President Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey, Firestorm Erupts
President Donald Trump on this day fired James B. Comey as Director of the FBI. Trump did not even inform Comey personally about the firing. Comey was on the west coast at the time, and learned about his firing from a television news bulletin.
The firing of Comey touched off a political firestorm, as many people believed that Trump wanted to stop the investigation of ties between Trump presidential campaign staff and presidential officials with Russian officials and other people associated with Russia. On February 14, 2017, after President Trump had fired his National Security Director Michael Flynn, Comey met with Trump in the White House, and Trump asked Comey about “letting Flynn go.” Many observers saw the comment and the subsequent firing of Comey as an obstruction of justice by President Trump.
A week after Comey was fired, on May 17th, Deputy Attorney General Robert Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller (himself a former FBI Director) as Special Counsel to the Justice Department to investigate possible links between Trump-related officials and Russian officials about whether Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election. Meuller’s investigation soon spread, moving beyond the 2016 election to involve illegal financial dealings by Trump-associated persons.
Comey had been FBI Director for four years at the time of his firing, having been appointed by President Barack Obama.
Read: James Comey, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership (2018)
And more: Luke Harding, Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, And How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win (2017)