FBI chief sacked after requesting more resources for Russia probe
● ‘You’ll thank me’ says Trump after sacking Comey without warning
FBI director James Comey asked for more resources to pursue the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in last year’s US presidential election just days before he was sacked by Donald Trump, officials said last night.
The officials said Mr Comey met last week with rod rosen stein, the deputy attorney general, to make the request.
The revelations raise new questions about what prompted President Trump’s decision to fire Mr Comey.
The White House has cited a memo from Mr Rosenstein, in which he criticises Mr Comey’s handling of last year’s investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s e-mail practices.
Mr Rosenstein’s memo makes no mention of the FBI’S Russia investigation, which is probing both Russia’s hacking of Democratic groups last year and whether Trump campaign associates had ties to Moscow’s election interference.
President Trump defended his decision yesterday, saying in a flurry of tweets that both Democrats and Republicans “will be thanking me” for his action.
He did not mention any effect the dismissal might have on the FBI and congressional investigations into contacts between his 2016 election campaign and Russia.
“He wasn’t doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job,” President Trump said in brief remarks to reporters in the Oval Office.
The abrupt firing of Mr Comey threw into question the future of the FBI’S investigation and immediately raised suspicions of an underhanded effort to stymie a probe that has shadowed the administration from the outset.
The sacking came just hours before the president met Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
President Trump has ridi culed the investigations as “a hoax” and denied any campaign involvement with the Russians.
Democrats compared Mr Comey’s sacking to President Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre” during the Watergate investigation and renewed calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor.
Vice-president Mike Pence said President Trump had made “the right decision at the right time.”
The justice department said attorney general Jeff Sessions was interviewing candidates to serve as an interim replacement.
Mr Comey’s deputy, FBI veteran Andrew Mccabe, became acting director after the director was fired.
In his brief letter to Mr Comey, President Trump said the firing was necessary to restore “public trust and confidence” in the FBI. The administration paired the letter with a scathing review by Rosenstein, the recently confirmed deputy attorney general, of how Mr Comey handled the investigation into Clinton’s e-mail practices, including his decision to hold a news conference announcing its findings and releasing “derogatory information” about the former First Lady.
President Trump last night welcomed Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat to the White House for his highest level face-to-face contact with a Russian government official since he took office in January.
Foreign minister Lavrov entered through the West Executive entrance, out of range for reporters to ask questions. Also attending was Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the US, who is at the centre of many of the Trump administration’s early Russia-related woes.
The Russian foreign ministry tweeted a photo of Mr Trump and Mr Lavrov shaking hands in the Oval Office, and another of Mr Trump and Mr Kislyak. Mr Trump said his decision to abruptly fire Mr Comey the day before his meeting with Mr Lavrov did not affect the meeting “at all.” Earlier Mr Lavrov met Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.