Trump interviews for FBI chief ‘chaotic’

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is still looking for a new Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director more than three weeks after he fired James Comey, and sources familiar with the recruiting process say it has been chaotic and that job interviews led by Trump have been brief.

Three close associates of three contenders for the job, all of whom have been interviewed by Trump, said the candidates were summoned to the White House for 10- to 20-minute conversations with Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and AttorneyGeneral Jeff Sessions.

Those conversations, which followed initial interviews at the Justice Department, had been light on questions about substantive issues facing the agency, the three associates said.

While the department had compiled a long list of candidates for the White House, there had been no “clear framework or logic for who was interviewed and why”, said one of the sources.

Another of the three sources described the process as chaotic and said that in one interview, Trump spoke mostly about himself and seemed distracted.

The White House declined to comment on the nature of the interview process.

Spokesman Sean Spicer said on Friday that Trump continued to meet candidates, but would not give a timeline for choosing a nominee.

On May 18, Trump said he was “very close” to sending a nomination for a new director of the FBI to the Senate.

At the time, former senator Joe Lieberman was a front-runner for the post.

He withdrew his name from consideration on May 25.

At least a dozen other people have been under consideration, according to a White House spokesman, but not all have been interviewed by Trump.

Republican Representative Trey Gowdy was under consideration, but he said on May 15 he was not interested. Reuters