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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levin and Julia Carrie Wong (earlier) and Bonnie Malkin (now)

Calls for special prosecutor after Trump sacks FBI director – as it happened

James Comey.
James Comey. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

Here’s our full report on Trump’s decision to sack Comey. Below is a summary of what we know:

  • FBI director James Comey has been fired by Donald Trump, who said in a letter that he was being “terminated and removed” because he was “not able to effectively lead the bureau”.
  • The sacking came after attorney general Jeff Sessions and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein recommended to Trump that he be removed over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
  • However, critics believe the dismissal is more closely linked to Comey’s role in investigating Trump’s allies over alleged links to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
  • Comey reportedly found out he had been fired while speaking to FBI employees in Los Angeles and initially thought it was a prank.
  • The controversial move has been condemned by Democrats, many of whom said the sacking was “Nixonian” and some high profile Republicans including Trump supporters.
  • Justin Amash, a Republican congressman from Michigan said he was reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia in the wake of the news.
  • Richard Burr, a Republican leading the Senate intelligence committee investigation into Russia’s influence over the 2016 presidential election, said he was “troubled by the timing and reasoning” of the decision.
  • Chuck Schumer, Democratic minority leader in the Senate, said he told Trump he was “making a very big mistake.”
  • Meanwhile, a CNN report claims that a grand jury has been convened and has started issuing subpoenas relating to the FBI’s Russia probe. The development, if confirmed suggests the investigation has entered a new phase.
  • The decision to fire Comey has caused the dollar to slip on foreign exchange markets overnight. The dollar index, which investors use to track the greenback against six other currencies, dropped 0.2%.
  • Trump himself has only commented once since the story broke, using his personal and presidential Twitter accounts to attack Chuck Schumer’s stance on Comey.
  • The president is due to meet Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday.
  • It is not known who will replace Comey. Deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe has been made acting director until a new bureau head is selected. Rudy Guiliani, spotted at Trump’s hotel in DC on Tuesday night, has said he is not in the running.

Updated

The Associated Press has written about what happens now to the FBI’s probe into links between Trump’s 2016 election campaign and Moscow.

President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey throws a cloud of doubt over the bureau’s investigation into allegations of Trump campaign ties to Russia.

The FBI and three congressional committees have been investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible Trump connections. As head of the FBI, Comey had been leading the complex counterintelligence investigation that has dogged the Trump White House since Inauguration Day.

The White House said Tuesday its search for a new FBI director had already begun. And the person Trump appoints will likely have a huge impact on how the investigation moves forward and whether the public will accept its outcome. But given concerns by members of Congress in both parties over Comey’s dismissal, it’s unlikely a permanent director will be in place soon.

A new director chosen by Trump could decide to drop the FBI investigation altogether, or not pursue it as aggressively as Comey has. He or she could also decide not to fully cooperate with the congressional investigations, which rely on information from the FBI.

Timothy Flanigan, a former assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush administration, said, “It does seem to me, however, that, if investigations are underway, they will likely continue.” He said acting FBI directors have limited abilities to derail an ongoing investigation.

NBC has a profile of Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, who has been promoted to acting director in the wake of Comey’s dismissal. The piece describes McCabe as a “respected and a fast-rising member of the bureau” with a background in counter-terrorism.

Updated

In a comment piece for the Guardian, Lawrence Douglas writes that Trump is doing the work of the Russians for them.

The Russians need no longer expend their energies trying to subvert the integrity of our political system. Now they have our president to do that job.

You can read the full piece here:

The American Council for Civil Liberties has put out a statement on Comey’s sacking. Executive director Anthony Romero says:

The independence of the FBI director is meant to ensure that the president does not operate above the law. For President Trump to fire the man responsible for investigating his own campaign’s ties to the Russians imperils that fundamental principle. Regardless of how one judges the performance of James Comey in either the Hillary Clinton or Russia investigations, President Trump’s dismissal of a sitting FBI director raises serious alarm bells for our system of checks and balances. The terms of FBI directors were purposefully structured to span across sitting presidents to ensure the FBI’s independence and insulate the bureau from partisan politics. President Trump’s dismissal of Comey raises questions about the administration’s inappropriate meddling in bureau operations — precisely at a time when the bureau appears to be investigating the president, his advisors, and his campaign for potential collusion with Russian agents in our last election.”

