The Times reported at the time that Mr. Trump was irritated at Mr. Flynn for delaying such a call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Mr. Flynn was eventually fired for misleading Vice President Mike Pence and others about the details of a conversation with a Russian ambassador. Soon after, Mr. Comey was again at the White House for another meeting. This time, he wrote that Mr. Trump told him that Mr. Flynn “hadn’t done anything wrong” in calling the Russians and asked him to wrap up his inquiry.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump said, according to the memo.
Mr. Flynn has since pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about those conversations and is cooperating with investigators for the special counsel who inherited the investigation from Mr. Comey.
That exchange and other broad outlines of the memos, which were first published by The Associated Press, have already been reported by The Times, and were relayed by Mr. Comey in testimony before the Senate and in his recent memoir, “A Higher Loyalty.”
But they are believed to be evidence in a possible obstruction of justice case against Mr. Trump being pursued by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.
The memos are exacting in their specificity, including details about who was sitting where, the precise times that conversations began and their durations. In some cases, Mr. Comey shared his accounts with others immediately afterward.
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These details add credibility to Mr. Comey’s account of events. Mr. Trump has disputed some parts, including asking Mr. Comey to shut down an investigation into Mr. Flynn.
“What follows are notes I typed In the vehicle Immediately upon exiting Trump Tower on 1/5/17,” Mr. Comey writes at the beginning of his first memo, sent the next day to his deputy director, chief of staff and the F.B.I.’s chief counsel.
Select lawmakers have been allowed to view redacted versions of the memos at the Justice Department. But three House Republican committee chairmen requested last Friday that they be sent to Congress, and made clear this week that they were willing to issue a subpoena if the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, did not comply.
The Justice Department relented on Thursday and is expected to deliver unredacted versions of the memos via a secure transfer on Friday.
In a letter to lawmakers on Thursday, Stephen E. Boyd, an assistant attorney general, wrote, “In light of the unusual events occurring since the previous limited disclosure, the department has consulted the relevant parties and concluded that the release of the memorandums to Congress at this time would not adversely impact any ongoing investigation or other confidentiality interests of the executive branch.”
PhotoMichael T. Flynn, right, the former national security adviser, with Mr. Trump in January 2017. In one memo, Mr. Comey said Mr. Trump had questioned Mr. Flynn’s judgment. Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times
The three Republican chairmen — Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of the Judiciary Committee, Representative Devin Nunes of the Intelligence Committee and Representative Trey Gowdy of the Oversight Committee — issued a joint statement Thursday night taking direct aim at Mr. Comey’s character and the import of the memos. The documents, they said, show Mr. Comey was “blind with biases” and demonstrated bad judgment.
While Mr. Comey “went to great lengths to set dining room scenes, discuss height requirements, describe the multiple times he felt complimented and myriad other extraneous facts, he never once mentioned the most relevant fact of all, which was whether he felt obstructed in his investigation,” they wrote.
Democrats reached the opposite conclusion. Representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, argued that the documents were the effort of a prudent law enforcement official alarmed by the president’s behavior.
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The memos include other previously undisclosed conversations that shed light on the F.B.I.’s Russia investigation and Mr. Trump’s views of it.
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In a Feb. 8 meeting with Reince Priebus, then the White House chief of staff, for example, Mr. Comey writes that Mr. Priebus asked about the contents of the salacious dossier produced by a former British spy that lays out a vast conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to sway the election. In the days before the inauguration, Mr. Comey briefed Mr. Trump about the document and its contents, including a supposed encounter between Mr. Trump and Russian prostitutes.
Portions of that section of the memo were redacted, but in speaking with Mr. Priebus, Mr. Comey made clear that the bureau was taking the allegations seriously.
“I explained that the analysts from all three agencies agreed it was relevant and that portions of the material were corroborated by other intelligence,” Mr. Comey wrote. He then defended his decision to share it with Mr. Trump, saying again that “much of it was consistent with and corroborative of other intelligence.”
Later in the conversation, Mr. Priebus asked Mr. Comey if their discussion was private. When the director replied that it was, the White House chief of staff asked whether the F.B.I. had ever wiretapped Mr. Flynn.
Mr. Comey told Mr. Priebus that the question was inappropriate and should be directed through other channels. His response was redacted.
The two men then proceed to the Oval Office, where Mr. Comey said Mr. Trump denied that he had consorted with Russian prostitutes, as the dossier claimed.
“The president said ‘the hookers thing’ is nonsense, but that Putin had told him, ‘We have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world,’” Mr. Comey wrote. He said Mr. Trump did not specify when the conversation with Mr. Putin took place.
Other memos add new details to well-known exchanges. In the same meeting in which Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey to end the Flynn investigation, the men bonded over leaks of sensitive government information.
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“I said I was eager to find leakers and would like to nail one to the door as a message,” Mr. Comey wrote. But, he explained, prosecuting journalists “was tricky” for legal reasons.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Comey to talk to “Sessions,” referring to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “and see what we can do about being more aggressive.”
Mr. Trump asked Mr. Comey on two separate occasions whether his deputy, Andrew G. McCabe, “had a problem with him” and mentioned a large donation made to his wife’s political campaign by an ally of Hillary Clinton.
