TRUMP ‘AXED FBI BOSS OVER RUSSIA PROBE’
He sparks crisis after telling spy chief: You’re terminated Rivals vow to expose President’s shadowy Kremlin links
DONALD Trump was yesterday accused of bringing America to the brink of a constitutional crisis with his sacking of the FBI director.
Democrats accused the President of firing James Comey to thwart an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to win the election.
A defiant Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Comey had ‘lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington’.
The President accused Democrats of hypocrisy as they had previously called for Mr Comey to be fired over his handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
The White House linked the sacking to Mr Comey’s conduct during that investigation, not the Russia inquiry.
The removal of the FBI director, who was only three years into his ten-year tenure, is the most controversial act yet of Mr Trump’s presidency.
Mr Comey last week asked the Justice Department for significantly more resources for the Russia investigation, it was reported. He spoke with deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who later signed a letter justifying Mr Comey’s firing – used by the President
back up his decision. Yesterday it was reported that the first subpoenas had been issued over the President’s ties to Russia – to associates of Mike Flynn, Mr Trump’s former national security adviser.
A source close to Mr Comey last night said he was sacked because he never provided the President with any assurance of personal loyalty – but also because the FBI’s Russia investigation was accelerating, CNN reported.
On Twitter Mr Trump accused Democrats of ‘crying’ and said they had no right to be ‘indignant’. ‘Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike,’ he wrote. When things calm down, they will be thanking me!’
The President told reporters in the Oval Office that the director ‘was not doing a good job, very simply’ but did not comment further.
He did not tell Mr Comey personally that he had been fired. The FBI director was speaking to staff when he saw the news appear on TV screens, and initially thought it was a prank.
At the White House daily press brief- ing, spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump’s trust in Mr Comey had ‘eroded’ over several months and he had been considering firing him since the election. But press secretary Sean Spicer last week said the President had ‘confidence’ in Mr Comey.
Miss Huckabee Sanders said Mr Rosenstein had been concerned by Mr Comey’s error before Congress this week, on the number of new emails the FBI found causing them to re- open inquiries into Mrs Clinton’s emails.
She also said Mr Comey’s decision last July to announce he was closing the probe, was an ‘atrocity’ as he circumvented the chain of command.
Democratic Congressman John Conyers, who was on the committee that approved Richard Nixon’s impeachment in 1974, said the firing ‘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’.
Richard Burr, Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was ‘troubled by the timing and reasoning’ of the firing.
Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer said the FBI Russia probe was ‘getting too close to home for the President’. He called for a special prosecutor to take it over, but this was dismissed by Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
Mrs Clinton’s vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine said: ‘We have a deeply insecure president who understands the noose is tightening.’ But Vice President Mike Pence said Mr Trump made ‘the right decision’ and ‘there is no evidence of collusion between our campaign and any Russian officials’.