JAMES Comey thought someone was playing a joke on him, when he first learned of his sacking as FBI boss.

Comey was dumped as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

New York Times reports, Comey thought reports of his demise was a prank when he first heard them.

According to the report, Comey was talking to FBI staff in Los Angeles when the news of his firing appeared on a TV nearby.

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Comey brushed off the initial reports before being informed shortly afterwards the news was in fact true.

Soon after he received a letter from President Trump informing him of the news.

Democrats were quick to claim the timing of Trump’s firing of Comey was curious given it could affect an FBI investigation into possible links between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was one of those who expressed his concern.

“The American people need to have faith that an investigation as serious as this one is being conducted impartially, without a shred of bias,” he said.

“The only way the American people can have faith in this investigation is for it to be led by a fearless, independent special prosecutor.”

That brought a furious response from Trump on Twitter.

Cryin' Chuck Schumer stated recently, "I do not have confidence in him (James Comey) any longer." Then acts so indignant. #draintheswamp — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2017

‘THREAT OF IMPEACHMENT’

The former Australian Ambassador to the US Kim Beazley described Mr Trump’s move as “of enormous significance”, as Washington reels from the news.

“I don’t quite know what the public reasons are associated with it but certainly the inquiry the FBI is currently conducting into the relationship of Trump’s campaign team, maybe Trump himself, and the Russians is such that it may have reached the point where somebody would want to be able appoint an FBI director to suppress the investigation,” Mr Beazley told a PwC breakfast in Brisbane this morning.

“That (investigation) carries the biggest threat of impeachment for Trump. You don’t have to be too much of a sleuth or a suspicious fellow to assume that there is a linkage here.”

The White House confirmed Mr Comey had been “terminated and removed” at the President’s direction, in relation to his investigation of the Hillary Clinton email controversy.

“The president has accepted the recommendation of the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General regarding the dismissal of the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a statement.

Mr Comey was leading the agency charged with investigating the Trump campaign’s ties with Russia and that country’s apparent interference with the election.

That fact has prompted outage from Democrats and some Washington observers.

Former federal prosecutor and respected legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin launched an extraordinary attack on the move during an appearance on CNN, describing it as “a grotesque abuse of power”.

“This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies, that when there’s an investigation that reaches near … the leader they fire the people who are in charge,” Mr Toobin said.

FUN FACT: President Nixon never fired the Director of the FBI #FBIDirector #notNixonian pic.twitter.com/PatArKOZlk — RichardNixonLibrary (@NixonLibrary) May 9, 2017

In a letter, Mr Trump told Mr Comey: “You are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately.

“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.

It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission.”

The decision was pinned on the FBI Director overstating the number of Clinton emails top aide Huma Abedin forwarded to her husband, during his testimony last week to a Senate committee, according to several reports.

Mr Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Ms Abedin had a “regular practice” of sending “hundreds of thousands” of emails to her husband Anthony Weiner’s laptop so he could print them out and she could deliver them to Ms Clinton when she was secretary of state.

Citing sources, ProPublica and The Washington Post reported that neither of those claims are true — that it wasn’t a “regular practice” and she sent only a handful of emails.

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The Daily Beast quoted senior White House officials as saying the administration had been looking for an excuse to fire Comey “for several days now”.

“We are trying to get our heads around this like (you),” one aide said after the news broke.

FBI Director Comey has been "terminated and removed from office." pic.twitter.com/z2or0M6oJB — Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) May 9, 2017

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the handling of the Clinton emails investigation couldn’t be defended.

“I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken,” Mr Rosenstein said.

The Washington Post reported that none of the emails were marked as classified, but a few did contain information that later was deemed classified.

A search for a new FBI director was to begin “immediately”, the White House said.

FBI directors are appointed for a single 10-year term. The 56-year-old Comey, who is popular among rank-and-file agents, was appointed four years ago.

Last week, Mr Comey was grilled by the panel for sending a letter to Congress on October 27 — less than two weeks before the presidential election — informing politicians that he would be reopening the probe into Ms Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.

The emails were discovered during an examination of Mr Weiner’s computer after he allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to a teenage girl.

Ms Clinton accused Mr Comey of trashing her chances of becoming president by revealing an renewed investigation into her email use.

His dismissal will raise questions about Trump’s motives.

It will also prompt parallels with Richard Nixon’s decision to unceremoniously fire his Attorney General, an event that plunged his presidency deeper into crisis.

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Parts of this story originally appeared in The New York Post and have been republished here with permission.