Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
With FBI chief out, what’s next?
Administration cites errors as Dems call move ‘Nixonian’
President Donald Trump’s stunning firing of FBI Director James B. Comey (left) on Tuesday comes as the FBI investigates whether any of Trump’s associates colluded with efforts by Russian intelligence agencies to influence the 2016 election.
The decision drew calls from senior Democrats for an independent prosecutor to oversee the criminal inquiry. Republicans insisted both the FBI and congressional investigations of Russia’s actions would continue without White House interference. Several stressed the need for Trump to appoint an independent figure to head the FBI.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, stunning Washington with a decision that he said was needed to allow a “new beginning” at the FBI.
The firing came as the FBI investigates whether any of Trump’s associates colluded with efforts by Russian intelligence agencies to influence the 2016 election, and it drew immediate calls from senior Democrats for an independent prosecutor to oversee the criminal probe.
Republicans insisted that both the FBI and congressional investigations of Russia’s actions would continue without White House interference. Several emphasized the need for Trump to appoint an independent figure to head the FBI.
“His removal at this particular time will raise questions,” Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said.
For the past 10 months, Comey has come under criticism from figures in both parties for his handling of two investigations connected to the election — the counterintelligence investigation of Russia’s role, as well as the probe into Hillary Clinton’s email practices while she was secretary of state.
Despite their criticism, Democrats said nothing Comey did last year justified Trump’s firing him now.
In statements, leading Democratic lawmakers warned the dismissal could lead to a White House effort to shut down the FBI investigation into potential collusion.
“No one should accept President Trump’s absurd justification” for the firing, declared Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., former head of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“The president has removed the sitting FBI director in the midst of one of the most critical national security investigations in the history of our country — one that implicates senior officials in the Trump campaign and administration. This is nothing less than Nixonian,” Leahy said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he told Trump, who called to notify him before making the firing public, that “you’re making a very big mistake.”
Although the FBI director serves a fixed term, which is supposed to insulate him from political pressure, previous presidents of both parties have taken the position that as an officer of the executive branch, the director can be fired by the president.
Trump said he had acted on the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a career prosecutor who is overseeing the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions has stepped aside from any role in it.
In a memorandum to Sessions, which was released by the White House, Rosenstein criticized Comey for his actions last July, when Comey held a news conference to announce that the FBI would not seek charges against Clinton in the email investigation but also denounced her conduct.
That was a serious misjudgment, Rosenstein said, adding, “The goal of a federal criminal investigation is not to announce our thoughts at a press conference.”
Rosenstein said Comey made the problems worse with his decision in late October — in the run-up to the election — to disclose that the FBI had reopened its investigation of Clinton after finding State Department emails on a computer belonging to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton’s aide, Huma Abedin. After a week, the FBI determined that those emails added no significant new evidence to the case.
Clinton has blamed the Comey letter for contributing to her defeat, although polling evidence is unclear.
Trump praised Comey’s announcement at the time.
Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that the criticism he had received had been “painful.”
“I’ve gotten all kinds of rocks thrown at me and this has been really hard, but I think I’ve done the right thing at each turn,” he testified. He added that he welcomed an FBI inspector general’s review of his conduct, which was announced in January.
But Comey argued that he had no choice but to disclose the renewed investigation just before an election, and not “conceal” it.
Rosenstein disagreed. Prosecutors should never disclose non-public information about investigations, he wrote. “Silence is not concealment.”
Given Comey’s errors and his refusal to admit that they were mistakes, “the FBI is unlikely to regain public and congressional trust until it has a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them,” Rosenstein wrote.
Sessions, in a letter to Trump, said that he was recommending Comey’s dismissal “for the reasons expressed by the Deputy Attorney General” and in order for the department to “clearly reaffirm its commitment to long-standing principles” of proper conduct by investigators.
Trump, in a letter to Comey informing him of his dismissal, said he had accepted the recommendation.
He added that he “greatly appreciate(d) you informing me on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.”
A search for a new permanent FBI director will begin immediately, the statement said.
Democrats will scrutinize any Trump pick in part because of the president’s and his administration’s comments about the judiciary and investigatory agencies.