. The President asked McCabe if he was aware that Comey had told the President three times that he was not 452 under investigation. The President also asked McCabe whether many people in the FBI disliked Comey and whether McCabe was part of the “resistance” that 453 had disagreed with Comey’s decisions in the Clinton investigation. McCabe told the President that he knew Comey had told the President he was not under investigation, that most people in the FBI felt positively about Comey, and that McCabe worked “very closely“ with Comey and was part of all the decisions 454 that had been made in the Clinton investigation. Later that evening, the President told his communications team he was unhappy with the press coverage of Comey’s termination and ordered them to go 455 out and defend him. The President also called Chris Christie and, according to Christie, said he was getting “killed” in the press over Comey’s 456 457 termination. The President asked what he should do. Christie asked, “Did you fire [Comey] because of what Rod wrote in the memo?”, and the President 458 responded, “Yes.” Christie said that the President should “get Rod out there” 459 and have him defend the decision. The President told Christie that this was a 460 “good idea” and said he was going to call Rosenstein right away. That night, the White House Press Office called the Department of Justice and said the White House wanted to put out a statement saying that it was 461 Rosenstein’s idea to fire Comey. Rosenstein told other DOJ officials that he