"Bob has never been to Jim's house", said David Kelley, who succeeded Comey as USA attorney in Manhattan and has known him and Mueller for years.

In an interview on Fox News, President Donald Trump said his story didn't change in regards to the possibility of recorded conversations with former FBI Director James Comey.

Speaking in an interview with Ainsley Earhardt of Fox News that aired Friday, Trump first said he was generally suspicious of the FBI and intelligence apparatus in charge of the investigation into his presidential campaign's ties to Russian Federation, saying "you never know what's happening when you see that the Obama administration, and perhaps longer than that, was doing all of unmasking and surveillance". In the meeting, Comey claimed that Trump asked him to back off of an investigation into Michael Flynn, the retired lieutenant general who Trump had fired as national security adviser the previous day.

Trump also claimed he had always told a "straight story" about whether he recorded his private conversations with Comey. Allegations of ties to Russian Federation have cast a shadow over Trump's first five months in office, distracting from attempts by his fellow Republicans in Congress to overhaul the United States healthcare and tax systems. There were no such tapes, and the president knew it all along.

The interview, conducted Thursday at the White House and aired Friday morning, comes as Trump considers reducing the number of media briefings to once per week and requiring reporters to submit written questions in advance.

This is a first for the Trump presidency: the first formal presidential retraction of a presidential untruth.

Nishikori retires injured, Khachanov to play Rublev in Halle
Federer grabbed the crucial break in the opening set to take command of the match and did not allow Khachanov back in. Federer , ranked No. 5 in the world, lost to Zverev in last year's Halle semifinals but beat him last year in Rome.

He described the special counsel, who is a former FBI director, as "good friends" with the former head of the FBI, James Comey. He also told trusted people about his concerns soon afterward, well before Trump fired him. "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters", was how Trump put it during the 2016 campaign.

By party, 76 percent of Democrats side with Comey, while 50 percent of Republicans believe Trump.

"I certainly think that the president would hope that the former director would tell the truth". He has many connections both inside the White House and the intelligence community, and his sources have proven to be correct in the past.

Trump flirted with presidential runs in 1988 and 2000 before abandoning them. I can tell you that. Trump tweeted on May 12.

Mr Comey had been overseeing an investigation into whether Mr Trump's campaign colluded with Russian Federation to swing the election when he was abruptly fired by the President in May. "You never know what's happening when you see what the Obama administration - and perhaps longer than that - was doing all of this unmasking and surveillance and you read all about it and I've been reading about it for the last couple of months, about the seriousness of the - and frightful situation with surveillance all over the place", said Mr Trump. Those days came and went without an answer.

By about a 2-to-1 margin, the respondents said they are more likely to trust Comey's account, which he laid out in detail in Senate testimony earlier this month.