Story highlights Trump sharply criticized Comey in the interview

"I was going to fire Comey," Trump said

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump said Thursday that he had already decided to fire ousted FBI Director James Comey before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote up a formal recommendation to do so.

"I was going to fire Comey," Trump told NBC News' Lester Holt in an interview. "Regardless of the recommendation I was going to fire Comey."

The White House initially said Rosenstein's memorandum to Attorney General Jeff Sessions prompted Trump to fire Comey, but Trump contradicted that account, saying he had already planned to do so and requested a memo to back up his decision.

Trump's firing of Comey sent a wave of criticism the White House's way, with Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill questioning the timing of the firing, which came as the FBI's investigation into potential coordination between Trump campaign associates and Russia has heated up.

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The White House initially pushed back on criticism of the firing by hanging Trump's decision on the recommendation of Rosenstein, who was confirmed two weeks earlier on a broad bipartisan basis.

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