After Spicer spent several minutes hidden in the bushes behind these sets, Janet Montesi, an executive assistant in the press office, emerged and told reporters that Spicer would answer some questions, as long as he was not filmed doing so. Spicer then emerged.
“Just turn the lights off. Turn the lights off,” he ordered. “We'll take care of this. ... Can you just turn that light off?”
Spicer got his wish and was soon standing in near darkness between two tall hedges, with more than a dozen reporters closely gathered around him. For 10 minutes, he responded to a flurry of questions, vacillating between light-hearted asides and clear frustration with getting the same questions over and over again.
The first question: Did the president direct Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to conduct a probe of FBI Director James B. Comey?
As Spicer tells it, Rosenstein was confirmed about two weeks ago and independently took on this issue so the president was not aware of the probe until he received a memo from Rosenstein on Tuesday, along with a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommending that Comey be fired. The president then swiftly decided to follow the recommendation, notifying the FBI via email around 5 p.m. and in a letter delivered to the FBI by the president's longtime bodyguard. At the same time, the president personally called congressional leaders to let them know his decision. Comey learned the news from media reports.
“It was all him,” Spicer said of Rosenstein, as a reporter repeated his answer back to him. “That's correct — I mean, I can't, I guess I shouldn't say that, thank you for the help on that one. No one from the White House. That was a DOJ decision.”
The news Tuesday was surprising for a number of reasons, especially since the president once delighted in Comey's investigation of Democrat Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server — an investigation that is now at the heart of Trump's explanation for firing Comey. Some have then wondered aloud if the president is instead trying to punish Comey for investigating ties between his campaign and Russia.
When pressed on this, Spicer would put forth Rosenstein's résumé: a prosecutor with more than 30 years of experience who served as a U.S. attorney during the Obama administration and was overwhelmingly confirmed for his new position as deputy attorney general by Congress.
Spicer said he's not aware of any of Rosenstein's superiors who might have directed him to do this — although he then said that such questions should be directed to Justice officials, not him. Spicer did a lot of referring.
Was Sessions involved? “That's something you should ask the Department of Justice,” Spicer said.
Was Rosenstein's probe part of a larger review of the FBI? “That's, again, a question that you should ask the Department of Justice,” he said.
Did the president discuss Rosenstein's findings with Rosenstein? “No, I don't believe, I don't know how that sequence went — I don't know,” he said.
What was the president's role? “Again, I have to get back to you on the tick-tock,” he said.
When's the last time Trump and Comey spoke? “Uh, I don't know. I don't know. There's some — I don't know. I don't know,” he said.
What were the three occasions on which the president says Comey assured him that he was not under investigation? “I don't — we can follow — I can try, yeah,” he said.
How long did the president deliberate? “I don't, I don't ... I can look at the tick-tock. I know that he was presented with that today. I'm not sure what time,” he said.
Why wasn't Comey given the news in a personal phone call? “I think we delivered it by hand and by email and that was — and I get it, but you asked me a question and that's the answer,” he said.
Did Comey's testimony last week — which contained inaccuracies — influence the decision? “You'd have to ask the Department of Justice. They're the ones that made the recommendation,” he said.
Why didn't the president do this months ago? “Again, I would refer you to the Department of Justice,” he said.
Does he know about grand-jury subpoenas that have reportedly been issued in an investigation involving Michael Flynn, Trump's previous national security adviser? “I'm not — I'm not aware of any,” he said.
