Story highlights Trump expressed frustration about leaks detailing his private conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia

Comey said leak investigations often require threats to jail journalists, prompting Trump's response

(CNN) President Donald Trump told then-FBI Director James Comey he should throw journalists in jail during the same meeting in which he asked Comey to end the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a source close to Comey has told CNN.

In the February 14 meeting in the Oval Office, Trump expressed frustration about news stories detailing his private conversations with the leaders of Mexico and Australia the previous month, saying Comey needed to go after the leakers, the source said.

When Comey tried to explain to the President that leak investigations are difficult to pursue because law enforcement officers often end up having to threaten to jail journalists, Trump said he should throw the journalists in jail, the source said.

The White House has declined to comment on the President's remarks to Comey.

The FBI director, whom Trump fired two weeks ago, wrote a memo about the conversation, which included the President's suggestion that Comey should back off the investigation into Flynn, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Comey, who plans to testify at a Senate intelligence committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 US elections in the coming weeks, shared those contemporaneous notes with a circle of friends and aides, the source said.

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