Trump and the FBI
President closes standard distance between the White House and FBI
Precedent was broken in contacts with Comey
The events surrounding the FBI director’s dismissal highlights why keeping a distance has long been the tradition between presidents and their leading investigator.
When President WASHINGTON Obama chose James Comey as the new director of the FBI four years ago, he made it clear their final interview together probably would be their last personal, oneon-one meeting.
The exchange, according to a person familiar with the encounter, reflected Obama’s understanding of the necessary distance that has traditionally shaped the relationship between the White House and an independent FBI — before Donald Trump.
Comey was settling in for what was supposed to be a 10-year term — a lengthy term designed to guard FBI directors’ political independence — and Obama did not want to give even the appearance of influencing the non-political law enforcement agency’s investigations.
The account of Obama’s meeting with Comey now stands in stark contrast to Trump’s unusual interactions with the FBI director he abruptly fired last week.
Though Trump says Comey sought a dinner at the White House to appeal to keep his job as FBI chief, it was the president who surprised Comey with the invitation Jan. 27 and expected him to show up the same day, said the person who is familiar with Comey’s version of the events but is not authorized to speak publicly. Comey, while uncomfortable with the arrangement, accepted the president’s invitation as a courtesy, the person said.
The person said that under no circumstances, however, did Comey assure the president he was not a target of the FBI investigation into possible collusion between the campaign and Russian government officials. That would have amounted to a serious break in precedent guiding communications between the White House and FBI, especially involving a president whose campaign was at the center of an active investigation.
Trump’s actions call into question his regard for an independent FBI — and may be a sign of how he intends to select a new leader of the federal government’s premier law enforcement agency.
White House aides have defended the president’s solicitation of the then-FBI director at the dinner and in at least two subsequent telephone calls. Trump sought Comey’s assurance that he was not a target of the Russia investigation, spokesman Sean Spicer has said, because he wanted to fight back against the false “narrative” of the Russia story.
Democratic lawmakers, including California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is also investigating the Russian hacks of political organizations during the presidential election, have seized on Trump’s accounts of contacts — saying they smack of attempts to obstruct. Trump’s own hints last week that he might have secretly recorded his meetings with Comey only fueled the controversy.
At the very least, the outcry highlights why keeping a distance has been the long-held tradition between presidents and their leading investigator.
Former FBI director William Webster said Monday that Trump’s acknowledged communications with Comey represent a “surprising ” departure from longestablished precedent. Outside of ceremonial events or deliberations on national security matters, such contacts are expected to be “rare” to avoid any appearance of conflict, Webster said.
“Unless something has changed that I’m not aware of, anytime the White House wanted to communicate something to the FBI, the (White House) contacts reported through the Department of Justice and the attorney general,” said Webster, whose nine-year tenure at the FBI spanned the Carter and Reagan administrations. “Going through the attorney general was the general approach.”
One of the few times he could recall direct contact with the president when he was FBI director, Webster said, involved a telephone call from then-president Carter, who had “jurisdictional” concerns about a developing issue on the U.S.-Canadian border.
Webster said even Carter seemed to acknowledge the rare occasion for such contact when he began the conversation by saying: “Now, Bill, I don’t ask for much.” Carter went on to request that additional FBI personnel be deployed to resolve the border matter, the former director said.
“It was nothing that involved him personally,” Webster said. “I told him that I would look into it. ... I remember (the contact) because it was so rare.”
Webster said Trump’s apparent break with traditional guidelines is especially noteworthy as the administration begins the search for a successor to Comey. Though Trump is seeking the counsel of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the selection is Trump’s to make.
That person will take over the counterintelligence investigation into possible links between Russia and Trump campaign associates — an idea the president has dismissed as a “hoax.”
Trump also sparked questions when, in a striking reversal, said last week that the Russia investigation was indeed on his mind when he fired Comey — and it wasn’t just about his handling of the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, as his aides and Justice Department leadership had stated.
Democrats are seizing on Trump’s comments — and his unusual engagement with Comey — to unite in their calls for a special prosecutor for the Russia investigation.
Trump said Monday that the search for a new FBI director was “moving rapidly.”