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. >> the president's decision to fire former fbi director james comey in the midst of the russia investigation is now widely regarded, include big trump allies including steve bannon as a catastrophic error which triggered the appointment of a special counsel and a probe into probl possible obstruction of justice. so for the president's lawyer, how do you keep him from lashing out again and creating another potentially disastrous self-inflicted wound. the answer, according to a new report from "the washington post" is you convince him it will all be over soon. the post reporting that ty cobb, really his name, the outside lawyer handling the mueller probe for the white house had