Comey was due to testify before the senate intelligence committee on Thursday. It is unclear if that is still taking place at this stage.

Jon Cassidy in the New Yorker is not pulling any punches:

At a time like this, it is important to express things plainly. On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump acted like a despot. Without warning or provocation, he summarily fired the independent-minded director of the F.B.I., James Comey. Comey had been overseeing an investigation into whether there was any collusion between Trump’s Presidential campaign and the government of Russia. With Comey out of the way, Trump can now pick his own man (or woman) to run the Bureau, and this person will have the authority to close down that investigation. That is what has happened. It amounts to a premeditated and terrifying attack on the American system of government. Quite possibly, it will usher in a constitutional crisis. Even if it doesn’t, it represents the most unnerving turn yet in what is a uniquely unnerving Presidency.

What we know so far

  • FBI director James Comey has been fired by Donald Trump, who said in a letter that he was being “terminated and removed” because he was “not able to effectively lead the bureau”.
  • The sacking came after attorney general Jeff Sessions and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein recommended to Trump that he be removed over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
  • However, critics believe the dismissal is more closely linked to Comey’s role in investigating Trump’s allies over alleged links to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
  • Comey reportedly found out he had been fired while speaking to FBI employees in Los Angeles and initially thought it was a prank.
  • The controversial move has been condemned by Democrats, many of whom said the sacking was “Nixonian” and some high profile Republicans including Trump supporters.
  • Justin Amash, a Republican congressman from Michigan said he was reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia in the wake of the news.
  • Richard Burr, a Republican leading the Senate intelligence committee investigation into Russia’s influence over the 2016 presidential election, said he was “troubled by the timing and reasoning” of the decision.
  • Chuck Schumer, Democratic minority leader in the Senate, said he told Trump he was “making a very big mistake.”
  • Meanwhile, a CNN report claims that a grand jury has been convened and has started issuing subpoenas relating to the FBI’s Russia probe. The development, if confirmed suggests the investigation has entered a new phase.
  • The decision to fire Comey has caused the dollar to slip on foreign exchange markets overnight. The dollar index, which investors use to track the greenback against six other currencies, dropped 0.2%.
  • Trump himself has only commented once since the story broke, using his personal and presidential Twitter accounts to attack Chuck Schumer’s stance on Comey.
  • The president is due to meet Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday.
  • It is not known who will replace Comey. Deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe has been made acting director until a new bureau head is selected. Rudy Guiliani, spotted at Trump’s hotel in DC on Tuesday night, has said he is not in the running.

Another Republican breaks with Trump ...

This story by Politico claims Trump acted because he was angry over the Russia investigation and Comey’s role in it.

He had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by his inability to control the mushrooming narrative around Russia. He repeatedly asked aides why the Russia investigation wouldn’t disappear and demanded they speak out for him. He would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe, one adviser said.

It goes on:

White House officials believed it would be a “win-win” because Republicans and Democrats alike have problems with the FBI director, one person briefed on their deliberations said.

Dollar slips

Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI director James Comey has caused the dollar to slip on foreign exchange markets overnight. The dollar index, which investors use to track the greenback against six other currencies, slipped 0.2%.

That sent the yen higher which doused a spate of buying in Tokyo shares and left other Asia Pacific markets fairly flat.

The Dow Jones industrial average on Wall Street is expected to fall around 0.25% when it opens later today, according to the futures market.

Bart Wakabayashi, branch manager for State Street Bank and Trust in Tokyo, said: “The Comey news is being treated as a risk-off event, and the headlines were sparking the dollar’s move down.

“The ‘Trump trade’ lifted the dollar after the election, but now we have to see if he can deliver on all of his promises.”

Eric Holder, who served as attorney general during the Obama administration, has this to say:

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting take on why Comey was fired: Trump thought he was getting too much attention from TV networks.

In the months before his decision to dismiss Mr. Comey as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Trump grew unhappy that the media spotlight kept shining on the director. He viewed Mr. Comey as eager to step in front of TV cameras and questioned whether his expanding media profile was warping his view of the Russia investigation, the officials said. One White House aide, speaking after Mr. Comey’s dismissal, described him as a show horse.

Agence France-Presse has some details on the Trump/Lavrov meeting timed to take place tomorrow:

President Donald Trump will host Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov for talks at the White House on Wednesday, his highest-level encounter with a Russian official since taking office.

The two men will meet in the Oval Office at 10:30 am (1430 GMT), according to the White House.

