President Trump fires FBI Director Comey

FBI Director James Comey was fired by President Trump. ABC News has a brief statement released by Sean Spicer:

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This decision comes the same day the FBI sent a letter to Congress clarifying some inaccurate comments Comey made about emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop during congressional testimony last week. The letter reads in part:

Director Comey spoke of hundreds and thousands of e-mails being forwarded from Ms. Abedin to Mr. Weiner’s laptop computer. This included e-mails transferred via backups as well as manual forwarding. Our investigation determined that Ms. Abedin commonly forwarded emails to others who would print documents for her. Although we do not know the exact numbers, based on its investigation, the FBI believes it is reasonable to conclude that most of the emails found on Mr. Weiner’s laptop computer related to the Clinton investigation occurred as a result of a backup of personal electronic devices, with a small number a result of manual forwarding by Ms. Abedin to Mr. Weiner.

In other words, the FBI Director got the number wrong when he claimed Abedin had forwarded “hundreds and thousands” of emails to Weiner.

Obviously the fact that the FBI Director got the numbers wrong on an issue that connects to the letter he sent out last October, a letter which many progressives still view as having cheated Hillary Clinton out of White House, means there was no way this mistake could be viewed as anything but a major problem. Whether or not that letter really determined the outcome as some Democrats (and Hillary herself) believe is still the subject of debate.

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Comey has had a strange ride in Washington. When he was investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails, conservatives hoped he would be the person to finally hold a Clinton responsible for misbehavior. When he announced there would be no charges, progressives praised him and conservatives were furious he had balked. Then when he sent the letter last October and Hillary subsequently lost the election, he became every progressive’s most-hated-man-in-Washington again. In the end, this gaffe proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was apparently too much for the Trump administration to take.

Update: Here’s the letter Trump sent Comey (via Allahpundit). Note the second paragraph in which President Trump works in a statement about Comey saying he’s not under investigation.

https://twitter.com/spettypi/status/862061268714348544

Update (Allapundit): Am I hallucinating? The reason deputy AG Rod Rosenstein wanted Comey fired is because … he mishandled the Hillary Clinton email investigation?

Hillary’s getting her revenge — courtesy of Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions? W-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-what?

Update (Allahpundit): Normally you come up with the reasons before deciding to fire someone, right?

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If the firing offense here was how Comey handled the Clinton investigation, why wasn’t he fired on Inauguration Day?

Update (John): Here we go…Trump fired Comey to undercut the Russia investigation.

Here’s Axelrod talking about the “stench of coverup”:

And here’s Evan McMullin:

Chuck Schumer also declaring this is starting to look like a cover-up:

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One more:

Update (John): So this seems like a strange way to do things:

And more Nixon comparisons:

Here’s one from Adam Schiff:

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