(CNN) President Donald Trump reiterated Thursday that deposed FBI director James Comey told him on three separate occasions that he was not under investigation for his campaign's ties to Russian intelligence officials.

"He told me that ... and I've heard that from others," Trump told NBC's Lester Holt

The President added that Comey told him he was not under investigation once during a "very nice dinner" and two other times over the phone. That's consistent with the letter Trump sent Comey informing him that he had been fired; "While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau," Trump wrote.

There have been a whole lot of reasons to be skeptical of Trump's assertion that Comey just kept telling him he was not being investigated.

1. The FBI investigation is focused in part, at the moment, on Trump campaign associates like former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former foreign policy aide Carter Page. "At the moment" is the key thing there. This is an ongoing investigation, meaning that the FBI continues to work on it. That Trump isn't currently under investigation doesn't necessarily, therefore, tell us as much as he wants us to think it tells us.

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