Besieged White House denies, defends as new bombshells hit

McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee, also calls it "unacceptable" for Trump to invite Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov into the Oval Office last week, calling him a "stooge".

Representative Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Trump's disclosure only reinforced Democrats' call for an independent investigation into alleged ties with Russian Federation.

The person says the goal of the memos was to keep a record of encounters Comey found odd or troubling. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and CNN identified the ally as Israel but two USA national security sources said they doubted that.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday requesting that it turn over all documents and recordings that detail communications between Comey and Trump.

It did release a statement saying reports about Comey's memo did not offer "a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the President and Mr. Comey", and that the president "never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn".

Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of a judiciary subcommittee investigating Russian Federation, said that Comey should testify before his Senate panel about his discussions with Trump over Flynn, who resigned earlier this year.

November 6: Trump criticizes Comey's second letter to Congress, saying Clinton was being protected by a "rigged system" and pronouncing her "guilty", despite the FBI's conclusion that criminal charges were unwarranted. Comey had previously refused to acknowledge the parallel Trump investigation, and his disclosure enrages Democrats who already blamed Comey for costing Clinton the presidency.

Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, says he wants to see more details, but he believes "this is another example of whatever Trump does gets the worst possible spin". Comey said he replied that "I agree he is a good guy" but said nothing to Trump about limiting the investigation. "Quit investigating, damn it'". Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions were also asked to leave the room.

Democrats say that they believe Trump and his administration have shown of a pattern of obstructing the investigations looking into possible collusion between Trump associates and Russian Federation to affect the 2016 election. "Telling the FBI director to close down an investigation of your senior campaign adviser for his activities during your campaign for president, if that's true, that is obstruction of justice". His memo included Trump's recommendation that Comey put reporters in prison for publishing classified information leaked to them.

Writing the memo was "not out of character", especially if he was concerned about the legality or moral issues, according to a former Justice Department official.

The source said that Comey hopes the president's threats about "tapes" of their conversations indicate there are actually recordings of their conversations. Earlier in the night, Chaffetz tweeted that he has his "subpoena pen ready".

The standoff between President Donald Trump and his former FBI director intensified Tuesday with the news of James Comey's memo saying that Trump asked him to shut down the agency's investigation into ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn.

And it comes at a particularly precarious time for the White House, as it searches for someone to nominate to succeed Comey as the next leader of the FBI, who will take over investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and any coordination between Trump associates and Russian officials. I need to see it sooner rather than later.

"Mr. Comey wrote the memo detailing his conversation with the president immediately after the meeting, which took place the day after Mr. Flynn resigned, according to two people who read the memo".

"I think it's really important right now that we hear from the White House", she told CNN.

The New York Times says Trump made the request to Comey during a February meeting.

Trump's main guest at last week's meeting was Lavrov, the leading promoter of Russian foreign policies that are often sharply at odds with USA aims in Syria and Europe.

"If Comey is alleging president did something inappropriate, there is an open invitation for him", Graham said.