Trump, without evidence, says NBC 'fudging' 2017 interview on Russia

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, without offering any evidence, accused NBC News of "fudging" a May 2017 interview that he gave days after he fired then FBI Director James Comey and in which he cited the federal Russia investigation.

Representatives for NBC News and its parent, Comcast Corp , could not be immediately reached for comment. Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a question about Trump's accusation.

In the interview last year, Trump appeared to try to underscore that Comey's dismissal was tied to his performance at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and not about the U.S. Special Counsel Office's probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

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Moscow has denied findings by U.S. intelligence agencies that it acted to bolster Trump and harm his Democrat challenger, Hillary Clinton.

Trump has said there was no collusion with Russia and has said that he did not fire Comey over the federal probe.

Last year, he told NBC that he knew firing Comey could "confuse people" and "lengthen out the investigation."

"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 by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won," he told NBC at the time.

In a post on Twitter on Thursday, Trump accused the news outlet and its journalist Lester Holt of "fudging my tape on Russia" but gave no evidence to back up his claim.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Ken Li in New York Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Steve Orlofsky)