Dismissal of James Comey

[7][8] Trump publicly stated that he had already decided to fire Comey;[9] it later emerged that he had written his own early draft of the termination letter,[10] and had solicited the Rosenstein memo the day before citing it.

[15] 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.

[18][19] 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.

[35][37] On October 7, 2016,[38] 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.

[36] 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.

[36] News media reported that Comey had requested additional personnel from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to expand the probe into Russia interference.

"[83][84] President Trump had the letter dismissing Comey delivered in a manila folder to FBI headquarters[73] in Washington on the evening of Tuesday, May 9, and a press statement was made by Sean Spicer at the same time.

[86][87][88] In an interview with CNN, President Trump's Counselor Kellyanne Conway denied that Comey's dismissal was part of a White House cover-up of the Russia investigation.

[73][45] On May 9, before the dismissal, it was revealed that federal prosecutors issued grand jury subpoenas to Flynn's associates, representing a significant escalation in the FBI's Russia investigation.

[92] On the same day, May 9, President Trump hired a law firm to send a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee denying any business or other connections to Russia, "with some exceptions".

[103] Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer renewed his call for a special prosecutor to investigate Russia's involvement in the election and its influence on members of the Trump campaign and administration.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told Tucker Carlson of Fox News that it was time to "move on" from accusations of collusion between Trump and Russia, but added that "Comey's firing would not impact the ongoing investigations": "You will have the same people that will be carrying it out to the Department of Justice.

Kasowitz said he intended to file a complaint with the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee, against Comey for revealing "privileged" information.

[129] On June 7, 2017, on the day before Comey was to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee,[130] President Trump tweeted that he intended to nominate Christopher A. Wray as the new FBI Director.

[137] Fact checkers reported that while they had no way of knowing what Comey may have told Trump privately, no such assertion was on the public record, and the White House declined to provide any more detail.

[11][139] However, in the written opening statement for his June 8 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Comey said he had assured Trump on three occasions that he personally was not the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation.

[140] Comey added that Trump's private comments urging him to drop the Flynn probe led him to tell his Justice Department colleagues they needed to be careful.

[167][168][169][170] The New York Times reported that Comey had created the memos as a "paper trail" to document "what he perceived as the president's improper efforts to influence a continuing investigation".

[177] University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck said that there would be "no legal blowback" for Comey, unless "the memos involve 'information relating to the national defense'" or deprived "government of a 'thing of value'".

[190] Several Democratic members of Congress – among them, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, and California Rep. Maxine Waters – and some commentators suggested that Trump's rationale for Comey's dismissal in the interview amounted to a de facto admission to obstruction of justice.

"[118] In a May 2017 essay published in The Washington Post, Harvard constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe wrote: "The time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice."

"[221] Duke law professor and former federal prosecutor Samuel W. Buell said that Trump's attempt to quiet Comey by referencing secret tapes of their conversations in retaliation could be viewed as an effort to intimidate a witness to any future investigation on obstruction of justice.

[223][224] Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith says that claims of "grandstanding" or "politicization" by Comey of the FBI probe into possible ties between Trump associates and Russia were unsubstantiated.

"[226][227] A report published by the Brookings Institution in October 2017 raised the question of obstruction of justice in the dismissal of Comey, stating that Trump, by himself or conspiring with subordinates, may have "attempted to impede the investigations of Michael Flynn and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election".

[51] Some commentators observed an emerging pattern of Trump firing government officials who investigated his interests: Sally Yates, Preet Bharara, and Comey.

Some sources have stated that, regardless of circumstances, Comey had lost the confidence of the political leadership on all sides of the spectrum and, therefore, his termination was unavoidable in spite of criticizing the president's handling of it and questioning his motives.

[252] In Comey's June 8 testimony, he said it was not for him to say whether Trump's February 14 request amounted to obstruction of justice, adding "But that's a conclusion I'm sure the special counsel will work toward, to try and understand what the intention was there and whether that's an offense.

"[254] Former United States Attorney Preet Bharara said in an interview with ABC News om June 11, 2017, "there's absolutely evidence to begin a case" regarding obstruction of justice by Trump.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified to the House Judiciary Committee that despite making 17 mistakes in their applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), the FBI showed no political bias during the investigation of Trump and the Russian government.

[261] During a December 2021 interview with Fox News Trump admitted to firing James Comey and suggested that doing so allowed him to fulfill the rest of his presidential term.