The Russian foreign minister, making his first trip to Washington in four years, will also meet his counterpart Rex Tillerson.

Washington correspondent David Smith has written about how White House press staff have performed during the furore over Comey’s sacking.

The administration deployed Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders to sell the message that his dismissal was definitely, absolutely, totally not about Russia.

The controversy over Comey’s firing has reached Australia, where former ambassador to the US Kim Beazley said he believes Trump sacked Comey to shut down the investigation into his campaign’s links with Russia.

Beazley, who served as ambassador from 2010 to 2016, told a group in Brisbane he was not surprised by the move:

Certainly the inquiry the FBI is currently conducting into the relationship of Trump’s campaign team, maybe Trump himself, and the Russians is such that it may have reached the point where somebody would want to be able to appoint an FBI director to suppress the investigation.”

David Smith has produced some handy annotations to the three letters that spelled the end of James Comey’s tenure at the FBI:

Trump has also sent his “Cryin Chuck Schumer” tweet out from the official president’s account.

The Washington Post give the story the full six columns on its front page, as the New York Times did.

Trump takes aim at Schumer

The president has tweeted for the first time since news of Comey’s dismissal broke.

Updated

In explaining why President Trump fired Comey, the White House has leaned heavily on a Justice Department memo outlining criticism of Comey from a bipartisan set of former Justice Department officials.

But one of the critics quoted in the memo – a former deputy attorney general under Republican President George H.W. Bush – has called the justification for Comey’s firing a “sham,” and said his legitimate criticisms of Comey had little to do with the real reason the FBI director was fired.

“I view the firing based it seems entirely on Comey’s mishandling of the Clinton investigation by making various inappropriate public statements as a sham,” former deputy attorney general Donald Ayer told Buzzfeed News tonight in an e-mail. “At the time, Mr. Trump was supportive of the most incorrect things that Comey did – editorializing about the facts of the then ended investigation and later announcing that the investigation had been reopened.”

Rod Rosenstein, Trump’s deputy attorney general, authored the 9 May memo outlining why Comey’s approach to the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails had damaged the credibility of the FBI and the Justice Department. The White House released the memo on Tuesday along with the president’s letter firing the FBI director.

Rosenstein “should realize that his correct assessment of those mistakes is now being used to justify [Comey’s] firing for a very different reason,” Ayers told Buzzfeed.
What that reasons is, Ayer declined to say. He confirmed the accuracy of his previous quotes to The Guardian, but declined to comment on what he believed the real reasons for Comey’s firing might be.

He told The Guardian that he could not comment further because he was in Nepal and about to embark on a trek that would leave him without internet for the rest of the week.

What we know so far

  • FBI director James Comey has been fired by Donald Trump, who said in a letter that Comey was being “terminated and removed” because he was “not able to effectively lead the bureau.
  • The sacking came after attorney general Jeff Sessions and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein recommended to Trump that he be removed over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, but critics believe the dismissal is more closely linked to Comey’s role in investigating Trump’s allies over alleged links to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
  • Comey found out he had been fired while speaking to FBI employees in Los Angeles. He reportedly thought it was a prank.
  • The controversial move has been condemned by Democrats, many of whom said the sacking was “Nixonian” and some high profile Republicans including Trump supporters.
  • Justin Amash, a Republican congressman from Michigan said he was reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia in the wake of the news.
  • Richard Burr, a Republican leading the Senate intelligence committee investigation into Russia’s influence over the 2016 presidential election, said he was “troubled by the timing and reasoning” of the decision.
  • Chuck Schumer, Democratic minority leader in the Senate, said he told Trump he was “making a very big mistake.”
  • Meanwhile, a CNN report claims that a grand jury has been convened and has started issuing subpoenas relating to the FBI’s Russia probe. The development, if confirmed suggests the investigation has entered a new phase.
  • Trump has yet to comment on the sacking. He is due to meet Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov at the White House on Wednesday.

Updated

Republican senator for Nebraska, Ben Sasse, has put out a statement, saying the timing of Comey’s firing is troubling.

Regardless of how you think Director Comey handled the unprecedented complexities of the 2016 election cycle, the timing of this firing is very troubling. Jim Comey is an honorable public servant, and in the midst of a crisis of public trust that goes well beyond who you voted for in the presidential election, the loss of an honorable public servant is a loss for the nation. As the chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee, I have reached out to the Deputy Attorney General for clarity on his rationale for recommending this action.”

