FBI Director James Comey learned of his firing from a television news report, according to CNN and The New York Times.

Comey was in Los Angeles speaking to employees at an FBI field office when he saw the news break that President Trump had ousted him, the reports said.

According to the Times, Comey laughed when he saw the report, believing it to be a prank. Staffers then pulled him aside.

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Keith Schiller, the director of Oval Office operations at the White House, hand delivered a letter from Trump to Comey informing him of his firing late Tuesday afternoon. But Comey was not there to receive it.

Trump's letter stated that he was dismissing Comey because it was time for a “new beginning” at the nation’s “crown jewel of law enforcement.”

“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 lead the Bureau,” Trump wrote.

— This story was updated 8:53 p.m.