The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director James Comey has been fired, according to the White House.
“Today, President Donald J. Trump informed FBI Director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office,” the White House statement reads.
“President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney GeneraL Jeff Sessions,” the statement continues.
Comey’s termination was read to him over the phone while he was traveling for the bureau in Los Angeles, two FBI sources said. He was there for a field office inspection and a recruitment event this evening that’s part of the FBI’s efforts to boost diversity. A separate FBI official said that Comey first learned of his firing by seeing news reports on TV. The official said Comey was “surprised, really surprised” and was “caught flat-footed.”
FBI agents and staff are stunned by the news, FBI sources said. Inside the FBI, there are discussions about whether Comey will be able to address the bureau he led one final time, but it is not clear that will happen.
Comey was spotted boarding a private jet at Los Angeles International Airport this evening.
In addition to a statement, the White House released the letter that Trump wrote directly to Comey dismissing him at the recommendation of the attorney general and the deputy attorney general, ‘effective immediately’.
“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau,” Trump writes.rew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
While testifying in front of the House Committee on Intelligence on March 20, 2017, Comey took the rare step of confirming the FBI was investigating Russian interference in the US election and “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.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ letter to the president was also released, wherein he states that he has “concluded that a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the FBI.”
“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. The Director of the FBI must be someone who follows faithfully the rules and principles of the Department of Justice and who sets the right example for our law enforcement officials and others in the Department,” Sessions writes.
The letter from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein credits Comey with being “an articulate and persuasive public speaker about leadership” but goes on to note that he “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.”
“Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes; it is one the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives,” Rosenstein writes.
Rosenstein says in the letter that it was wrong of Comey to say that the investigation into Clinton’s private email server should be closed and that no charges should be issued.
The letter goes on to allege that Comey was wrong to later “hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation.”
Typically when the FBI decides not to bring charges against someone, it normally does not discuss its decision-making. When Comey held a July 5 news conference explaining why Clinton would not be facing charges but at the same time criticizing her email practices, he cited “intense public interest” as the reason for the exception.
Trump praised Comey in late October, 2016, saying “it took guts” for Comey to announce that the FBI would be reviewing emails in the previously closed investigation into Clinton’s private email server.
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