President Donald Trump has called sacked FBI director James Comey a "showboat" and a "grandstander".
In an extraordinarily personal and scathing assessment of the man he has just fired, Mr Trump insisted that Mr Comey left the FBI in turmoil.
But President Trump's dismissal of the very man in charge of investigating whether his campaign colluded with Russia has attracted allegations of a coverup.
And his harsh comments, made in an interview with NBC News, were also rapidly contradicted by the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who praised Mr Comey, as well as the new acting FBI director Andrew McCabe.
Mr McCabe said, in contrast to claims by Mr Trump's spokespeople, that Mr Comey enjoyed "broad support" from the rank and file.
During his interview, President Trump also contradicted his own surrogates on how the decision was was made to fire Mr Comey.
Mr Trump insisted that, whatever the opinion of the attorney general and his deputy, he was "going to fire regardless of recommendation".
However, White House spokespeople and vice president Mike Pence all said that Mr Trump acted on the recommendation of these officials.
Mr Trump also said that Mr Comey had told him on three separate occasions that he personally wasn't under investigation over his campaigns potential ties to Russia.
He also insisted he had no investments or business interests in Russia, and that he wasn't at all worried about the "optics" of meeting the Russian foreign minister at the White House the morning after firing the director of the FBI.
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