Leaked content of former FBi director’s note drags President into the Russia scandal, triggering questions about his possible impeachment

President Donald Trump asked the former FBI director, James Comey, to let former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn off the hook in an investigation into his Russian contacts, reports quoting a memo prepared by Mr. Comey said, pushing the 45th presidency into a potentially tenure-threatening crisis.

“He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey about Mr. Flynn in an Oval Office meeting in February, according to Mr. Comey’s recollection of the meeting in the memo shared with his colleagues at the agency, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The White House said the memo was “not a truthful or accurate portrayal” of the conversation.

The revelation that he tried to influence a federal probe into the Russian contacts of his key associate sucks Mr. Trump into a controversy that has so far swirled around his aides and advisers. The U.S. intelligence has concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in favour of Mr. Trump. “…this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,” the President said last week, explaining his decision to fire Mr. Comey as the FBI director on May 9.

Get the facts

While the Democrats reiterated their call for a special prosecutor to investigate Russian interference in the election and the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with the Kremlin, Republicans were more guarded in their response. House Oversight Committee’s Republican Chairman Jason Chaffetz asked acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to produce “all memoranda, notes, summaries, and recordings referring or relating to any communications between Comey and the President” before May 24. Speaker Paul Ryan supported the demand through a spokesperson. “We need to have all the facts,” the spokesperson said.

Three Congressional committees are looking into the alleged Russian interference in the election. While Democrats have been calling for a special prosecutor to insulate the probe from the Justice Department, Republican Senator John McCain has been demanding a select Congressional committee.

Mr. Flynn resigned as NSA after it emerged that he gave the Vice-President an inaccurate account of a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. The conversation recorded in the memo took place on February 14, the day after the President asked Mr. Flynn to resign. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey, according to the memo that sources read out to several media platforms.

Impeachment question

The fresh controversy will increase pressure on Mr. Comey to testify before Congress, which could expose the President to new vulnerabilities. A section of opinion makers argues that the President’s behaviour constitutes obstruction of justice and he must be impeached. The impeachment question was raised at a town hall debate between Republican Governor of Ohio John Kasich and Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday night.

“But we’re a long way away from anything like that,” Mr. Kasich, a strong critic of the President, said, of impeachment. “I don’t think you want to make that leap to impeachment until you follow a path, which leads us there. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. But I’m not there at this point,” Mr. Sanders said. “I don’t think we know exactly what happened. The Russian investigation is very, very important,” Mr. Kasich said, recalling that he had always doubted Mr. Trump’s ability to be President.

The White House said the President did not ask the FBI to end the investigation against Mr. Flynn. “While the President has repeatedly expressed his view that General Flynn is a decent man who served and protected our country, the President has never asked Mr. Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn,” it said in a statement.“The President has the utmost respect for our law enforcement agencies, and all investigations. This is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and Mr. Comey,” the statement said.