The reports emerged as Mr Trump departed for his first overseas trip as United States president amid the controversy surrounding investigations into whether his campaign associates collaborated with Russian Federation to sway the election.
The Washington Post is reporting that a current senior White House adviser is under scrutiny as part of an investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian Federation. The report did not name the adviser. Yes, hiring a special counsel is bound to make any White House nervous.
"I'm not sure the media coverage is fair at this point because everyone obsesses about the latest rumor, and they seem to be running through a theme, and everything that feeds that theme they run with it whether it's an anonymous source or whether anyone else has background information on it or not, and suddenly one person writes a story and everyone else covers the story that someone else wrote, and it's dominating the news cycle", said Lankford.
The appointment of Mueller, who headed the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2001-2013, was announced by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who has authority over the Russian Federation probe due to the decision of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself because of his role in the Trump campaign.
The White House said the memo is not an accurate portrayal of the conversation between Mr Comey and the President.
The Justice Department on Friday issued the text of Rosenstein's opening remarks for the briefings on Capitol Hill.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the US will be badly hurt by the naming of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to oversee the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
Most Republicans did not join their Democratic colleagues in calling for a special prosecutor, preferring to keep their faith in the congressional and career FBI investigators.
While it frustrated many Democrats, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said he understood why Rosenstein was guarded.
The appointment of Mueller as special counsel has drawn generally favorable comments from Democrats and from some Republicans as well.
"There was considerable frustration in the room", said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a member of the Armed Services Committee.
China's Xi says willing to help end rift with South Korea
Lee met separately with other senior Chinese officials, who had more forceful words for the South Korean visitor. China's top diplomat on Thursday reiterated calls for its dismantling.
"There needs to be a relationship with that investigation where they can say with confidence, 'This really is a problem for us, ' or 'Hey, we'd rather you didn't do it, but it's not a problem, ' " Blunt said.
The White House has struggled since Comey's firing to explain the chain of events that led to it and the Justice Department's involvement in that decision. The president again pointed to Rosenstein's "very, very strong" letter as a partial explanation of his decision to fire Comey.
He said he did not intend for the document to be a finding of misconduct or a "statement of reasons" to justify the firing, but he added: "I wrote it". "I don't believe it'll have an impact on us at all".
Rosenstein already made known how he feels about investigators discussing closed cases, in his memo blasting Comey for publicly discussing the closed Clinton email investigation even when it did not yield charges. Rosenstein denounced that decision as "profoundly wrong and unfair".
House members and senators said Rosenstein in his briefings steered clear of specifics in answering questions about his appointment of Mueller but made clear the former FBI director, will have wide latitude to pursue the investigation, potentially including criminal charges.
However, at a combative news conference Thursday, he fell short in trying to resolve questions about investigations into his campaign and his first four months in office.
Asked point-blank if he'd done anything that might merit prosecution or even impeachment, Trump said no - and then added of the lingering allegations and questions: "I think it's totally ridiculous".
The Republican from Dardanelle, Ark., declined to say whether he believes Trump is the victim of a witch hunt but said the special counsel's review should be expeditious.
"I informed the senior attorney that the president was going to remove Director Comey, (and) that I was writing a memorandum to the attorney general summarizing my own concerns", Rosenstein said in the statement, referring to a Justice Department attorney.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, said Rosenstein was asked about the timeline of Comey's firing and essentially replied, "Let the record speak for itself".
