357 nobody would publicly defend him. Rogers recalled a private conversation with the President in which he “vent[ed]” about the investigation, said he had done nothing wrong, and said something like the “Russia thing has got to go 358 away.” Coats recalled the President bringing up the Russia investigation several times, and Coats said he finally told the President that Coat’s job was to 359 provide intelligence and not get involved in investigations. 4. The President Asks Comey to “Lift the Cloud” Created by the Russia Investigation On the morning of March 30, 2017, the President reached out to Comey 360 directly about the Russia investigation. According to Comey’s contemporaneous record of the conversation, the President said “he was trying to run the country and the cloud of this Russia business was making that 361 difficult.” The President asked Comey what could be done to “lift the 362 cloud.” Comey explained “that we were running it down as quickly as possible and that there would be great benefit, if we didn’t find anything, to our 363 Good Housekeeping seal of approval, but we had to do our work.” Comey also told the President that congressional leaders were aware that the FBI was 364 not investigating the President personally. The President said several times, 365 “We need to get that fact out.” The President commented that if there was “some satellite” (which Comey took to mean an associate of the President’s or the campaign) that did something, “it would be good to find that out” but that he himself had not done anything wrong and he hoped Comey “would find a way to 366 get out that we weren’t investigating hirn.” After the call ended, Comey called Boente and told him about the conversation, asked for guidance on how to respond, and said he was uncomfortable with direct contact from the President 367 about the investigation. 368 On the morning of April 11, 2017, the President called Comey again. According to Comey’s contemporaneous record of the conversation, the President said he was “following up to see if[Comey] did what [the President] had asked last time—getting out that he personally is not under 369 investigation.” Comey responded that he had passed the request to Boente but not heard back, and he informed the President that the traditional channel for