Donald Trump, in today’s interview with Lester Holt, stated the following (flagged by NBC News’ Bradd Jaffy):
… regardless of recommendation I was going to fire Comey. Knowing, there was no good time to do it. And 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 they should have won.
At first this doesn’t seem surprising — we all know he fired Comey because of Russia. But this is an explicit admission, from his own mouth. As such, I’d argue it’s a bombshell. He admits firing the man who was investigating him because he disapproved of the investigation.
That is the textbook definition of obstruction of justice. It is both an impeachable offense and a criminal one. And now he’s on tape admitting it. As with the Muslim ban, his own words have the potential to be his worst enemy in court.