--- title: James Comey Fired: President Trump Links It to Russia Probe description: "This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story," Trump said canonical: https://time.com/4776737/president-donald-trump-james-comey-fired-russia-investigation/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T00:13:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:57:17.551Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Links His Firing of James Comey to Russia Investigation og:description: When he decided to fire Comey, he said "this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story" og:url: https://time.com/4776737/president-donald-trump-james-comey-fired-russia-investigation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f01b7feff46da62/6988cd087cdbacc7dcd5852b/donald-trump-james-comey-fbi-firing-russia-investigation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: President Trump Meets With Henry Kissinger At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Links His Firing of James Comey to Russia Investigation twitter:description: When he decided to fire Comey, he said "this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f01b7feff46da62/6988cd087cdbacc7dcd5852b/donald-trump-james-comey-fbi-firing-russia-investigation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Links His Decision to Fire James Comey to Frustration With Russia Investigation > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams May 12, 2017 12:13 AM UTC  President Donald Trump meets with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office at the White House on May 10, 2017 in Washington, D.C. President Donald Trump meets with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office at the White House on May 10, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Molly Riley—Pool/Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams May 12, 2017 12:13 AM UTC President Donald Trump said Thursday that, leading up to his firing of FBI Director James Comey, he had been frustrated with the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and his presidential campaign. The comments came in an interview the President gave to [NBC News,](http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/pres-trump-s-extended-exclusive-interview-with-lester-holt-at-the-white-house-941854787582) in which he said his decision to fire Comey on Tuesday was [made independently of recommendations](http://time.com/4776056/james-comey-fired-donald-trump-responds-rod-rosenstein/?xid=homepage) he received from top Justice Department officials. This [contradicted the White House’s explanation](http://time.com/4776388/james-comey-fired-trump-interview/?xid=homepage) for why Comey was fired and added to the confusion and controversy surrounding the firing. “Regardless of recommendation I was going to fire Comey. Knowing, there was no good time to do it,” Trump told NBC News’s Lester 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. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.” Before he was fired, [Comey testified before Congress](http://time.com/4706646/fbi-russia-james-comey-testimony/?iid=sr-link1) in March that the FBI was investigating Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, including [any potential collusion](http://time.com/4706365/trump-comey-russia-inquiry/) with the Trump campaign. Comey had also [asked the Department of Justice for more resources](http://time.com/4774305/james-comey-fired-russian-probe/) for the Russia investigation. The Senate intelligence committee is also [subpoenaing a number of Trump’s associates](http://time.com/4775114/senate-subpoena-michael-flynn-donald-trump-russia/?iid=sr-link1) for documents related to an investigation into Russia’s interference in the election. Trump has repeatedly denied that he or his campaign had any ties to Russia, and this week even [tweeted](http://time.com/4775114/senate-subpoena-michael-flynn-donald-trump-russia/?iid=sr-link1) that the “Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax.” > [](https://twitter.com/NBCNightlyNews/status/862809180993757184) Given Trump’s dismissal of the Russia controversy, Holt pressed him on whether the FBI’s investigation led to Comey’s firing. “Okay, are you angry with, angry with Mr. Comey because of his Russia investigation?” Holt asked. The President did not answer directly, but said: “I just want somebody that’s competent.” He then added that he is a “big fan” of the FBI. “I love the FBI,” he said. When Holt followed up to ask whether Trump was “a fan” of Comey investigating his ties to Russia, Trump said he supports the investigation, but thinks it should have finished already. “Look, look, let me tell you. As far as I’m concerned, I want that thing to be absolutely done properly,” the President said. “When I did this now I said, I probably, maybe will confuse people, maybe I’ll expand that, you know, lengthen the time because it should be over with, in my opinion, should have been over with a long time ago. Cause all it is, is an excuse but I said to myself, I might even lengthen out the investigation but I have to do the right thing for the American people. He’s the wrong man for that position.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4776737/president-donald-trump-james-comey-fired-russia-investigation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4776737/president-donald-trump-james-comey-fired-russia-investigation/"},"headline":"President Trump Links His Decision to Fire James Comey to Frustration With Russia Investigation","datePublished":"2017-05-12T00:13:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:57:17.551Z","description":"\"This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story,\" Trump said","url":"https://time.com/4776737/president-donald-trump-james-comey-fired-russia-investigation/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f01b7feff46da62/6988cd087cdbacc7dcd5852b/donald-trump-james-comey-fbi-firing-russia-investigation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6f01b7feff46da62/6988cd087cdbacc7dcd5852b/donald-trump-james-comey-fbi-firing-russia-investigation.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Meets With Henry Kissinger At The White House","caption":"President Donald Trump meets with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office at the White House on May 10, 2017 in Washington, D.C.","creditText":"Molly Riley—Pool/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4776737/president-donald-trump-james-comey-fired-russia-investigation/","name":"President Trump Links His Decision to Fire James Comey to Frustration With Russia Investigation"}}]}] ```