President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, according to various reports.
The New York Times reports the president told Comey, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go." That's apparently according to a memo Comey wrote after the meeting in which Trump made the request.
That meeting took place only the day after Flynn was forced to resign. Sources close to Comey told The New York Times that he took notes on his conversations with Trump in an effort to make a paper trail to document Trump's attempts to influence ongoing investigations.
Trump fired Comey on May 9. He said in an interview he had planned to fire Comey since his inauguration and that he felt the investigation into his campaign ties to Russia was "a made-up story."
An FBI agent's notes have held up in court before. In 2007, a Comey testimony contradicted official White House statements. Notes taken by the FBI director at the time verified Comey's version of events.
The White House has responded to the story, claiming it is false.
