FBI Director James Comey Fired; Memos Cite Clinton Email Probe

WASHINGTON, DC — James Comey, the FBI director who ignited fury on both sides of the political spectrum with concurrent investigations into both Hillary Clinton and the Donald Trump campaign while fiercely striving to maintain his independence, was fired Tuesday by President Trump.

"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," Trump said in a statement. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Last week, Comey revealed that he was under investigation for his handling of the Clinton email investigation. But Comey's termination is sure to draw heightened scrutiny because of the FBI's investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian spies whom officials believe hacked into the files of Democratic Party officials during the 2016 campaign.

Comey is the third high-ranking law enforcement official to be fired by Trump. Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara were both terminated earlier in the year, and both were also reported to be investigating Trump officials at the time.

The termination prompted an immediate outcry for an independent investigation into Trump's ties to Russia. Even Republican senators Bob Corker of Tennessee, Richard Burr of North Carolina, as well as both Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona voiced concern over the Trump administration's decision.

"I've spent the last several hours trying to find an acceptable rationale for the timing of Comey's firing," Flake said. "I just can't do it."

The White House press statement says that Trump acted on the recommendations of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The administration is already looking for a replacement director for the bureau.

Sessions recused himself from involvement in investigations of Russian ties to the Trump campaign because of his personal connections to the campaign and because it was revealed that, contrary to his confirmation hearing testimony, he had met with the Russian ambassador during the campaign.

"FBI director must be a career professional," tweeted Richard Painter, law professor and former chief of White House ethics under President George W. Bush. "An independent prosecutor is needed for Trump-Russia now."

Copies of Trump's termination letter to Comey were circulated shortly after the news broke.

"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 wrote. "It is essential that we find new leadership for the F.B.I. that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission."

Rep. Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, said this quote was "bizarre." He announced that his staff will prepare "legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia."

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee, released a statement in response to the termination: "Comey should be immediately called to testify in an open hearing about the status of Russia/Trump investigation at the time he was fired."

He continued: "There can be no question that a fully independent special counsel must be appointed to lead this investigation. At this point, no one in Trump’s chain of command can be trusted to carry out an impartial investigation. The president would do well to remember that in America, the truth always comes out."

Comey was already scheduled to testify before the Senate on Thursday of this week.

In a memo to Trump about the prospect of the termination, Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, wrote, "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. Almost everyone agrees that the Director made serious mistakes; it is one of the few issues that unites people of diverse perspectives."

While investigating Clinton's use of a private email server, Comey publicly spoke about her "extremely careless" handling of classified information, then announced that the investigation was being reopened just days before the election. Many say that decision influenced the result.

Rosenstein cites not only Comey's decision to announce an end to the Clinton email investigation, which is an unorthodox move for an FBI director, but also his choice to criticize Clinton publicly in the statement. Many of Clinton's allies and supporters were unhappy with Comey's actions.

"The Director announced his own conclusions about the nation's most sensitive criminal investigation, without the authorization of the duly appointed Justice Department leaders," he wrote.

Comey's role in the investigation into Clinton's emails took greater significance after then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch ignited a firestorm by having a private conversation with President Bill Clinton. However, Rosenstein says Comey's course of action was not the appropriate way to handle this situation.

Rosenstein goes on to say Comey's "derogatory" statements about Clinton were a "textbook example of what federal prosecutors and agents are taught not to do."

Sessions agreed with Rosentein's reasoning. "Based on my evaluation, and for the reasons expressed by the Deputy Attorney General in the attached memorandum, I have concluded that a fresh start is needed at the leadership of the FBI," he wrote.

Comey revealed last week that he is currently under investigation for his behavior during the email investigation, a probe which he said he welcomes. He said he'd like his story told, because much of it is classified, but he also noted that he'd like to know if he did anything wrong. He added: "I think I've done the right thing at each turn."

A former senior DOJ official who worked closely with Comey told Patch the firing was "plainly an attempt to disrupt the investigation into Trump's ties with Russia."

"The stated reason does not pass the smell test," the official added. "The fact is, Jim Comey and an independent investigation of Trump's ties to Russia are the single biggest threat to this presidency — and today Trump moved to limit that threat."

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and member of the House Oversight Committee, released a statement Tuesday night in response to the firing.

“Congress needs to have immediate emergency hearings to obtain testimony directly from Attorney General Sessions, the deputy attorney general, and FBI Director Comey," he said. "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.”

Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called Comey's termination "inevitable."

"Any suggestion that today's announcement is somehow an effort to stop the FBI's investigation of Russia's attempt to influence the election las fall is misplaced," she said in a statement. "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."

Despite the Collins' view that the firing was inevitable, however, many noted that Trump repeatedly expressed faith in Comey, and even offered him an embrace after the inauguration:

In recent days, though, the president's attitude toward the director — whom Trump both praised and condemned at various points during the 2016 campaign — appeared to be shifting.

"FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!" he said in a tweet last week.

But when asked about the president's confidence in Comey earlier Tuesday, the press secretary gave no indication that Trump had any doubts in the FBI director.

“I have no reason to believe, I haven’t asked him so I don’t, I haven’t asked the president since the last time we spoke,” Spicer said. Asked to clarify, Spicer said that in light of the information regarding the testimony, he did not want to speak on behalf of the president without speaking to him first.

Comey's termination was reported just after the FBI released a letter casting doubt on some of the director's recent statement. Comey appears to have erred in his testimony last Wednesday when he told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Huma Abedin, a former aide to Clinton, regularly forwarded emails, numbering in the hundreds or thousands, to her now-estranged husband Anthony Weiner, some of which contained classified information. ProPublica first reported the errors. In a letter sent to the committee chairman Tuesday, the FBI wrote that the emails Comey mentioned were mostly recorded as the result of backups of personal devices, not email forwards.

"It is reasonable to conclude that most of the emails found on Mr. Weiner's laptop computer related to the Clinton investigation occurred as a result of a backup of personal electronic devices, with a small number a result of manual forwarding by Mr. Abedin to Mr. Weiner," reveals the letter, signed by Assistant Director of the Office of Congressional Affairs Gregory Brower.

Only two email chains forwarded to Weiner contained classified information, though the letter does not specify whether the material was marked "classified" at the time it was sent. There were another 10 email chains with classified information on the computer that the FBI believes were the result of an electronic device being backed up. However, all of these email chains had already been reviewed and evaluated by the FBI prior to their discovery on the laptop.

During his testimony, Comey had said that while the investigators came to the conclusion after reviewing the laptop's contents that there were no grounds for prosecution of either Abedin or Clinton, they had found "a lot of new stuff." The new letter from the FBI appears to contradict that statement.

"His then-spouse Huma Abedin appears to have a regular practice of forwarding emails to him," Comey told the committee. "My understanding was his role was to print them out as a matter of convenience."

According to the letter, while Abedin did forward emails to others frequently for printing, the investigation only found that she did so with Weiner a few times.

Comey's remarks were widely taken as a defense of his choice to send a letter to Congress at the end of October 2016 announcing that the FBI was reopening the investigation into Clinton's emails, a scandal that had dominated much of the coverage of her candidacy for president. Clinton recently claimed that had the vote been held the day before Comey's letter, which instantly was leaked, became public, she would have won the election.

Poll analyst Nate Silver recently wrote an article supporting Clinton's position, with the headline: "The Comey Letter Probably Cost Clinton The Election."

But Comey insisted before the Senate that he had acted rightly in sending the letter, though regretted the possibility that it could have had an impact on the election. Part of his defense of the choice included his comments about the extent of the trove of Abedin emails discovered.

Feroze Dhanoa and Colin Miner contributed to this report.

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