Trump lawyer: NBC interview with Comey firing comments was edited

by Emily Birnbaum - 09/20/18 8:23 AM ET

President Trump’s lawyer is claiming that NBC misleadingly edited the 2017 interview in which President Trump said he was thinking about “this Russia thing” when he fired former FBI Director James Comey.

Jay Sekulow on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” late Wednesday urged viewers to review the entire NBC transcript, saying it “supports the president.”

“You know that when there are interviews, there are edits and there is a longer transcript, and I will just tell you without disclosing any detail that when you review the entire transcript, it is very clear as to what happened,” Sekulow said.

{mosads}Trump during the May 2017 interview with Lester Holt said he was considering Comey’s involvement in “this Russia thing” when he fired him.

“I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it,” Trump told Holt. “And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.”

Sekulow added that Trump’s legal team has “addressed … on multiple occasions” their issues with the NBC interview transcript in conversations with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Sekulow during the interview with CNN interview also claimed he does not believe it’s “constitutional” to use Trump’s comments from the interview in “a federal case.”

Trump in August claimed that Lester Holt was “caught fudging my tape on Russia.”

The president during the interview contradicted the White House’s official explanation for firing Comey.

The former FBI director letter claimed his dismissal was based on recommendations from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, highlighting his handling of the investigation into former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of State.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton James Comey Jeff Sessions Robert Mueller Rod Rosenstein