The US president’s ousting of the FBI boss has raised concerns about the bureau’s inquiry into Trump’s election campaign

Why does the White House say James Comey was fired?

Donald Trump and his allies in the US justice department cited Comey’s handling of the botched investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails as the reason for firing the FBI director.

A statement from the White House said:

Today, President Donald J Trump informed FBI director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office. President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and attorney general Jeff Sessions.”

In a memo to Sessions, which was released by the White House on Tuesday, Rosenstein wrote: “The way the director [Comey] handled the conclusion of the email investigation was wrong.”

He went on to say:

I cannot defend the director’s handling of the conclusion of the investigation of Secretary Clinton’s emails, and I do not understand his refusal to accept the nearly universal judgment that he was mistaken.”

Sessions said the Department of Justice was “committed to a high level of discipline, integrity and the rule of law”, and “a fresh start is needed”.

What are the criticisms of Comey’s handling of the Clinton email inquiry?

Comey has been criticised by Democrats for his handling of an investigation into whether Clinton compromised national security by her use of a private email server for work and personal messages. Indeed, the inquiry is widely seen to have benefited Trump.

In a recent interview, Clinton partly blamed Comey’s letter in late October notifying Congress that the FBI was studying newly discovered emails on her laptop for costing her the presidential election. At the time Trump praised Comey’s move, saying it “took guts”.



Comey had also been criticised for holding a press conference last July in which he said Clinton would not be charged but criticised her as “extremely careless”. The move was seen as infringing on the role of the justice department and attorney general.

In the final days of the election campaign, Comey said that, after reviewing the laptop emails, the FBI still believed that Clinton should not face charges. This prompted Trump to say that Clinton was “being protected by a rigged system”.



What about Russia?

The sudden sacking of the country’s most senior law enforcement official outraged Democrats, who suggested the email inquiry line was a smokescreen and that Trump’s real motivation was to influence the FBI’s investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russia in the run-up to the US presidential election.

The same allegations are being looked into by the House of Representatives and Senate intelligence committees.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that a grand jury had begun issuing subpoenas to associates of Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser at the centre of the ongoing inquiry into Russian meddling in the election. If confirmed, the report suggests the FBI’s investigation into the Trump camp’s links with Moscow has entered a significant new phase.

“Were these investigations getting too close to home for the president?” the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said, adding: “This does not seem to be a coincidence.”

One Senate Democrat described the move as “Nixonian”, and there were vociferous demands for a special prosecutor to be appointed to oversee the Russia inquiry.

What are Republicans saying?

Most Republicans backed the president, including the Senate judiciary committee chair, Chuck Grassley, who said the handling of the Clinton email investigation was “a clear example of how Comey’s decisions have called into question the trust and political independence of the FBI”.

There was some dissent. Justin Amash, a Republican congressman from Michigan, described the justification given in Trump’s letter to Comey as “bizarre”, and said he was reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia.

Richard Burr, a Republican leading the Senate intelligence committee investigation into Russia’s influence over the 2016 presidential election, said he was troubled by the timing and reasoning of the decision. “I have found director Comey to be a public servant of the highest order, and his dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by the committee,” Burr said.