In a move reminiscent of Nixon, Trump fires FBI director who was investigating his campaign’s ties to Russia
FBI Director James Comey was the third civil servant dismissed during investigations related to Trump
By the Editors of Kheiro
U.S. Pres. Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday in the midst of an open investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia, drawing comparisons to Nixon’s infamous firing of the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal.
Comey reportedly received news of the official termination letter, which cited a need to “restore public trust and confidence” in the FBI following its botched handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server, while addressing Bureau employees in Los Angeles.
Comey wasn’t the first Obama-era Justice Department holdover to be fired for questioning or investigating the legality of behavior by Trump and his associates.
On Jan. 30, the administration fired former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates after she refused to enact Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, believing it to be unconstitutional. New York U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose office was investigating financial impropriety with links to Trump administration officials, was fired in mid-March.
Comey’s firing and Trump’s explanation
Following actions Comey took during the months leading up to the 2016 Election, “It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission,” Trump wrote in Comey’s official termination letter.
The administration referenced a three-page memo issued by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that recommended firing Comey for mishandling the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as Sectretary of State.
In particular, Comey usurped the power of the Attorney General by announcing the findings of his investigation during a June 2016 press conference, and again when he sent a letter to Congress in late October — just days before the 2016 Election — announcing that he was reviewing new evidence related to the investigation.
The letter elaborated that Comey then “refused to admit his errors” during congressional testimony, undermining public and congressional trust in the agency. The distrust will continue until it has a new director “who understands the gravity of the mistakes and pledges never to repeat them,” the memo concluded.
The letter does not address the fact that Trump himself endorsed Comey’s actions during the election, nor does it explain why the president decided to keep him on as FBI director in the first place given his handing of the investigation into the email server.
Rosenstein’s memo was further endorsed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who in an official letter recommended that Trump fire Comey for the reasons stated in order to provide a “fresh start” within the FBI’s leadership.
Notably, Sessions was forced to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation after it was revealed that he lied about contact with the Russian ambassador twice during his Senate confirmation hearings in January.
Despite this supposed recusal, Sessions was apparently able to recommend that the FBI director, who was conducting the investigation in his place, be removed.
Trump praised Comey’s actions at the time
After learning of the Oct. 28 letter, Trump told a cheering crowd in Iowa that the FBI “would never have reopened this case at this time unless it were a most egregious criminal offense. I give them great credit for having the courage to right this horrible wrong. Justice will prevail.”
Two days later, at an Oct. 31 campaign rally in Michigan, he once again endorsed Comey’s actions.
“That was so bad what happened originally, and it took guts for Director Comey to make the move that he made,” he said. “What he did, he brought back his reputation — he brought it back.”
At the time, Senate Democrats voiced concern that Comey’s letter had violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activities. In fact, statistical data suggests that were it not for the 1- to 4-percent polling bump that Trump received following the announcement of the letter, Clinton likely would have won the election.
On Nov. 6, after the letter had dominated headlines for more than a week, Comey notified Congress that he confirmed the bureau’s earlier conclusion that Clinton had not engaged in any criminal acts. Clinton went on to lose Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by less than 1 percentage point.
Trump, however, never expressed any concern for “public trust and confidence” in the FBI until Comey’s firing. More than six months have passed since Comey committed the acts cited in the letter, and it’s been more than three months since Trump took office and decided to keep him on despite these actions.
More recently, Trump publicly feuded with the FBI in February and March over matters unrelated to the Clinton investigation, casting doubt on the sincerity of his concern for the bureau’s reputation.
Developments in the FBI’s investigation into Russia
While Comey’s actions and opinions related to the investigation into Clinton’s email server have not changed in the last three months, what have changed are developments in the FBI investigation of the Trump campaign’s contact with Russian agents.
In March, Comey confirmed that the FBI was investigating possible coordination between members of Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian government officials and actors close to President Vladimir Putin.
Then on Monday, Yates delivered bombshell testimony before Congress that Trump administration officials ignored Justice Department warnings that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had lied about contacts with Russia officials — including Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — and opened himself up to future blackmail from the Putin regime.
Despite the warnings, Flynn continued to serve as National Security Advisor until he resigned on Feb. 13 following a report in the New York Times that Flynn had communicated with Russians and lied about it to Vice Pres. Mike Pence. The Trump administration had tried to block Yates’ testimony on the subject.
And just days before he was fired, Comey asked Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein — author of the memo explaining the termination — for more resources for the Russia investigation, again according to the New York Times.
Oddly, despite it supposedly not being relevant to the firing, Trump himself referenced the Russia investigation in his dismissal letter to Comey.
“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur… that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau,” he wrote.
Watergate parallels
The decision to fire the head of the FBI while in the midst of an investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russian agents parallels the decision by former Pres. Richard Nixon to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was investigating Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
In an event now known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Nixon famously fired Cox from his position as special prosecutor after he had subpoenaed Nixon for copies of White House tapes. The tapes, as the nation subsequently discovered, contained damning information linking Nixon to a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.
Here, President Trump has gone a step further and fired the actual FBI director after he revealed that the FBI is investigating Trump’s campaign for any connections with Russian election tampering.
“This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies,” CNN legal affairs correspondent Jeffrey Toobin said on Tuesday. “That when there is an investigation that reaches near the president…they fire the people who are in charge of the investigation. I have not seen anything like this since…Richard Nixon fired Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor.”
Several Democratic lawmakers also drew parallels between Watergate and Trump’s decision to fire Comey.
“Not since Watergate have our legal systems been so threated and our faith in the independence and integrity of those systems so shaken,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct.) said.
Even the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum noted the comparison, tweeting on Tuesday night, “FUN FACT: President Nixon never fired the Director of the FBI,” apparently suggesting that Trump had gone even farther than Nixon in his response to the investigation.
Whatever the Trump administration’s reasons for firing Comey, it’s difficult to see how the move will “restore public trust and confidence” amidst bipartisan comparisons to Watergate and Nixon.
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