Mr. Comey defended Mr. McCabe as a “true pro” and said Mr. Trump would come to agree.
Instead, Mr. Trump would go on to lavish criticism on Mr. McCabe, arguing he was biased against him.
Mr. McCabe was fired by the F.B.I. in March for reportedly lying to investigators about his contacts with a reporter in an unrelated matter. Federal prosecutors are examining whether they have sufficient evidence to open a criminal investigation based on a report by the department’s inspector general.
And they show that Mr. Trump and top aides were eager to discuss with Mr. Comey the details of another consequential F.B.I. investigation: the inquiry into Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state. Mr. Priebus told Mr. Comey that he believed the Clinton campaign had mishandled the investigation and pressed him for an explanation of why Mrs. Clinton had not been charged.
“At some point, I added that it also wasn’t my fault that Huma Abedin forwarded emails to Anthony Weiner,” Mr. Comey wrote, referring to a top Clinton aide and her husband.
President Trump suggested Wednesday that he is in no rush to fire either special counsel Robert S. Mueller III or Mueller’s boss, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. But that hasn’t stopped thousands of people across the country from planning protests in the event that the president does choose to give Mueller and Rosenstein the boot from the Russian investigation.
One city’s police agency is already preparing for the worst.
Pittsburgh Bureau of Police has ordered its plainclothes detectives to bring full uniform and riot gear to work starting Thursday, “until further notice.”
“We have received information of a potential large scale protest in the Central Business District,” read an internal email from Victor Joseph, commander of major crimes, according to a copy obtained by a WTAE reporter and confirmed by Pittsburgh’s mayor. The email was sent to plainclothes detectives, according to Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto.
“There is a belief that President Trump will soon move to fire Special Prosecutor Mueller,” Joseph’s email continued. “This would result in a large protest within 24 hours of the firing. The protest would be semi-spontaneous and more than likely happen on short notice.”
“We may be needed to assist in the event that there is a large scale protest,” Joseph added in the email.
The memo, which circulated on Twitter, quickly raised questions about what may have spurred the agency’s preparations.
Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich clarified in a statement that although authorities received information about potential events, “we have not assessed the credibility of the potential for disturbances, and we do not have any knowledge of the President’s decision-making process.”
“The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police receives information daily that we evaluate and prepare for if the event should occur,” Hissrich said. “Events can include anything from extreme weather to potential demonstrations. Often the events we prepare for do not occur. However, through an abundance of caution, we attempt to adequately prepare for an appropriate response.”
Indeed, plans are in the works for potentially large protests if Trump does fire Mueller. Thousands of people in cities across the country have signed up to participate in a series of “emergency” protests called “Nobody is Above the Law.”
“Donald Trump could be preparing to put himself above the law. We won’t allow it,” the group says on its Web page. “Trump will create a constitutional crisis if he fires special counsel Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller, or attempts to compromise the investigation by other means.”
“Our response in the hours following a potential power grab will dictate what happens next — whether Congress will stand up to Trump or allow him to move our democracy toward authoritarianism,” the group says.
In Pittsburgh, more than 2,300 people have registered to participate in a potential rally at the Pittsburgh City-County Building, as of early Thursday. If news were to break about a Mueller firing before 3 p.m. on any given day, the rally would begin at 6 p.m. that day. If the news were to break after 3 p.m., the protest would start at noon the following day.
City officials faced criticism on social media from both sides of the political aisle. Some suggested police were trying to clamp down on protesters or that the Pittsburgh mayor was “scaring his constituents” into thinking Trump will fire Mueller.
Peduto fired back at the “conspiracies” on Twitter, saying the police memo “doesn’t claim to know what the President will do. It doesn’t say people can’t lawfully assemble. It says you may be needed to help, bring your uniform. It is called being prepared.”
“A Commander tells Officers to bring uniforms it becomes a Constitutional issue,” Peduto also said. “Conspiracy Theories come from the right … and the left.”
Peduto told WTAE that city officials “want to be precautionary, especially on something that is unprecedented in American history.”
Hissrich also clarified to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that he specifically asked detectives who work in the major crimes unit, investigating crimes such as homicides, robberies, burglaries, sexual assaults and narcotics, to bring their uniforms and protective gear to work.
“You can’t have officers out in suit and coat,” Hissrich said. “But part of the uniform is the appropriate gear that they have.”
According to the New York Times, Trump tried to get White House counsel Donald McGahn to fire Mueller but backed off when McGahn threatened to quit.
Trump has repeatedly said that the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election is part of a “hoax.” He has tweeted that the investigation is “headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA Comey letter).” And while Trump has considered firing Mueller, many Republicans have urged him not to.
After months of negotiations over a possible bill to protect Mueller from getting fired by Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that such legislation is “unnecessary.”
“I’m the one who decides what we take to the floor,” McConnell said. “That’s my responsibility as the majority leader. And we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate.”
Trump on Wednesday said there was “no collusion” between his presidential campaign and Russia and that “no one has been more transparent” than he in cooperating with the probe.
“They’ve been saying I’m going to get rid of them for the last three months, four months, five months, and they’re still here,” Trump said of Mueller and Rosenstein. “So we want to get the investigation over with, done with, put it behind us.”
