Comey was pushing Russia probe
Sources: FBI director sought resources from deputy attorney general, whose memo was crucial in firing.
Days before he was fired, FBI Director James Comey asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in resources for the bureau’s investi- gation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election, according to four congressional officials, including Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chamber’s second-ranking Democrat.
Comey made his appeal to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who also wrote the Jus- tice Department’s memo that was used to justify Comey’s firing Tuesday, the officials 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, he was sacked,” said Durbin. “I think the Comey operation was breathing down the neck of the Trump campaign and their operatives, and this was an effort to slow down the investigation.”
Later on Wednesday, in the Senate Intelligence Committee’s own accelerating investigation into Russia’s election interference, Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, was ordered to hand over records of any emails, phone calls, meetings and financial dealings with Russians.
The demand, which came in the
first subpoena issued by the committee in its investigation, represented an aggressive new tack for what had been a slowly unfolding inquiry. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman, said in a statement that they had issued the subpoena after Flynn declined to voluntarily comply with a request to hand over the information.
Late last month, the committee asked a number of high-profile Trump campaign associates to hand over emails and other records of dealings with Russians.
In the Justice Department’s probe, Comey had briefed members of Congress in recent days about his meeting with Rosenstein, who is the most senior law enforcement official supervising that inquiry. Rosenstein took over after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself because of his close ties to the Trump campaign and undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador.
The timing of Comey’s request is not clear-cut evidence that his firing was related to the Russia investigation. But it is certain to fuel bipartisan criticism that Trump appeared to be meddling in an investigation that had the potential to damage his presidency.
The FBI declined to comment. But Sarah Isgur Flores, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said “the idea that he asked for more funding” for the Russia investigation was “totally false.” She did not elaborate.
In his briefing with members of Congress, Comey said he had been frustrated with the amount of resources being dedicated to the Russia investigation, according to two of the officials. Comey has said he was hoping that he would find a supportive boss in Rosenstein, and according to the officials, pressed for more resources so he could accelerate the investigation, which is also examining possible collusion between Trump associates and Russian meddling in the presidential election.
Comey’s advisers have cast his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as evidence that he was equally willing to criticize the Democratic nominee for president.
Comey’s handling of the Clinton investigation was the stated reason for his termination, and the White House has insisted it had nothing to do with the Russia inquiry, which has become a major distraction for the Trump administration.
Trump is the first president since Richard Nixon to fire a law enforcement official overseeing an investigation with ties to the White House. Democrats quickly accused Trump of using Comey’s handling of the Clinton investigation as a pretext and called for a special prosecutor into the Russia probe. Republican leaders brushed off the idea as unnecessary.
Defending the firing, White House officials said Trump’s confidence in Comey had been eroding for months. They suggested Trump was persuaded to take the step by Justice Department officials and a scathing memo, written by Rosenstein, criticizing Comey’s role in the Clinton investigation.
“Frankly, he’d been considering letting Director Comey go since the day he was elected,” said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a sharply different explanation from the day before, when officials put the emphasis on new Justice Department complaints about Comey.
Trump’s brash decision to oust Comey sparked comparisons to Nixon, who fired the special prosecutor running the Watergate investigation that ultimately led to his downfall.
Trump, in a letter to Comey dated Tuesday, contended that the director had told him “three times” that he was not personally under investigation.
The White House appeared caught off guard by the intense response to Comey’s firing, given that the FBI director had become a pariah among Democrats for his role in the Clinton investigation. In defending the decision, officials leaned heavily on the memo from Rosenstein.
Trump advisers said the president met with Rosenstein, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, on Monday after learning that they were at the White House for other meetings. One official said Trump asked Rosenstein and Sessions for their views on Comey, then asked the deputy attorney general to synthesize his thoughts in a memo.
The president fired Comey the following day.
The president kept a low profile Wednesday, relying largely on Twitter to defend his actions. In a series of morning tweets, he said both Democrats and Republicans “will be thanking me.”
In an awkward twist of timing, the only event on the president’s public schedule was a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office. Among those participating in the meeting were Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak, whose contacts with Trump advisers are being scrutinized by the FBI, and Henry Kissinger, who served as Nixon’s secretary of state.
In brief remarks to reporters, Trump said he fired Comey because “he wasn’t doing a good job. Very simply. He was not doing a good job.”
Trump is only the second president to fire an FBI director. President Bill Clinton dismissed William Sessions amid allegations of ethical lapses in 1993.
The White House said the Justice Department was interviewing candidates to serve as interim FBI director while Trump weighs a permanent replacement. Sanders said the White House would “encourage” the next FBI chief to complete the Russia investigation.