Sarah Sanders admits she lied about FBI trust in Comey — and other false statements revealed in Mueller report

Lies, damned lies and presidential aides' misstatements.

The Mueller report on Thursday revealed several instances when aides to President Donald Trump, while under oath, acknowledged that statements they once stood by were based on something other than facts or truth.

Take, for instance, the afternoon of May 10, 2017, when White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters that former FBI Director James Comey had been fired because he’d lost the confidence of President Trump, the Department of Justice and members of both parties in Congress. And, for good measure: “Most importantly, the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in Comey.”

Sanders went on to say that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had decided “on his own” to examine Comey’s performance and then expressed his concerns to Trump about them on May 8.

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A reporter challenged Sanders, saying Comey, in fact, had enjoyed support from the vast majority of FBI agents. “Look,” Sanders chided the reporter, “we’ve heard from countless members of the FBI that say very different things."

But it was Sanders who said very different things when questioned by Mueller’s investigators about her comment.

“Sanders told this Office that her reference to hearing from ‘countless members of the FBI’ was a ‘slip of the tongue,’” according to the report. “She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey was a comment she made 'in the heat of the moment' that was not founded on anything.”

Hours after the report was released, Sanders appeared on Fox News but did not apologize, explaining that she merely misspoke when she used the word "countless."

"I acknowledge that I had a slip of the tongue when I used the word 'countless,' but it's not untrue," she said, adding that her point at the time was that "a number of both current and former FBI agents agreed with the president. James Comey was a disgraced leaker who tried to politicize and undermine the very agency he was supposed to run."

On Friday, Sanders maintained on ABC News' Good Morning America that she hadn't lied to reporters, parsing her statement to say that it hinged on her use of the word, "countless."

"Actually, if you look at what I said, I said the 'slip of the tongue' was in using the word 'countless,' but there were a number of FBI, both former and current, that agreed with the president's decision, and they've continued to speak out and say that and send notice to the White House of that agreement with the president's decision," Sanders said.

The same incident found former White House spokesman Sean Spicer spreading misinformation about Comey's firing. The report determined that the decision to fire Comey had originated with Trump, who later pressed Rosenstein to own the decision.

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"The President then called Rosenstein directly and said he was watching Fox News, that the coverage had been great, and that he wanted Rosenstein to do a press conference," the report says. "Rosenstein responded that this was not a good idea because if the press asked him, he would tell the truth that Corney's firing was not his idea."

Spicer, at an impromptu news conference, picked up where Rosenstein would not tread, telling reporters: "It was all (Rosenstein). No one from the White House," the report says.

President Trump himself is shown elsewhere in the report urging top aides to issue false statements. But that didn’t always work.

Irate over a report in The New York Times that he had urged White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, Trump directed McGahn to issue a statement denying the story. McGahn refused to do so several times, according the report.

“The President nevertheless persisted and asked McGahn to repudiate facts that McGahn had repeatedly said were accurate,” according to the report.

In the end, McGahn held firm.

Mueller's investigators unpacked this trunk full of lies from Trump campaign officials. The "investigation established that several individuals affiliated with the Trump campaign lied to (Mueller's office) and to Congress, about their interactions with Russian-affiliated individuals and related matters. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of Russian election interference," the report stated.

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Some of those who lied, according to the report, violated the federal law:

• Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying about his interactions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition.

• George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser during the campaign, pleaded guilty to lying about the nature and timing of his interactions with a source who told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

• Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the Trump Moscow project.

• Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort lied to Mueller's investigators and the grand jury concerning his interactions and communications with Konstantin Kilimnik about Trump Campaign polling data and a peace plan for Ukraine.

Contributing: Gregory Korte, John Kelly, Deirdre Shesgreen, Ledyard King, Kevin McCoy and Christal Hayes, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sarah Sanders admits she lied about FBI trust in Comey — and other false statements revealed in Mueller report