In an action that is comparable only to the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox by Richard Nixon, Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in the middle of Comey’s investigation of Trump’s connections to the Russian government.
Not since Watergate has a president dismissed the person leading an investigation bearing on him, and Mr. Trump’s decision late Tuesday afternoon drew instant comparisons to the “Saturday Night Massacre” in October 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon ordered the firing of Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor looking into the so-called third-rate burglary that would eventually bring Nixon down.
In fact, Comey’s dismissal is arguably much worse than the firing of Cox. At this point, even should a special prosecutor be appointed, that prosecutor will be dependent on the FBI for any investigation—an FBI that Donald Trump just authoritatively reminded is under his control.
The action is suspect on every point. First, the pretext for this firing is ludicrous in the extreme. In a brief two page note, newly-appointed deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein provided a note that might have been written on Daily Kos months ago. However, the idea that Donald Trump suddenly decided to fire James Comey because he was too mean to Hillary Clinton during the campaign, flies in the face of every statement Trump made both before and after the election.
The timing is suspect in every direction. Not only was Comey dismissed the same day subpoenas went out for witnesses in the Trump–Russia hearing, Trump’s action in this case stands in stark contrast to his speed in moving on Michael Flynn. In the case of Flynn, the acting attorney general came to the White House with evidence that the national security advisor had acted improperly in collusion with the Russian government. It took Trump 18 days to act. In the case of Comey, the deputy attorney general — himself on the job less than 14 days — came to Trump with a report that Comey didn’t have universal support within the FBI. He was gone in a matter of hours. So quickly that Comey himself learned of the action by watching the news.
Trump’s utterly unbelievable dismal letter to Comey — sent by hand courier to Comey’s Washington office even though Comey was in LA at the time — contained a self-exoneration in which Trump claimed that the FBI director had told him “on three separate occasions” that he, Trump, was not under investigation. That statement is utterly at odds with Comey’s public testimony, and unsupported by anyone except Trump.
Among those acting to remove Comey from office was Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, who had supposedly recused himself from the Russia investigation and noted that Comey was in charge of that investigation. But of course, that’s not Sessions’ only contradiction in this action. While Sessions now signs on to a report in which Comey issuing the letter to Congress previous to the election is one of the largest factors in demonstrating his failures, it’s not what Sessions said at the time.
Sessions: He had an absolute duty, in my opinion, 11 days or not, to come forward with the new information that he has and let the American people know that, too.
What about Comey’s other action, in which he said that the FBI wasn’t recommending prosecution but went on excoriate Hillary Clinton? Sessions had also had no problem with Comey’s actions at the time.
Rod Rosenstein’s name is on the brief report, though he only came into office 14 days ago. What’s not on the report: Who asked Rosenstein to review Comey? The report itself was dated the same day that Comey was fired. So were the associated letters. The White House apparently paused only as long as it took to assemble a list of Democrats who had said bad things about Comey, then ran the whole thing out as quickly as possible — with one of the bigger obvious lies of the day being that they didn’t expect any political pushback to Comey’s firing.
While the report seized on many of the same reasons that Democrats had complained about Comey, it carefully avoids one word: Russia. Comey’s investigation into Trump–Russia is not even referenced in Rosenstein’s report, in Trump’s dismissal letter, or in any other document. The big red elephant in the room is studiously ignored on paper, but there seems no doubt it was really the sole factor behind Trump’s action.
[Trump] had grown enraged by the Russia investigation, two advisers said, frustrated by his inability to control the mushrooming narrative around Russia. He repeatedly asked aides why the Russia investigation wouldn’t disappear and demanded they speak out for him. He would sometimes scream at television clips about the probe, one adviser said.
The only screams Trump made about the actions singled out in Rosenstein’s report were screams of joy. He celebrated Comey’s excoriation of Clinton during the summer and he celebrated Comey’s last minute momentum-changing letter.
That Trump should even pretend he was upset about those things shows how unsubstantial and unbelievable the story behind his actions are.