US President Donald Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey; White House chief press secretary Sean Spicer released a statement.
Trump’s decision, which came as a surprise, comes hours after Comey acknowledged his grave errors in his oath testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. It was the first time he spoke publicly about the slab that has pitched her career: the case of Hillary Clinton’s private post office .
Comey was conducting an investigation to determine if members of Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election which Trump always denied.
“The FBI is one of our nation’s most esteemed and respected institutions and today marks a fresh start for our crown jewel of law enforcement,” Trump said in an official statement. Sean Spicer has indicated that Trump “acted on the clear recommendations of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions,” and noted that “the search for a new FBI director will begin immediately.”
Schumer on Comey firing: “Were these investigations getting too close to home for the president? pic.twitter.com/lqLohw9pzw
— David Mack (@davidmackau) May 9, 2017
The president himself has sent a letter to Comey, broadcast by various US media, informing him of his dismissal “with immediate effect.” “Although I greatly appreciate you being informed on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation, I still agree with the Justice Department conclusion that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau,” Trump says. Missive, in an apparent reference to the FBI’s investigation into the ties between Russia and the current president’s electoral campaign.
“It is essential that we find a new FBI leader who restores public confidence in his vital law enforcement mission,” Trump added in the letter.
Democrats have reacted immediately, calling Trump’s decision “an attempt to obstruct Justice.” They say that the president has annihilated the head of the investigation between his campaign and the Russian government. Democratic Sen. Bob Casey has called the ruling “Nixonian,” referring to when, in 1973, then-President Richard Nixon dismissed the Special Prosecutor for the Watergate case.
CLINTON MAILS
The dismissal surprised and disturbed everyone as Trump had not stopped defending and praising Comey until it was learned that Comey had made a serious mistake while iinvestigating on the mails of Clinton. Democrat Clinton has repeatedly said that Comey’s decision to reopened the investigation to her private server cost her the election. But in her attempt to exculpate herself, Comey gave erroneous information: she explained further details about how the FBI found thousands of emails from Huma Abedin, Clinton’s right-hand man, on her husband Anthony Weiner’s computer.
However, as he himself admitted on the grounds that he was “wrong” those claims were incorrect, according to FBI sources and others close to the investigation cited Tuesday by US media. According to The New York Times , Clinton’s emails were sent to the computer of Abedin’s husband, who was represented by New York Anthony Weiner, through a backup system of the advisor’s mobile phone, according to officials with knowledge of the facts.
Some of those e-mails, though far less than the “hundreds and thousands” as Comey claimed in his recent testimony in Congress, may have been sent for print, the same sources said.
The Controversy
With the fall of Comey, who was elected by Barack Obama and whose term was till 2023, Trump seeks to settle scandal over his crooked statement about facts that in the midst of the election campaign caused immense electoral damage to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
Beyond his “mistake,” Comey last week defended his investigation of Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and said he would “make the same decision” if he is again in that situation, despite the impact on the election.
“This was terrible, it makes me feel nauseous to think that we could have had some impact on the election, but I would make the same decision,” Comey said in a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The FBI director thus defended the decision he made on Oct. 28, eleven days before the election, to notify Congress of new research related to Clinton’s use of private mail servers for official communications when he was secretary of State (2009-2013).
