President Trump told lawmakers he fired FBI Director James B. Comey at the recommendation of the Justice Department but later contradicted that reason in an interview. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)

The possible ties between President Trump’s campaign and Russia could face greater scrutiny on Capitol Hill after the president publicly contradicted the reason he gave congressional leaders for the decision to fire FBI Director James B. Comey.

Trump said Thursday he was thinking of “this Russia thing with Trump” when he resolved to fire Comey, whose agency is leading an investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election. The comment to NBC News conflicts with Trump’s explanation to members of Congress earlier in the week that he dismissed Comey at the recommendation of the Justice Department, which cited the FBI director’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state as the reason he should be fired.

The possibility Trump misled lawmakers about the reasons for his decision adds another layer of controversy to Comey’s dismissal and could fuel calls on Capitol Hill for congressional investigators to more aggressively probe the possibility of collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.

Trump’s about-face also raises further questions about the role of newly installed Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein in the president’s decision.

Around the time Comey’s firing became public on Tuesday, Trump told lawmakers he made his decision after reading a memo in which Rosenstein criticized the director’s handling of the Clinton investigation.

(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Trump had asked Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to review the workings of the Justice Department, he told Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) in a phone conversation.

“He said, ‘The department’s a mess. I asked Rosenstein and Sessions to look into it. Rosenstein sent me a memo. I accepted the recommendation to fire him,’ ” Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Wednesday.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) gave a similar account of his conversation with Trump to a local radio station.

“He said he got a report from the number two over at the attorney general’s office laying out why James Comey should probably depart,” McCarthy told Kern Radio on Wednesday. After reading the memo, Trump “decided he was right and it’s probably time to move on,” McCarthy said.

Rosenstein is expected to provide more detail next week during an all-Senate briefing that was scheduled in response to a request led primarily by Democrats.

Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee invited Comey to testify Tuesday, but he declined their invitation.

The panel’s chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), said Tuesday he was “troubled by the timing and reasoning of Director Comey’s termination.”

(Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

“I have found Director Comey to be a public servant of the highest order, and his dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by the Committee,” Burr said in a statement.

Trump placed calls to nine members of Congress on Tuesday to alert them of his decision, according to the White House. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) declined, through representatives, to describe their conversations with Trump.

Schumer told reporters Tuesday that he told Trump on their call that “Mr. President, with all due respect, you are making a big mistake,” but he did not provide further details about the conversation.

Trump’s shift in rationale came a day later when he spoke with NBC’s Lester Holt.

“When I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,’ ” he said. “ ‘It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.’ ”

Trump said he would have fired Comey even if Rosenstein had not recommended it.

“I was going to fire Comey,” he told Holt. “He [Rosenstein] made a recommendation . . . but regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.”

These comments could further complicate Trump’s relationships with leaders on Capitol Hill at a critical time for his legislative agenda and as some Republican lawmakers are facing pressure to accelerate or beef up the congressional investigations into Russia’s meddling in the election.

Trump also called Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.). House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also received a call, but was unable to connect with Trump because she was traveling abroad, an aide said.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) did not receive a heads-up call from Trump, but pulled the president aside to ask about Comey during a visit to the White House on Wednesday to discuss tax reform.

“My conversation with the president was, ‘Why now?’ And his conversation was, when Rosenstein came in, his new boss came in, sat down with him, he made the recommendation back to Trump and they fired him,” Lankford said in an interview with The Post on Thursday.

Lankford elaborated during an interview with CNN.

“He said it was Rosenstein,” Lankford told CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Rosenstein “met with Comey, had the opportunity to be able to meet with him, be able to talk to him. . . . He said, ‘This guy is not going to be able to work out long-term for us. He has a lot of controversy already.’ . . . Rosenstein contacted the president and said, ‘Long-term, we’ve got to resolve this,’ and they did.”

Trump’s comments on NBC threw cold water not only on his explanation to lawmakers but also the White House’s official line.

On Tuesday night, press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Trump was not aware of the internal review at the Justice Department until he was briefed by Rosenstein and Session on Monday and then received the memo Tuesday, which prompted his decision.

Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated Wednesday that there was “no request” by Trump to have an internal review at the Justice Department. She called Rosenstein’s recommendation “the final piece” that moved Trump toward his decision.

Sean Sullivan and Kelsey Snell contributed to this report.

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