Days before firing, Comey sought to accelerate Russia investigation
DAYS before he was fired as FBI director, James Comey asked the Justice Department for more prosecutors and other personnel to accelerate the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election.
It was the first clear-cut evidence that Comey believed the bureau needed more resources to handle a sprawling and highly politicised counterintelligence investigation.
His appeal, described on Wednesday by four congressional officials, was made to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney-general, whose memo was used to justify Comey’s abrupt dismissal on Tuesday.
It is not yet known what became of Comey’s request, or what role it played in his firing. But the future of the FBI’s investigation is now more uncertain than at any point since it began in late July, and any fallout from the dismissal is unlikely to be contained at the bureau.
Two separate congressional inquiries into Russian meddling are relying on evidence and intelligence being amassed by the FBI, and if the bureau’s probe falters, the congressional inquiries will be hobbled. Perhaps for this reason, Comey’s firing appears to have imbued the Senate Intelligence Committee with a renewed sense of urgency.
The committee on Wednesday issued its first subpoena in the Russia investigation, ordering Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, to hand over records of any emails, phone calls, meetings and financial dealings with Russians.
It was an aggressive new tack in what had been a slowly unfolding inquiry. A day earlier, the Senate panel began pressing a government bureau that tracks money laundering and terrorism financing for leads in the Russian investigation.
Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the Democratic vice chairman, also invited Comey to testify in a closed session – a setting that would allow Comey to discuss classified information and any meetings he held with superiors at the Justice Department or with Trump. Comey has not yet said whether he will attend.
The Senate’s rush to press forward with its investigation set up a potential showdown with the Trump administration over the future of the FBI investigation. While it appears unlikely that the Justice Department or White House would move to shutter the investigation outright, the president and other administration officials have called for it to end, sowing concerns at the FBI and among some in Congress that it could be starved of needed resources.
Still, the White House insists that Comey’s dismissal had nothing to do with the Russia investigations, and Sarah Isgur Flores, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said “the idea that he asked for more funding” for the Russia inquiry was “totally false”. She did not elaborate.
But Democrats were unconvinced, and Comey’s firing was quickly taken up as Exhibit A in the case for the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to take over the case.
“I’m told that as soon as Rosenstein arrived, there was a request for additional resources for the investigation, and that a few days afterward, he was sacked,” said Senator Richard Durbin. “I think the Comey operation was breathing down the neck of the Trump campaign and their operatives, and this was an effort to slow down the investigation.”
According to the congressional officials, the Senate Intelligence Committee learned of Comey’s request Monday when Burr and Warner asked the FBI director to meet them. They wanted him to accelerate the bureau’s investigation so they could press forward with theirs. Congressional investigators do not have the authority to collect intelligence that agencies like the FBI and the CIA possess.
Rosenstein is the most senior law enforcement official supervising the Russia investigation. Attorney-General Jeff Sessions recused himself because of his close ties to the Trump campaign and his undisclosed meetings with Russia’s ambas- sador to the United States.
To a president who puts a premium on loyalty, Comey represented a fiercely independent official who wielded enormous power. But if the White House was hoping Comey’s firing would provide some relief from the pressure of the Russia investigations, the Senate Intelligence Committee appeared eager to fill any temporary void.
Late last month, it asked a number of high-profile Trump campaign associates to hand over emails and other records of dealings with Russians, and the committee’s subpoena of Flynn on Wednesday made good on its threat to compel anyone who failed to voluntarily comply with its request.
Also on Wednesday, Burr and Warner asked the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for financial information on Trump and his associates that was relevant to the Russia investigation.
Both Warner and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon – the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee with jurisdiction over the Treasury Department and also a member of the Intelligence Committee – have said they will block the confirmation of Sigal Mandelker, Trump’s nominee to be the top Treasury official for terrorism and financial crimes, until the network delivers the information.
“I have stated repeatedly that we have to follow the money if we are going to get to the bottom of how Russia has attacked our democracy,” Wyden said Wednesday. “That means thoroughly review any information that relates to financial connections between Russia and President Trump and his associates, whether direct or laundered through hidden or illicit transactions.”