--- description: The White House will no longer take questions on former FBI Director James Comey's firing, referring them to an outside attorney instead title: White House Will No Longer Answer Questions About Russia and Comey's Firing image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbf490bf9ccd0539/6988cd5186f68e26316e4b18/gettyimages-682379228.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [White House](/tag/white-house/) ## White House Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The White House Will No Longer Answer Questions About James Comey's Firing and the Russia Investigation by [Aric Jenkins](/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 31, 2017 8:48 PM CUT  White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer answers questions during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House May 12, 2017 in Washington, DC White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer answers questions during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House May 12, 2017 in Washington, DCWin McNamee—Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 31, 2017 8:48 PM CUT The White House will no longer take questions on former FBI Director [James Comey’s firing](http://time.com/4787587/congress-russia-investigation-james-comey-fired-donald-trump/ "undefined") and the Russia investigation, choosing instead to refer all press inquiries to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney. “Going forward, all questions on these matters will be referred to outside counsel, Marc Kasowitz,” Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday at an off-camera press briefing. It marks the first time the White House has publicly referred questions of this sort to Kasowitz, a longtime lawyer of Trump who was [tapped last week](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/marc-kasowitz-trump-russia/528147/ "undefined") to represent the President regarding matters surrounding the Russia probe and potential legal fallout involving Comey. > [](https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/869991050030358528) Spicer also touched upon Trump’s perplexing tweet from Tuesday night in which he said [“covfefe.”](http://time.com/4799053/donald-trump-covfefe-twitter/ "undefined") The seemingly made-up word made waves on social media as users struggled to figure out what the President meant from the term. “The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant,” the press secretary said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4800211/sean-spicer-james-comey-russia-marc-kasowitz-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4800211/sean-spicer-james-comey-russia-marc-kasowitz-donald-trump/"},"headline":"The White House Will No Longer Answer Questions About James Comey's Firing and the Russia Investigation","datePublished":"2017-05-31T20:48:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:11:53.401Z","description":"The Press Secretary also addressed \"covfefe\"","url":"https://time.com/4800211/sean-spicer-james-comey-russia-marc-kasowitz-donald-trump/","keywords":["White House","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbf490bf9ccd0539/6988cd5186f68e26316e4b18/gettyimages-682379228.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbbf490bf9ccd0539/6988cd5186f68e26316e4b18/gettyimages-682379228.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Holds Daily Press Briefing","caption":"White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Holds Daily Press Briefing","creditText":"Win McNamee—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/4800211/sean-spicer-james-comey-russia-marc-kasowitz-donald-trump/","name":"The White House Will No Longer Answer Questions About James Comey's Firing and the Russia Investigation"}}]}] ```