Let’s unpack those remarks. For starters, surely James Clapper, who has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in political science, knows that the FBI is part of the Justice Department, which is in the executive branch. For a president to replace an official in his own administration has nothing to do with the separation of powers between “three co-equal branches of government.”
FBI directors are given 10-year appointments, which they serve at the pleasure of the president. And though it’s rare to replace one, it does happen. The last president to do so was Bill Clinton, who replaced an FBI chief appointed by Ronald Reagan. Had Clinton’s wife defeated Trump, she almost certainly would have fired Comey herself: Only a week before Trump did so, Mrs. Clinton publicly blamed him for her defeat.
So firing an FBI director is not unheard of. What is new is to characterize such a personnel move as an “assault” on America’s democratic institutions. Clapper’s rationale — and that of others who came unglued over Trump’s decision — is that James Comey was leading an investigation into Trump’s own behavior: specifically, whether he or anyone in his campaign colluded with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign. But the Justice Department’s investigation continues and there’s every reason that its findings would be more credible — and received with less skepticism — with the preternaturally political James Comey out of the picture. Moreover, neither Congress nor the FBI is stopping its investigation into possible Russian meddling. If anything, both probes will be pursued more vigorously than before. If Trump’s goal was to delay or derail the Russia probe, his removal of Comey has had precisely the opposite effect.
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