Republicans also express doubts about dismissal
sees the Justice Department and FBI, said, “I’m told that as soon as Rosenstein arrived, there was a request for additional resources for the investigation and that a few days afterwards, (Comey) was sacked.”
The FBI made the request directly to Rosenstein for more investigators with specific skills, according to people familiar with the matter.
Durbin said he did not know the details of the request and did not have evidence that it was related to Comey’s firing. “I think the Comey operation was breathing down the neck of the Trump campaign and their operatives,” he said, “and this was an effort to slow down the investigation.” Durbin cited only a “reliable source” for his information.
Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said Comey made no request for additional funding or personnel in meetings with Rosenstein. “No resources — personnel, money or otherwise,” she said. “That is false.”
Democrats accused Trump of trying to short-circuit the Russia investigation, and they united in calling for the appointment of a special prosecutor. Several described the Comey dismissal as “Nixonian,” referring to President Nixon’s firing of the Watergate special prosecutor in 1973.
There could be some Republican support for an independent investigation. “It is now harder to resist calls for an independent investigation,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said on MSNBC’s Morning
Joe. “It’s pretty tough to fire the guy who’s investigating your campaign.”
The White House maintained that the FBI director’s overall record subjected him to dismissal.
In the report Trump used to justify his decision, Rosenstein criticized Comey for holding a news conference July 5 to announce that charges would not be filed against Clinton, even as he criticized her over her handling of classified information. “We do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation,” Rosenstein said. His letter also men- tioned Comey’s decision to announce a new investigation of Clinton on Oct. 28.
Trump asked Justice Department leaders to put their recommendations about Comey’s leadership in writing, Sanders said, and he made the decision Tuesday after “having that conversation that outlined the basic atrocities in circumventing the chain of command in the Department of Justice.”
Sanders noted that many Democrats blamed Comey for Clinton’s loss to Trump in the presidential election. “Frankly, I’m surprised that (the firing) did create a divide since you’ve had so many Republicans and Democrats repeatedly calling for Director Comey to be gone,” she said.
Democrats insisted that Trump could have fired Comey over his handling of the Clinton investigation anytime during the past four months he’s been in office. Instead, they said, the president waited until the various Russia investigations heated up. “He feels the noose tightening,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee, said on Morning Joe.
Kaine noted that in Trump’s termination letter to Comey, the president thanked the FBI director for “informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.” As Kaine put it: “That shows a deeply insecure president.”
Republicans joined in the criticism of Trump’s timing.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., heading an investigation as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was “troubled by the timing and reasoning ” of Comey’s firing. He said it “further confuses an already difficult investigation by the committee.”
“Any investigation that was happening on Monday is still happening today.” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders