James Comey, the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was fired by U.S. President Donald Trump on May 9, 2017. Comey had been criticized in 2016 for his handling of the FBI's investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy and in 2017 for the FBI's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections as it related to alleged collusion with Trump's presidential campaign.
Trump dismissed Comey by way of a termination letter in which he stated that he was acting on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. In the following days, he gave numerous explanations of the dismissal that contradicted his staff and also belied the initial impression that Sessions and Rosenstein had influenced his decision. Trump publicly stated that he had already decided to fire Comey; it later emerged that he had written his own early draft of the termination letter, and had solicited the Rosenstein memo the day before citing it. He also stated that dismissing Comey relieved unnecessary pressure on his ability to engage and negotiate with Russia, due to Comey's "grandstanding and politicizing" the investigation. Trump was reportedly "enormously frustrated" that Comey would not publicly confirm that the president was not personally under investigation. After his dismissal, Comey publicly testified to the Congress that he told Trump, on three occasions, that he was not personally under investigation in the counterintelligence probe.
Shortly after his termination, in a move that he hoped would prompt a special counsel investigation, Comey asked a friend to share excerpts from a memo he had written when he was FBI Director, recounting a private conversation with Trump in February 2017, with the press. According to Comey, Trump had asked him to "let go" of potential charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn whom Trump had fired the day before. In light of the dismissal, the series of memos, and Comey's testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in June 2017, several media figures, political opponents and legal scholars said that Trump's acts could be construed as obstruction of justice, while others disagreed.
Following Comey's dismissal, Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian meddling and related issues that Comey had supervised during his tenure. In December 2019, US Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz wrote in the "Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation" that the FBI showed no political bias by opening the investigation. The Durham special counsel investigation also did not find political bias by the FBI.
Background
The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is appointed by the President and, since 1972, confirmed by the Senate. Beginning in 1976, the director's term has been limited to ten years, which is a relatively long tenure that is meant to deter political pressure. The term can be extended with the approval of the Senate. Nevertheless, although the FBI director is appointed for a 10-year term, the president has the power to dismiss the director for any reason.
Before becoming FBI director, Comey, a registered Republican, served in the George W. Bush administration as Deputy Attorney General. He was appointed FBI Director by President Barack Obama. Comey was confirmed by the Senate in 2013 by a vote of 93–1.
During his tenure as director of the FBI, Comey said there was a need for the Bureau to be independent from politics. But, beginning in 2015 the Bureau became embroiled in investigations that affected the 2016 presidential election. In March 2015, it came to light that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had used a private e-mail server for her work as Secretary of State under President Obama. The FBI launched an investigation to determine whether Clinton had violated the law and whether national security had been jeopardized. In July 2016, Comey announced that he was not recommending that any charges be brought against Clinton. The decision was decried by Republican leaders and candidates, including then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. In late October 2016, Comey announced that the investigation was being re-opened because of additional documents that had been obtained. Two weeks later, he announced that no new information had been discovered and the investigation was again being closed. The announcement of the re-opened investigation was seen by many observers as unnecessary and harmful to Clinton's campaign, and the re-closing of that investigation was also met with complaints.Sherlock, Ruth. "Republicans react in fury to FBI director's decision to clear Hillary Clinton" , The Daily Telegraph (November 7, 2016).
On October 7, 2016, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) jointly stated that individuals working on behalf of the Russian government had hacked servers and e-mail accounts associated with the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign, and forwarded their contents to WikiLeaks. This would be confirmed by numerous private security experts and other government officials. The FBI launched investigations into both the hackings, and contacts between Trump associates and Russia.
In January 2017, Comey testified to Congress confirming Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and confirmed an ongoing investigation, although he refused to comment specifically on the Trump organization. President-elect Trump stated his intention to keep Comey as the FBI director. In March, Comey finally confirmed that the FBI was investigating links between Trump associates and Russian officials. He also refuted Trump's allegations that the Obama administration had wiretapped him.
During the weeks leading up to May 9, grand jury subpoenas were issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria, Virginia, to associates of Michael Flynn for the purpose of obtaining records relating to the investigation of Russia's role in the election. News outlets became aware of these subpoenas on May 9.
