Why Was Comey Fired?
When Trump fired Comey on 2017-05-10, it was only the second time the director of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) had been fired in US history. The previous time, the director, William Sessions, had repeatedly used public money for personal uses. Trump floated a number of different reasons for the firing, coming up with a new one each time it was clear a previous one would not fly:
~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)
- Comey had treated Hillary unfairly in the email scandal. However Trump and Sessions were on tape lauding Comey for these very actions. They also insisted Hillary be locked up. Not at all plausible. People laughed at this justification.
- Comey was a showboat. He got more attention than Trump, hardly a valid reason for firing, though it is a plausible reason. Trump is exceedingly petty and vain.
- Comey had lost the confidence of FBI workers. Trump could provide no evidence of this and workers came to Comey’s defence.
- The FBI was in chaos. Comey could not manage. This turned out to be a lie. Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, Comey’s boss testified under oath he had never talked to Comey about his poor performance.
- Comey was investigating Russian spy Michael Flynn, Trump’s security advisor, and refused to stop the investigation when Trump asked him to. Bingo. Obstruction of justice. To everyone’s surprise, Trump eventually confessed to this motivation on camera, claiming there was nothing wrong with asking an investigation into his campaign to be squashed.