New FBI Director Could Be Named By Friday, Trump Says

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would move fast to name a new FBI director following the firing of James Comey, a move that rocked Washington and opened up the White House to a round of attacks from critics on the possible motivation behind the firing.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One before taking off to deliver the commencement address at Liberty University, Trump said the decision could even come before he leaves on his first foreign trip as president on Friday.

"Even that is possible," he said. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

There are nearly a dozen candidates being considered for the job, the Washington Post reports. Among the potential replacements, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, Judge Michael J. Garcia, on the New York Court of Appeals and Alice Fisher, a lawyer who served the criminal division of the Department of Justice during the Bush administration, are all scheduled to be interviewed by Trump and senior administration officials on Saturday, the New York Times reports.

Trump's pick will have to be confirmed by the Senate, and considering the backlash the firing of Comey has created, not only among Democrats but among some Republicans as well, the process will likely not be smooth.

In firing Comey, the White House said it did so on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Rosenstein wrote a memo saying he could not defend Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, when he publicly berated the former Secretary of State's use of a private email server even though the bureau recommended no charges against Clinton.

However, differing media narratives began to emerge in media reports and Trump himself later admitted to NBC News' Lester Holt that he was going to fire Comey regardless of the recommendation of the Department of Justice.

Related: Trump Lawyers: President Has No Russian Dealings, With Some Exceptions

The firing renewed calls for the need of an independent prosecutor to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, which Comey had confirmed during a Congressional testimony in March, included investigating possible collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russia. Since the firing, Trump has drawn considerably more attention to the Russia probe going to lengths to state there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, although the counter-intelligence investigation headed by the FBI is still underway.

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