Trump Fires FBI Director and He Can’t Explain Why
On Tuesday May 9th, the White House announced its firing of FBI Director James Comey. Comey had recently completed hearings before the Senate where he was grilled on the FBI investigations into Trump-Russia ties, the Clinton email probe, and all the nonsense since the election [1].
James Comey had been director of the FBI since September 2013, leaving him well short of the 10-year term directors are appointed. Comey became a household name during the 2016 Presidential Election when he called a special press conference to comment on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email probe and when he released a memo DAYS before the election to announce (unrelated) ties to Hillary Clinton in an ongoing investigation of another politician [2]. The announcement and fallout is believed to have led to the Democratic nominee’s loss in the election.
While this sounds like a good thing for Trump, these are the reasons cited for the Administration’s firing. They claim the mishandling and disregard for protocol (that made him President) damaged Comey’s reputation and ability to perform his duties. Sure. NOW he cares about sweet little Hillary, right? Just last week, he criticized Comey for not pressing charges against Clinton for “many bad deeds” [3].
You know what wasn’t mentioned at all as a reason for the sudden termination? Russia. Russia? Yes, Russia. Director Comey had been leading the investigation of Russian collusion with the current Administration. While no new evidence was presented during the hearings last week, the investigation is still ongoing. Many see the President’s firing as an attempt to interrupt the investigation, potentially ending the probe. Not a chance, Donny boy.
Acting-Director Andrew McCabe, who worked under Comey, has insisted that the independent investigation will continue and is still important [4]. McCabe is even on the shortlist to replace Comey as permanent director. We all know that he won’t be chosen though; Trump needs people that will work FOR him. McCabe has said that he will continue the work of his predecessor and do what’s right for the American people.
The original statement cited that the termination was recommended by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod J. Rosenstein. This story was backed up by Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary and former Lamisil stunt double, but later contradicted by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Deputy Press Secretary [5]. She said Trump had already made his decision before the opinions of the AG and deputy. Sanders also said that Trump requested the memo from the Department of Justice, when Spicer had already stated that the DOJ did it on its own. It started with no reference to Russia, and then Trump said that the Russia story was on his mind at the time of firing. All these changes to the story means it’s based on a lie and they just can’t keep up.
So by having the power to fire the person in charge of investigating your potential wrongdoing must be pretty nice. Kinda sounds like… an obstruction of justice? Oh yeah, that’s what that is. A lot of people have been comparing this act of the Trump Tragedy to the fall of President Nixon. Nixon fired the special prosecutor that was in charge of investigating the break-in that exploded into the Watergate Scandal. So it’s not identical, but they were/are shady guys doing some shady things.
This whole thing is just another red flag being waved above the USS Trump. Trump did so well lying relatively low and staying behind the scenes the past couple weeks, so much for that. Now he gets to promote another distraction while he takes the next week or two to decide on replacement for FBI Director. We can be sure that whoever gets tapped will be a pro-Trump puppet that will do and say whatever is in the President’s best interest.
Written By: CJ Wilcox (@CJWilcox7)
1: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/james-comey-fired-fbi.html
3: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/here-s-timeline-trump-s-statements-comey-n757416
4: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/politics/andrew-mccabe-hearing-senate-intelligence-committee/
5: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/12/us/politics/trump-comey-firing-contradictions.html
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