SORRY, ELSA:

"I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Trump told Comey, according to Comey's notes. "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."

Trump now denies he said this, both through his lawyer and in a news conference Friday.

But as the investigation picked up steam, and Flynn was increasingly a key player, the president fired Comey. The White House initially cited a memo from the deputy attorney general about Comey's handling of the Clinton email investigation during the campaign.

Trump later undermined that rationale in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt. Comey believed the reasoning was dubious, and, for him, the NBC interview confirmed that it was due to the Russia investigation.

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