A Tuesday massacre
President Trump’s stunning decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, on the most suspicious of grounds, smells to high heaven. It came less than two months after Comey revealed in a congressional hearing that the FBI was investigating possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.
It was hard to accept the Trump administration’s explanation that one of the reasons for Comey’s termination was his news conference last summer about the results of FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state. As a candidate, Trump repeatedly cited and praised Comey’s criticisms of Clinton from that very news conference.
“It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission,” Trump wrote in the firing statement.
No known mission at the FBI is more vital — or more politically sensitive — than the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and its possible connection with the Trump team.
The firing evoked echoes of the “Saturday Night Massacre” of Oct. 20, 1973, when, in the midst of the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon dismissed Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox and accepted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his top deputy after they had refused to fire Cox.
In the past year, Comey has rankled Democrats and Republicans alike as he tried to navigate the politically
The White House’s explanation for Comey’s firing is simply not credible.
fraught investigations of Clinton and Trump. Just last week, Clinton suggested that Comey’s Oct. 28 announcement that the FBI had received new evidence about her email server was a factor in her defeat 11 days later.
This nation deserves to get to the bottom of the Trump-Russia investigation. It would be simply absurd to count on a new FBI director appointed by Trump — no matter who he or she is — to pursue the truth, no matter where it leads.
This investigation needed an independent prosecutor even before this latest Trump move. It is now imperative.