If confirmed, the news that a grand jury has been convened and has started issuing subpoenas suggests that the investigation into the Trump camp’s links with Moscow has entered a new phase.

Under US law, grand juries (which are larger than normal 12-person court juries) have sweeping powers to compel witnesses to appear, to call for the presentation of documents and to issue indictments.

While the Republican majorities in the House and Senate could hold back congressional investigations and a new FBI director to kill off its counter-intelligence investigation, a grand jury is not under Trump’s control. He may not be able to stop the Russian collusion affair from going to court.

Marco Rubio “didn’t see it coming”.

Preet Bharara, the US attorney fired by Trump after refusing to step down, has spoken out:

Updated

Our world affairs editor Julian Borger has written an analysis of Comey’s termination, saying the move has taken US democracy “into dark and dangerous new territory”.

Here is his full take:

To borrow a joke from Twitter, you know things are bad when you get trolled by Nixon’s ghost ...

Meanwhile, Comey has his first job offer!

A bit of background on the relationship between the FBI and the White House in the weeks leading up to the firing of James Comey.

Here is more from CNN’s story on the subpoenas:

The subpoenas issued in recent weeks by the US Attorney’s Office in Alexandria, Virginia, were received by associates who worked with Flynn on contracts after he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, according to the people familiar with the investigation.

FBI's Russia investigation moves up a gear

Meanwhile, it seems the Russia investigation is not going away. This appears to be the first sign of a significant escalation of activity in the inquiry.

White House deputy press sec: 'Time to move' on from Russian investigation

Another example of Trump’s former admiration for Comey. In January the president singled the FBI director out for praise at a White House reception for law enforcement, exclaiming: “he’s become more famous than me.”

NYT reporting that initially Comey thought the whole thing was a practical joke.

Speaking of Trump praising Comey, this is from October ...

Donald Trump praises FBI director for letter to Congress – video

As the interview continues, Conway brings up criticism of Comey by the Democrats:

“What happened to all the Democrats who had no confidence in Comey when it was politically expedient for them?” she asks.

When Cooper asks about Trump’s previous praise for Comey, Conway ducks the questio and responds that “as president of the US [Trump] needs confidence in the director of the FBI and he doesn’t have it.”

She goes on to quote from the Rosenstein letter and says: “this has nothing to do with the campaign six months ago ... it has everything to do with whether the current FBI director has the president’s confidence.”

Kellyanne Conway speaks to Anderson Cooper on CNN

Conway says Trump’s removal of Comey is solely about “restoring public confidence in the FBI”.

Cooper is talking about how this is actually destroying confidence in the Russia investigations.

Conway replies: “Today’s actions had zero to do with that.”

In scenes strangely reminiscent of the OJ Simpson chase, Fox News has sent a helicopter to film Comey’s car as it travels along an LA freeway.

Comey won't talk to press tonight

CNN has been musing on how exactly Comey will return to DC.

They say Comey flew out to meet FBI staff on a special, secure, plane which has a hotline to the president and other security features. Now he has been relieved of his position how will he get home?

“Does he come back on that plane, does he have to fly commercial. We don’t know,” says Evan Perez, justice correspondent.

Trump’s controversial move has found *some* support from Republicans.

Senator Susan Collins released a statement says suggestions that the firing of Comey was related to the FBI’s investigation of Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election were “misplaced”.

The President did not fire the entire FBI; he fired the director. I have every confidence that the FBI will continue to pursue its investigation. In addition, I am certain that the Senate Intelligence Committee, on which I serve, will continue its own bipartisan investigation and will follow the evidence wherever it leads. I hope that the next FBI Director will have the same kind of integrity, intelligence, and determination that Mr. Comey exhibited, but perhaps better judgment on when it is appropriate to comment publicly on the results of an investigation.”

Fox News is drawing attention to the fact that Bill Clinton also fired an FBI director.

Clinton did indeed sack Sessions in 1993 on the basis of an ethics investigation into his conduct carried out under George HW Bush into alleged abuse of office. However, Julian Borger explained in January that any move by Trump to dismiss Comey while the president’s associates were under investigation would be highly controversial and akin to Richard Nixon’s dismissal of special prosecutor Archibald Cox in 1973.

Seems this is not quite going according to the administration’s plan ...

