Trump Obstructed Justice By Firing Me, Comey Says

Former FBI Director James Comey Wednesday said in his judgment, his firing could be considered "obstruction of justice" based on comments President Donald Trump made in a television interview about Russia when discussing his decision to fire him.

"My judgment is it could be obstruction of justice," Comey told NBC "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie in an interview about his new memoir, "A Higher Loyalty,"

"The legal question is whether you can bring a case against the president, you want to know what was he talking about around that conversation, what's in writing?" said Comey. "What do the e-mails say to get a clear picture of his mental state?"

Trump, shortly after the interview, tweeted that he had not fired Comey over Russia at all.

"Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI Director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation where, by the way, there was NO COLLUSION (except by the Dems)!" Trump said.

In his interview last May with NBC correspondent Lester Holt, the president commented that he had been determined to fire Comey, regardless of what a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rob Rosenstein would have said.

"In fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said 'you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,' Trump told Holt at the time.

Also on Wednesday, Comey said he wishes he had a time machine that would allow him to go back to 11 days before the 2016 presidential election, when he announced the investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's private email server was going to be reopened and re-examined.

However, he told Guthrie that he doesn't know if he'd change his decision, even if he knew what he knows now.

"I read a lot of that stuff, and it makes me feel nauseated," said Comey, after Guthrie pointed out that polls showed the race was neck and neck when he made his announcement.

"Nate Silver, who is a political prognosticator, saying that if the election was held the day before this announcement was made, she would have won," Guthrie said. "Was it a decisive factor?"

"It wouldn't change how I thought about the decision at the time," said Comey. "On October 28, I had facts in front of me and a decision to make. I wish I had a time machine but I don't and I didn't."

He also told Guthrie that he chose to make an announcement in public, rather than speaking publicly, because he thought the comments would "do grievous damage to the Justice Department.

"I had to choose the least bad option to preserve public faith that we had done the investigation ina competent and independent way," Comey said.

He also commented about his statement in July 2016 that he didn't think Clinton should face criminal charges, but that she had been careless.

Comey said he does believe there is "no doubt" it was unorthodox for then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to have been investigating Clinton in the middle of the election. Lynch came under fire for meeting with Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton and then refusing to recuse herself from the the investigation.

However, he said he didn't go to then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates with his concerns, rather than step out and make a public statement about Clinton, because he didn't "think it would make much difference."

"The attorney general had announced she was not going to recuse herself, and she's my boss and Sally Yates' boss," said Comey. "I didn't think it would make much difference. We would be in the same terrible position in October if I had done the normal thing back in July."

Meanwhile, Comey has come under fire for his descriptions of President Donald Trump in his book, he doesn't feel that he was picking on the president. He also rejected the idea that he feels angry over over being fired.

"I think it is raw in the sense that I find it really painful to relive," Comey told NBC "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie. "Reading that book, doing the audio book left me physically drained, but I don't feel a sense of anger. I'm worried, actually, which is why I'm doing something I don't love, talking about it and writing about it. But not anger."

In his book, Comey described the president as having orange skin, and saying he looked like he had been wearing suntanning goggles, but on Wednesday, he said he "didn't think of them as shots and I still don't."

"You see the description I give of my high school boss in the grocery store," Comey said of another passage in the book. "I try to bring the reader into that scene and describe great detail. I'm not trying to pick on President Trump or my boss from high school."

Comey Wednesday also discussed one of the main parts of his book, descriptions of an Oval Office meeting between himself and the president, when he was asked to let the investigation into then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn go.

He said he didn't stand up to the president, but he does think Trump knew he was being inappropriate.

"If he didn't know it was inappropriate, why did he kick out the vice president and the attorney general?" said Comey. "I don't know if I should have done it differently. In the moment, the thing to do was just make sure you're not agreeing to do something inappropriate."

Comey also flatly rejected the idea that he would run for president or any other political office.

"Never. Never. I want to say it again so my wife heard it twice," he said.