Jeffrey Toobin. Twitter/CNN Senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Jeff Toobin took to CNN to address the abrupt firing of former FBI director James Comey on Tuesday afternoon.

"It's a grotesque abuse of power by the President of the United States," said Toobin on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer." "This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies."

In a letter sent by President Donald Trump to Comey, Trump stated that he had accepted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions' recommendation to fire him, alleging that Comey was "not able to effectively lead the Bureau."

"I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors," Trump added in his letter.

"When there is a investigation that reaches near the President of the United States or the leader of a non-democracy, they fire the people who are in charge of the investigation," continued Toobin. "I have not seen anything like this since October 20th, 1973, when President Nixon fired Archibald Cox, the Watergate special prosecutor."

"This is something that is not within the American political tradition," Toobin said. "That firing led indirectly, but certainly, to the resignation of President Nixon, and this is very much in this tradition."

"This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is something that is completely outside how American law is supposed to work."

Comey’s firing comes amid the FBI’s investigation to see whether Trump’s campaign had colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election in Trump's favor. However, according to his letter, Trump appears to have concurred with Rosentein's allegation that Comey's public announcement that he would not bring charges against Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server in July was "wrong," and that the department had suffered "substantial damage" due to his announcement.

Watch the interview here »