Trump's dismissal of Comey on May 9, 2017—four years into Comey's ten-year term—raised the issue of possible political interference by a sitting president into an existing investigation by a leading law enforcement agency, as well as other issues. Although presidents have occasionally clashed with FBI directors, Comey was only the second director to be dismissed since the Bureau's foundation. The only other occasion was under "dramatically different circumstances": in 1993 President Bill Clinton fired FBI Director William S. Sessions after a Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility report—published under Clinton's predecessor, George H. W. Bush—accused Sessions of tax evasion and other ethical lapses.
In May, Comey gave additional testimony before the Senate regarding the Clinton e-mail investigation and the Russia probe. News media reported that Comey had requested additional personnel from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to expand the probe into Russian interference. Commenting on the matter, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe "said he was unaware of any such request" but left open the possibility that Comey had requested the president to shift existing resources to the Russia investigation.
Dismissal
On May 8, 2017, Trump directed Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein to provide advice and input in writing. On Trump's direction, on May 9, Rosenstein prepared and delivered a memorandum to Sessions relating to Comey (Sessions and Rosenstein had already begun considering whether to dismiss Comey months earlier). Rosenstein's memorandum said that the "reputation and credibility" of the FBI had been damaged under Comey's tenure, and the memo presented critical quotes from several former attorneys general in previously published op-eds; Rosenstein concluded that their "nearly unanimous opinions" were that Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation was "wrong."Glum, Julia. "Six Reasons Why Donald Trump Fired James Comey" , Newsweek (May 9, 2017). In his memo, Rosenstein asserted that the FBI must have "a Director who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them." He ended with an argument against keeping Comey as FBI director, on the grounds that he was given an opportunity to "admit his errors" but that there is no hope that he will "implement the necessary corrective actions." Rosenstein also criticized Comey on two other grounds: for usurping the prerogative of the Justice Department and the Attorney General in his July 2016 public statements announcing the closure of the investigation into Clinton's emails, and for making derogatory comments about Clinton in that same meeting. Both of these actions, he argued, were in conflict with longstanding FBI practice. To Comey's previous defense that Attorney General Loretta Lynch had a conflict of interest, Rosenstein argued that in such a case, it is the duty of the Attorney General to recuse herself, and that there is a process for another Justice Department official to take over her duties.
In McCabe's 2019 autobiography, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump, he asserts that Rosenstein did not want to write the memo, but did so at the direction of Trump.
Termination letter
On May 9, 2017, President Trump sent a termination letter to James Comey:
Reasons for dismissal Department of Justice recommendation
+ Recommendations of the Attorney General Sessions and Rosenstein
Sessions, in his letter to Trump, cited Rosenstein's memo as the reason for his own recommendation that Comey be dismissed. In the dismissal letter, Trump cited the recommendations by Sessions and Rosenstein as the reason for Comey's dismissal. Immediately after Trump's termination announcement, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Sessions and other administration associates stated that Trump fired Comey solely on the recommendations of Sessions and Rosenstein.
On September 1, 2017, The New York Times reported that Trump had drafted a letter to Comey over the weekend of May 4–7, 2017. The draft, which is now in the possession of Special Counsel Mueller, was dictated by Trump and written up by Trump aide Stephen Miller. It notified Comey he was being fired and gave a several-page-long explanation of the reasons. The draft was described by people who saw it as a "screed" with an "angry, meandering tone". On May 8, Trump showed it to senior White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and White House Counsel Don McGahn. McGahn was alarmed at its tone and persuaded Trump not to send that letter. McGahn arranged for Trump to meet with Sessions and Rosenstein, who had been separately discussing plans to fire Comey. Rosenstein was given a copy of the draft and agreed to write a separate memo on the subject. His memo, delivered to Trump on May 9 along with a cover-letter recommendation from Sessions, detailed Comey's handling of the Clinton email investigation as the reason to dismiss him. Trump then cited Rosenstein's memo and Sessions' recommendation as the reason for terminating Comey. Trump had previously praised Comey for renewing the investigation into Clinton's emails in October 2016.
Other reasons