President Trump's letter informing FBI Director James Comey of his termination raised the president's "criminal liability" regarding the investigation into Russian collusion, NBC legal correspondent Ari Melber said on Wednesday.
The conversation began with "Today" host Savannah Guthrie asking Melber and Nicolle Wallace, "on the bombshell meter, where does this rate?"
"This is huge. The letter doesn't sound true, from the [Department of Justice], because it is not true," Melber said.
Guthrie pushed back, asking what made the explanation for Comey's firing detailed in the letter irrational.
President Trump to former FBI Dir. Comey: I concur with DOJ that "you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau"https://t.co/vtliPCu53q pic.twitter.com/fHkvdqtx1l
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"There were procedural problems with the way Director Comey handled the investigation. The letter, though, from this DOJ under Donald Trump, says the main problem was that the approach by Director Comey was essentially too mean to Hillary Clinton," Melber said. "That is at odds with everything the candidate said. It's also at odds with what now Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at the time."
Wallace then criticized the section of Trump's letter that said Comey had repeatedly informed the president that he was not under investigation, claiming the paragraph "means that no one has successfully reined in Donald Trump from his impulses to carry on as though he were still the anchor of 'The Apprentice.'"
Melber then commented on the same portion of the letter.
"And Donald Trump in writing that sentence, that he clearly couldn't hold back, is raising his own potential criminal liability," he said. "He essentially inserted himself and Russia into what they claim was a neutral policy decision."