President Donald Trump has contradicted previous White House explanations for the firing of James Comey as FBI director.

Mr Trump said in an interview with NBC News that he had planned to fire Mr Comey all along, regardless of the recommendations of top Justice Department officials.

Donald Trump has fired FBI director James Coney

Initially the White House cited a Justice Department memo criticising Mr Comey's handling of last year's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails as the impetus for Mr Trump's decision.

On Capitol Hill, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe strongly disputed the White House's assertion that Mr Comey had been fired in part because he had lost the confidence of the FBI's rank-and-file.

In the NBC interview, Mr Trump derided Mr Comey as a "showboat" and "grandstander" and said he had left the FBI in "virtual turmoil".

He dismissed the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the US election and possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Moscow as a "charade", a claim directly contradicted by Mr Comey's successor, and insisted he is not under investigation.