This article is more than 1 year old

Comey was loathed by the left, reviled by the right – must have been doing something right

Three years of the US's top cop in action

The honeymoon is over

Despite its auspicious opening, the relationship between the two men quickly soured. Comey refused to back claims by Trump that Obama had wiretapped him and his people and publicly refuted the new president's claims, as did other intelligence agencies.

The biggest fly in the ointment was the ongoing investigation by the FBI into claims that the Trump campaign had contact with Russian officials about the hacking of Democratic National Committee servers. The FBI began its investigation into the matter in July, but didn't feel the need to mention that to the electorate or other politicians, even during classified briefings to Congress.

The investigations went slowly, and they caused concern in the Trump camp. Those concerns were heightened a week ago when Comey confirmed that he was liaising with legal authorities in two different jurisdictions about the Russia probe.

However when Comey was fired on Tuesday, the reason given was that he had overstepped his authority in announcing there was no need to prosecute Clinton the previous July. The recommendation from Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein, coming 14 days after he took office, was that the FBI could do with a new leader, and this was backed up by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trump agreed with the recommendation and fired Comey. Despite the soon-to-be ex-director being on the west coast, Trump's bodyguard took the letter firing Comey down to his office in Washington, DC.

Fallout boy

Many Republicans welcomed the move, with some Democrats who had been calling for Comey's head months before now coming out in support. Republican support for the firing was far from unanimous.

Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), the Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which has its own investigation into Russian interference, said that he was "troubled by the timing and reasoning of Director Comey's termination. I have found Director Comey to be a public servant of the highest order. His dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by the Committee."

Then Trump threw down his own bombshell yesterday. In an interview with NBC News, he said that Comey's firing wasn't triggered by Rosenstein's memo, but had been in the offing for much longer than that – and for a variety of reasons.

"He's a showboat, he's a grandstander, the FBI has been in turmoil," Trump said. "You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that."

"When I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won."

The situation is still developing. Comey still has his story to tell, should he do so, and the testimony could be very interesting indeed. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like