The day after former acting attorney general Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.

The abrupt ousting of Comey also came on the same day that the FBI subpoenaed former associates of Trump’s first National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who is under investigation for his ties to Russia.

In his letter firing Comey, Trump said “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.”

The “three separate occasions” on which Trump claims Comey informed him he is not under investigation conflict with the former FBI Director’s March testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, where he said the FBI was “investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.”

According to Trump’s aides, the decision to fire Comey was made by an increasingly angry President who “repeatedly asked aides why the Russia investigation wouldn’t disappear” and “would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe.”

While Comey was likely the most surprised, considering he learned that he was fired after seeing the news on TV while at an FBI office in Los Angeles, key White House staff were also largely unprepared for the development.

“Nobody really knew,” a senior official told Politico, adding “Our phones all buzzed and people said, What?”

This led to a bizarre scene Tuesday night when Press Secretary Sean Spicer resorted to huddling in the dark with staff “behind a tall hedge” in an attempt to avoid reporters.

Braving the trek back to his office from the White House lawn where he had been filming an interview with Fox Business, Spicer “spent several minutes hidden in the bushes behind these sets”, until “Janet Montesi, an executive assistant in the press office, emerged and told reporters that Spicer would answer some questions, as long as he was not filmed doing so.”

“We’ll take care of this. … Can you just turn that light off?” Spicer pleaded as he emerged from the bushes to answer questions of the dozen reporters gathered.

Spicer alternated “between light-hearted asides and clear frustration with getting the same questions” while struggling to stick to the administration’s narrative that Trump had fired Comey on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

When asked if Sessions was involved, Spicer demurred “That’s something you should ask the Department of Justice.” He continued to refer questions about Rosenstein to the DOJ, and stumbled when asked if Trump discussed Rosenstein’s findings with the Deputy AG “No, I don’t believe, I don’t know how that sequence went — I don’t know.”

On the last time Trump and Comey spoke, Spicer was even less sure. “Uh, I don’t know. I don’t know. There’s some — I don’t know. I don’t know,” he said.

Asked about the “three occasions” on which Trump claims Comey confirmed he was not under investigation despite the former FBI Director’s statements to Congress and scheduled testimony this week before the same Senate Judiciary Subcommittee that questioned Yates and Clapper yesterday, Spicer barely even tried “I don’t — we can follow — I can try, yeah.”

Spicer knew just as little about the grand-jury subpoenas issued by the investigation into Flynn, or President Trump’s scheduled meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov today.

Before wrapping up his brief, unlit ten minute question and answer session Spicer rejected calls for a special prosecutor to investigate, saying “There is clearly at this point no evidence of a reason to do that,” and “You have a system that’s working.”

Trump, on the other hand, wasted no time going on the offense:

Wednesday morning Trump took aim at Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) on twitter, lambasting him for a lie he told about being a ‘Vietnam veteran’ while running for Senate in 2010 despite having served in the reserves.

“He should be the one who is investigated for his acts,” the President tweeted.