Dismissal of James Comey

James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was dismissed by U.S. President Donald Trump on May 9, 2017. Comey had been under public and political pressure resulting from both the FBI's role in the Hillary Clinton email controversy and the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, including possible collusion with the 2016 Donald Trump campaign.

In the termination letter, Trump wrote that Comey had told him on three separate occasions that he was not under investigation. According to The Washington Post, sources stated that this and other assertions Trump made about events leading up to the dismissal were false, and Trump subsequently implied that he may have the conversations with Comey on tape.

In the immediate aftermath, the White House said Trump had been considering the dismissal since the election, had experienced an "erosion of confidence" because Comey was "not doing a good job", pointed to Comey's recent congressional testimony as problematic, and also based the firing partly on advice from the United States Department of Justice alleging that Comey had mishandled the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. These justifications were criticized by some Democrats and political commentators, and Trump later sought to further explain his decision to dismiss Comey, saying that Comey was a "showboat" and "grandstander", while Trump also indicated that the dismissal was connected to dissatisfaction with the counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the election. Describing Comey as a "nut job" to Russian officials, he bragged about firing him and said to them that he (Trump) "faced great pressure because of [the] Russia [investigation]. That's [now] taken off." These remarks about Comey occurred in the same conversation in which Trump disclosed classified information to the Russians that had been conveyed to the Americans by Israel.

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Wikipedia