Trump plans to meet Lavrov on Wednesday

Timing!

Andrew McCabe now in charge of FBI – reports

CNN says the deputy director is now acting director of the bureau while Jeff Sessions reviews potential candidates to take Comey’s place.

More Democrat senators are expressing disquiet over the sacking of Comey:

Keith Schiller hand delivered letter to FBI

The Guardian confirmed that Keith Schiller, Trump’s longtime bodyguard, hand delivered a copy of letter sacking Comey to the FBI.

Schiller, whose title in the administration is “Director of Oval Office Operations,” is the subject of ongoing litigation for allegedly assaulting protestors outside Trump Tower in 2015.

The loyal Trump aide has worked for the President since 1999 when he was first hired to be Trump’s bodyguard and constantly accompanied Trump on the campaign trial.

The dispatch of Schiller, a former New York City policeman, to formally notify Comey of his firing is one of the more unusual aspects of the drama. Comey, as we have noted below, was not in Washington to receive the letter and instead, reportedly learned of his dismissal from television news.

Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, make a great point about the Trump letter which “terminated” James Comey’s employment. In the letter Trump thanks Comey for apparently three times telling him he was not under investigation. (BTW: we don’t know whether that statement is actually true).

It is not normal. This is not how presidents behave. They don’t exonerate themselves in letters in which they fire the person who is investigating them. It is just not how American history has unfolded.”

More on how Comey learned he was out.

It is not just Democrats who are concerned over the administration’s treatment of Comey. Republican senator and Trump supporter Richard Burr has been tweeting his thoughts and says he was troubled by the “timing and reasoning” of the termination.

Here is a video of Chuck Schumer describing how he told Trump that he was making a “big mistake” firing Comey and that the president needs to answer a key question: “Why now?”.

In response, a White House aide has circulated a memo detailing times when Schumer criticised Comey.

Updated

GOP congressman and Freedom Caucus member Justin Amash has said wants an independent commission on Russia to be set up in the wake of Comey’s sacking.

Hello, Bonnie Malkin here picking up the blog from Sam for the coming hours.

The New York Times is reporting that Comey learned of his firing while he was addressing FBI employees in Los Angeles.

What led to Comey's downfall

Guardian reporters Sabrina Siddiqui and Ben Jacobs have an analysis on how Comey became tangled in the US election and what led to his downfall:

His decision to use a lengthy press conference to clear Clinton of any criminal activity on 6 July – even as he characterized her behavior as “extremely careless” – was met with scorn by Trump and Republicans running to thwart her White House ambitions.

That moment swiftly transformed Comey into Public Enemy No 1 on the right, which accused him of giving Clinton preferential treatment as the central plank of their campaign collapsed, after months of arguing that her email use had disqualified her from the presidency.

Here’s the full piece:

Updated

Chuck Schumer calls for special prosecutor

The Senate minority leader has weighed in:

He added, “If we don’t get a special prosecutor, every American will rightfully suspect that the decision to fire #Comey was part of a cover-up.”

Meanwhile Brian Schatz, US senator from Hawaii has offered an even stronger rebuke of Trump:

Comey is just the latest high-profile firing by the president whose trademark line on reality TV was, “You’re fired.”

On 30 January – amid nationwide uproar over Trump’s travel ban for seven Muslim-majority countries – Trump fired the acting US attorney general, Sally Yates.

Yates had written a letter to justice department attorneys advising them that she was not “convinced that the executive order is lawful.” She was fired within three hours, touching off the first round of comparisons between Trump’s young administration and Nixon’s Saturday night massacre.

Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, was fired by Trump on 10 March, after he refused to resign. Bharara had a national profile thanks to his prosecutions and investigations into Wall Street and New York politicians.

Trump has also aimed his fire closer to home. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that chief usher Angella Reid was fired. Reid was the first woman and second African American to hold the post, which involves overseeing the White House residential staff.

John McCain 'disappointed' in Comey firing

John McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona, is criticizing Trump’s decision to fire Comey and repeating his calls for a special congressional committee to investigate Russia ties:

While the President has the legal authority to remove the Director of the FBI, I am disappointed in the President’s decision to remove James Comey from office. James Comey is a man of honor and integrity, and he has led the FBI well in extraordinary circumstances. I have long called for a special congressional committee to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The president’s decision to remove the FBI Director only confirms the need and the urgency of such a committee.”

