China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Trump fires FBI Director Comey
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Tuesday abruptly fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading his agency’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential campaign.
Trump said the move, which shocked Washington, resulted from Comey’s handling of an electionyear email scandal last year involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Democrats immediately accused Trump of acting out of political motives.
Comey had been embroiled in a controversy surrounding his handling of a probe of Clinton’s use of a private email sever while she was US secretary of state. As recently as Tuesday, the FBI clarified remarks that Comey made on the matter last week.
Trump, in a letter to Comey released by the White House, said: “It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.”
Trump told Comey in the letter he accepted the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he could no longer provide effective leadership. Comey’s term was to run through September 2023. Sessions advised Trump’s campaign before being picked by the president to lead the Justice Department.
Democrats denounced Trump’s move, which some compared to the “Saturday Night Massacre” of 1973, in which President Richard Nixon fired an independent special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal.
“Today’s action by President Trump completely obliterates any semblance of an independent investigation into Russian efforts to influence our election, and places our nation on the verge of a constitutional crisis,” said Representative John Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Conyers and other Democrats renewed their calls for an independent commission or a special prosecutor to investigate Russian influence in the 2016 election.
Trump had originally criticized the FBI director for not pursuing criminal charges against Clinton last July, but later lavished praise on him.
Comey had said in July that the
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