Trump floored by Comey bomb

US President Donald Trump faced a fallout on Wednesday over revelations that he personally appealed to now-fired FBI director James Comey to abandon the bureau's investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, allegations based on notes Comey wrote after the meeting.

The White House has denied the report, which came amid a furore over the president's discussions with Russian diplomats in which Trump is said to have disclosed classified information.

In a bizarre twist on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to turn over to Congress records of Trump's discussions. Putin told a news conference he would be willing to turn over notes of Trump's meeting with the Russian diplomats if the White House agreed. He dismissed outrage over Trump's disclosures as US politicians whipping up "anti-Russian sentiment".

As for Comey, whom Trump fired last week, the FBI director wrote in a memo after a February meeting at the White House that the new president had asked him to shut down the FBI's investigation of Flynn and his Russian contacts, said a person who had read the memo. The Flynn investigation was part of a broader probe into Russian interference in last year's presidential election.

Comey's memo, an apparent effort to create a paper trail of his contacts with the White House, would be the clearest evidence to date that the president has tried to influence the investigation.

Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the FBI on Tuesday requesting that it turn over all documents and recordings that detail communications between Comey and Trump. He said he would give the FBI a week and then "if we need a subpoena, we'll do it."

The panel's top Democrat, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, a constant Trump critic, called the allegation of Trump pressure on Comey "explosive" and said "it appears like a textbook case of criminal obstruction of justice".

John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said late on Tuesday that the developments had reached "Watergate size and scale".

Source: Khaleej Times