President contradicts earlier Comey claims
PRESIDENT CONTRADICTS AIDES AS HE TRIES TO JUSTIFY DECISION TO FIRE FBI CHIEF TRUMP ON COMEY: ‘HE’S A SHOWBOAT … A GRANDSTANDER, THE FBI HAS BEEN IN TURMOIL.’ ACTING FBI CHIEF McCABE: ‘COMEY ENJOYED BROAD SUPPORT IN THE FBI AND STILL DOES’
President Donald Trump has attacked James Comey as a “showboat” and a “grandstander” in an interview seeking to justify his decision to fire his FBI director.
Trump also directly contradicted the narrative spun by his White House that he had fired Comey following an urgent recommendation from deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
“I was going to fire Comey — my decision,” he told NBC News. “I was going to fire regardless of (Rosenstein’s) recommendation. He made a recommendation. He’s highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy. The Democrats like him. The Republicans like him. He made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey.”
Later, Trump said of Comey, “He’s a showboat, he’s a grandstander, the FBI has been in turmoil. You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that.”
Trump’s comments came even as members the FBI rose to defend the reputation of their former boss, setting up the potential for what an informed source termed a “war” between the White House and the bureau.
Speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Andrew McCabe, the acting FBI director, declared it the “greatest privilege” of his career to have served with Comey.
The president’s letter firing Comey, and accompanying letters from the attorney general’s office, asserted that he was not capable of leading the bureau and the White House suggested that he had lost the confidence of its staff.
“That’s not accurate,” McCabe said. “I can tell you that Director Comey enjoyed broad support within the FBI, and still does to this day.”
McCabe’s testimony was supported by the heads of two associations representing current and retired FBI agents and other personnel.
“His support within the rank and file of the FBI is overwhelming,” said Thomas O’Connor, a working FBI special agent who is president of the FBI Agents Association.
One official told the Washington Post that Trump had “essentially declared war on a lot of people at the FBI,” and that “there will be a concerted effort to respond.”
In a statement made after he was fired Comey seemed to urge calm, writing to colleagues: “I’m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed. I hope you won’t either. It is done, and I will be fine, although I will miss you and the mission deeply.”
Trump is reported to have been growing increasingly frustrated with the FBI’s ongoing investigation into allegations of collusion between his associates and Russia.
McCabe, long involved in the Russia investigation, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the inquiry would continue despite Comey’s dismissal.
He also said he would refrain from giving the White House updates on it, and would tell Congress if there was any attempt to impede the probe.
He starkly disagreed with the White House characterization of the Russia investigation as “probably one of the smallest things” on the FBI’s plate.
“We consider it to be a highly significant investigation,” he said. “You cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing.”
Trump said Thursday that he had asked Comey directly if he was being investigated, noting that he spoke with Comey once over dinner and twice by phone. “I said, if it’s possible would you let me know, ‘Am I under investigation?’ He said, ‘You are not under investigation’.”
McCabe declined to confirm in his testimony whether he had ever heard Comey telling Trump that the president was not a target of the investigation.
In the immediate aftermath of the dismissal, marking only the second time an FBI director has been dismissed in the agency’s 109-year history, the White House said it had followed the recommendations of the justice department.