White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday there is nothing inappropriate about President Trump asking the FBI director if he is under investigation.

During an interview with “NBC Nightly News” Thursday, Trump said he asked ousted Director James Comey three times — once over dinner and twice on the phone — whether he was the subject of a bureau investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election.

The statement echoed the statement Trump released when he fired Comey on Tuesday. In it, he claimed that Comey had told him three times that he was not under investigation.

At the dinner, Trump said, Comey had asked him if he could stay on as FBI director. Reporters at Thursday's press briefing said the encounter was rife with conflicts of interest.

“Don’t you see how that’s a conflict of interest?,” ABC’s Jonathan Karl said to Sanders. “The FBI director says he wants to keep his job, and the president is asking whether he’s under investigation?”

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“No, I don’t believe it is [a conflict of interest],” Sanders responded.

“I don’t see that as a conflict of interest and neither do the many legal scholars and others that have been commenting on it for the last hour,” she continued. “So no, I don’t see that as an issue.”

The legal scholars Sanders referred to appeared to be pundits interviewed on TV that followed Trump’s interview with Holt. She said the administration had also talked to "several legal scholars who have weighed in on it and said there’s nothing wrong with it.”

CBS News anchor Major Garrett later challenged Sanders on that point, arguing that Justice Department protocol “discourages conversations with the president and the FBI about anything that might involve the president to ensure there is no confusion about political interference or even the impression or appearance of political influence on the FBI.”

“Why is it appropriate to ask if he’s under investigation if that’s not in the guidelines used by the Justice Department?” Garrett asked.

“I haven’t seen their protocol, I’m only speaking on the information I have at this point,” Sanders responded. “Look at the people that followed up the [NBC] interview. There were multiple attorneys that came on after and stated that it was not inappropriate or wrong for the president to do so."

"I’m not an attorney. I don’t play one on TV," Sanders continued. "But what I can just tell you is what I’ve heard from legal minds and people that are actually attorneys say and that’s their opinion. So I have to trust the justice system on that fact, too.”