--- title: Jay Sekulow Claims Without Evidence That Interview Doctored description: President Donald Trump's attorney Jay Sekulow has claimed, without evidence, that a key TV interview on the Russia probe was doctored. canonical: https://time.com/5401931/jay-sekulow-donald-trump-interview/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-20T15:07:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:29:56.011Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Claimed, Without Evidence, That a Key Interview Was Doctored og:description: Now his lawyer is claiming it too. og:url: https://time.com/5401931/jay-sekulow-donald-trump-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c253ed38a342902/69893a62bc6cfc03f63e6f5b/gettyimages-1032340378-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Attends Congressional Medal Of Honor Society Reception og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Claimed, Without Evidence, That a Key Interview Was Doctored twitter:description: Now his lawyer is claiming it too. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6c253ed38a342902/69893a62bc6cfc03f63e6f5b/gettyimages-1032340378-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Claimed, Without Evidence, That a Key Interview Was Doctored. 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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 [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 20, 2018 3:07 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Congressional Medal of Honor Society reception at the East Room of the White House September 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Congressional Medal of Honor Society reception at the East Room of the White House September 12, 2018 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 20, 2018 3:07 PM UTC In a 2017 interview, President Donald Trump said in an interview that one of his reasons for firing FBI Director James Comey was the investigation into Russian meddling in the election. “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,” Trump [told NBC’s Lester Holt](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/05/11/president%5Ftrumps%5Ffull%5Finterview%5Fwith%5Flester%5Fholt.html?mobile%5Fredirect=true) in May of last year. Now, Trump’s attorney Jay Sekulow has claimed, without evidence, that the interview was doctored. “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 [told CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/20/politics/jay-sekulow-lester-holt-james-comey-cnntv/index.html) on Wednesday. An [extended version of the interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Wvuw%5FZmubg) is available from NBC on YouTube. The claim echoes [one that Trump](https://apnews.com/db90fe2d11b0499b87cc0e5c22e52251) himself made, also without evidence, when he tweeted in August that NBC had been “fudging my tape on Russia.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1035120511259500544) Some lawyers have suggested that Trump’s citing of “the Russia thing” in the 2017 interview could serve as part of an obstruction of justice case by Special Counsel Robert Mueller against the president, since he’s essentially admitting that he was trying to stop an investigation into himself. But White House officials have said that Trump fired Comey because of his handling of the Hillary Clinton investigation and morale at the FBI, not the Russia investigation. Sekulow also said that the White House did not believe it would be “constitutional” for Mueller to use the NBC interview in a federal case. “I’m not faulting anybody running a clip … but to turn it literally into a federal case we don’t think is right, we don’t think it’s constitutional and we think the entire transcript, without question, supports the President,” Sekulow said. “I’m not going to give you information on how we provided it, but in our professional discussions with the Office of Special Counsel, we have addressed that on multiple occasions appropriately.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5401931/jay-sekulow-donald-trump-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5401931/jay-sekulow-donald-trump-interview/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Claimed, Without Evidence, That a Key Interview Was Doctored. 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