Trump may have fired FBI chief Comey because of Russia probe

FLYNN SUBPOENAED Congressional panel asks for documents from former NSA relevant to his contact with Russia

As a US congressional panel served a subpoena requesting papers from former national security advisor Michael Flynn, accounts surfacing of James Comey’s firing indicated growing anger and frustration in the White House with the continuing investigation into President Donald Trump campaign aides’ contacts with Russians.

The subpoena was issued on Wednesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting one of three independent investigations into allegations of Russian meddling in 2016 elections, after Flynn refused to cooperate and hand over the papers requested by the panel in April.

“The subpoena requests documents relevant to the Committee’s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election,” the panel’s chairman Richard Burr and ranking member Mark Warner said adding,“Flynn … declined, through counsel, to cooperate”.

This was the first subpoena issued by the panel. Flynn was fired by Trump in February after it emerged he had lied about his interactions with Russian envoy Sergey Kislyak in December, the day former President Barack Obama announced sanctions against Russia for its alleged meddling in US polls.

The other two investigations, underway separately and independently, were being conducted by the House of Representatives’ intelligence committee and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The latter was the reason behind Trump’s stunning firing of FBI chief James Comey on Tuesday, US media reports said.

The president had been frustrated about the ongoing investigations that have dogged his young presidency right from the beginning. In fact, Comey revealed in a Congressional hearing recently, the FBI launched the investigation last July when evidence first surfaced of hacking of the Democratic party’s computer network by Russians.

That further irked Trump, who was already frustrated by the FBI director’s refusal to, one, back his claims that Obama had ordered a wiretap on his Trump Tower offices and, two, that he was not paying as much attention to leaks about the investigations that had kept the issue on the front burner.

The president is reported to have made up his mind last weekend, the last straw being Comey’s latest testimony that he felt “mildly nauseous” that he might have caused Hillary Clinton’s defeat by his remarks close to polling day.

The White House has officially blamed Comey’s handling of the Clinton investigations for his firing. At the briefing on Wednesday, spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders described his moves “atrocities” and said the president had been wanting to let him go since his election, but finally made up his mind on Monday.

The justice department, to which the FBI reports, was asked to send recommendations, which were cited in a memo explaining the firing the next day.