Trump re-created Putin’s script in the spring of 2017, when he fired FBI director Comey. The original cover story was that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had brought to Trump’s attention Comey’s handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server when she was secretary of state and this was why Trump fired Comey. It was an obvious lie, but Spicer and Conway were dispatched to disseminate it, and Rosenstein’s memo, to the media. But then Trump spoke to NBC anchor Lester Holt and told him that the decision to fire Comey had been entirely his own, made before
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