Democrat calls for emergency hearings in Congress

Congressman Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has called for “immediate emergency hearings” on Comey’s termination:

Congress needs to have immediate emergency hearings to obtain testimony directly from Attorney General Sessions, the deputy attorney general, and FBI Director Comey. The White House was already covering up for Michael Flynn by refusing to provide a single document to Congress, and now the President fired the one independent person who was doing the most to investigate President Trump and his campaign over allegations of coordination with Russia. It is mindboggling that the Attorney General – who claimed to have recused himself – was directly involved in the decision to fire Director Comey according to the White House itself. There is now a crisis of confidence at the Justice Department, and President Trump is not being held accountable because House Republicans refuse to work with us to do our job. Congress must restore credibility, accountability, and transparency to this investigation and finally pass legislation to create a truly independent commission.”

Deputy attorney general: Comey mishandled Clinton email investigation

Here are some excerpts from deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein’s memo on Comey’s firing, which goes into great detail about the FBI’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s emails:

  • “I cannot defend the Director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken.”
  • “The Director was wrong to usurp the Attorney General’s authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution.”
  • “The Director ignored another longstanding principle: we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation.

Comey has not yet released a statement on his firing. According to one CNN reporter, he is not in Washington DC but traveling in California.

He was reportedly scheduled to speak at a recruitment event in Los Angeles.

Here’s a quick overview of Comey’s legacy in the FBI and recent political controversies:

  • Comey’s FBI conducted investigations into both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during the 2016 election – though he only disclosed the investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia after his inauguration.
  • The FBI director’s controversial decision to release new details about the investigation into Clinton’s email server just days before the election prompted widespread outrage – and lingering suspicion that he swayed the final outcome.
  • Comey was appointed to the top FBI post by Barack Obama in 2013. He served in the George W Bush administration as a US attorney and deputy attorney general, before spending several years in the private sector.
  • Comey was the country’s top law enforcement during the period of turbulence over police killings of African Americans. He drew widespread condemnation for statements suggesting that violent crime was rising because law enforcement had been hampered by the so-called “Ferguson effect”.
  • Comey also waged a high-profile campaign against encryption, calling for tech companies to create “backdoors” to allow law enforcement access to user’s data.

Dems: 'This is Nixonian'

Several Democratic officials have compared Trump’s decision to fire Comey to Richard Nixon’s “Saturday night massacre” when the president removed the special Watergate prosecutor, Archibald Cox, leading to the the resignation of attorney general Elliot Richardson.

From Martin Heinrich, US senator from New Mexico:

Senator Bob Casey called the termination “Nixonian” in a statement and noted Comey’s earlier statements saying he was authorized by the justice department to confirm the FBI’s investigations into Russian interference with American elections:

This is Nixonian. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein must immediately appoint a special counsel to continue the Trump/Russia investigation. On March 20th Director Comey said, ‘I have been authorized by the Department of Justice to confirm that the FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.’

This investigation must be independent and thorough in order to uphold our nation’s system of justice.”

Here are some initial high-profile reactions to the termination of Comey, a polarizing figure whose decision to disclose an inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s emails just before the election last year sparked widespread debate.

From a former Clinton manager:

Edward Snowden, who has been targeted by the FBI, criticized the firing, saying: “every American should condemn such political interference in the Bureau’s work.”

From Clinton’s former vice presidential candidate:

Donald Trump: 'You are not able to effectively lead'

Reporters have obtained copies of Trump’s letter to Comey, which states that the FBI director is “not able to effectively lead”:

While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.

In March, Comey confirmed for the first time that the FBI was investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere with the results of the presidential election. Here’s the full letter.

And here is a copy of the released letter from attorney Jeff Sessions to Trump stating that he has concluded that a “fresh start is needed at the leadership of the FBI”, adding, “It is essential that this Department of Justice clearly reaffirm its commitment to longstanding principles that ensure the integrity and fairness of federal investigations and prosecutions.”

Donald Trump has fired James Comey, the director of the FBI, who has been at the center of numerous political controversies since the 2016 election. Tune in here for live updates and reactions to the unexpected termination.

Here’s the full statement released by the White House late Tuesday, which states that Trump’s decision was “based on the clear recommendations” of US attorney general Jeff Sessions and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.

Trump said:

The FBI is one of our Nation’s most cherished and respected institutions and today will mark a new beginning for our crown jewel of law enforcement.”

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