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In response to
"I'd appreciate it if ST just cut and paste WSJ and NY Times articles. -- nm"
by
David
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Long one
Posted by
GregW (aka not2fast)
May 9 '17, 23:13
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WASHINGTON—The more James Comey showed up on television discussing the FBI’s investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, the more the White House bristled, according to aides to President Donald Trump.
Frustration was growing among top associates of the president that Mr. Comey, in a series of appearances before a Senate panel, wouldn’t publicly tamp down questions about possible collusion with Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race. A person with knowledge of recent conversations said they wanted Mr. Comey to “say those three little words: ‘There’s no ties.’”
In the months before his decision to dismiss Mr. Comey as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Trump grew unhappy that the media spotlight kept shining on the director. He viewed Mr. Comey as eager to step in front of TV cameras and questioned whether his expanding media profile was warping his view of the Russia investigation, the officials said.
One White House aide, speaking after Mr. Comey’s dismissal, described him as a show horse.
“Oh, and there’s James—he’s become more famous than me,” Mr. Trump said as Mr. Comey crossed the room to greet him at a Jan. 22 reception for law enforcement.
In firing Mr. Comey, Mr. Trump said he relied on recommendations by his top two Justice Department officials that the FBI needed new leadership. But he made a point of thanking the director for “informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation.”
That purported detail about the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia hadn’t previously been disclosed. The FBI declined to comment.
The culmination of those frustrations came with Mr. Comey’s summary dismissal, by letter to FBI headquarters, when Mr. Comey was in Los Angeles to meet with FBI agents and attend a job fair. It marked the dramatic end of a rocky relationship between the two that saw Mr. Trump oscillate between effusive praise for and accusations of wrongdoing against Mr. Comey.
His focus on the FBI director began last July, when Mr. Comey, in an extraordinary press conference, said that while Democrat Hillary Clinton had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information while secretary of state, the FBI wouldn’t recommend criminal charges against her. Mr. Trump, at a rally later that day, said the system was “rigged” in Mrs. Clinton’s favor and suggested that she had tried to bribe the Justice Department.
When Mr. Comey in late October—weeks before the election—informed congressional leaders that the FBI had new evidence in the Clinton email probe, effectively reopening the investigation, Mr. Trump praised the move. “What he did, he brought his reputation—he brought it back,” Mr. Trump said at a rally that month. “He’s got to hang tough because a lot of people want him to do the wrong thing. He did the right thing.”
Mr. Trump reversed course again when Mr. Comey, just two days before the election, told Congress that the new information in the Clinton probe didn’t change the FBI’s determination not to prosecute.
At a rally in Michigan that evening, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Comey again of rigging the system to protect Mrs. Clinton. “You can’t review 650,000 new emails in eight days—you just can’t do it, folks,” he said. “Hillary Clinton is guilty.”
Since his election victory, Mr. Trump appeared at times to warm to Mr. Comey, whom Mrs. Clinton has credited with Mr. Trump’s victory. The two hugged at an event shortly after his inauguration, and the president in April defended Mr. Comey’s handling of the email investigation, telling Fox Business Network that the FBI director wanted to “give everybody a good, fair chance.”
Critics of Mr. Trump have pointed to his previous statements about Mr. Comey—including his praise for the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe—as proof that the president’s decision to fire him wasn’t motivated by the reason cited in his dismissal: mistakes made over the handling of the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email server.
Instead, they suggest that Mr. Trump was seeking to short-circuit the FBI’s investigation into his own associates, noting that as a candidate Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Comey only when he made decisions that adversely affected his campaign.
Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, in a CNN interview late Tuesday, said Mr. Trump’s praise for Mr. Comey’s handling of the email probe during the campaign was irrelevant to his decision to dismiss the FBI director. “You’re looking at the wrong set of facts. You’re going back to the campaign,” she said. “This man is the president of the United States.”
Since Mr. Trump’s inauguration, a frosty relationship has persisted between him and the FBI director. Associates of Mr. Comey said the director respected the office of the presidency and understood he served at the pleasure of the president. He regularly briefed Mr. Trump on national security matters and had discussions with the president about policy issues, ranging from gang violence to the encryption of communications and devices that is bedeviling law enforcement.
He was careful not to release information to the president about the ongoing probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the U.S. election, however, because Mr. Comey believed doing so would cross ethical and legal boundaries, according to the associates. Mr. Comey told associates before the election and in December that he knew he could be fired but wouldn’t let such fears affect his decision making. He also urged agents investigating Russia’s meddling in the election not to worry about politics or how their probe might affect those in power, an associate said.
Mr. Comey was irked when Mr. Trump alleged in early March without any evidence that the Obama administration had tapped the phones of Trump Tower, fearing that what he described to associates as reckless tweets could damage the reputation of the FBI. The agency can only obtain such wiretaps with court approval. He made a point of telling members of Congress later that month at a hearing he had “no information” to support Mr. Trump’s assertions.
Last week, ahead of Mr. Comey’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee—where he said he feels “mildly nauseous” over the possibility that his actions influenced the election—Mr. Trump tweeted: “FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds!”
On Tuesday, an FBI official sent a letter to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee acknowledging that Mr. Comey had overstated evidence stemming from the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’’s email use. People familiar with the matter said the mistake sealed Mr. Comey’s fate. Keith Schiller, Mr. Trump’s longtime bodyguard who is director of Oval Office Operations, delivered the letter to FBI headquarters. One person familiar with the matter said Mr. Comey was giving a presentation to field agents when one agent in the presentation got a news alert on his mobile and told the director the report said he was fired.
Mr. Comey was in the FBI’s Los Angeles headquarters when he learned of his firing, according to a law-enforcement official. Before he left the office, he addressed hundreds of employees and offered encouragement to them, this official said, adding that the mood was “somber.” News channels later showed a white private jet, reportedly carrying Mr. Comey, taxiing at the airport en route back to Washington.
— Ian Lovett, Byron Tau and Carol E. Lee contributed to this article.
Write to Rebecca Ballhaus at [email protected], Michael C. Bender at [email protected] and Del Quentin Wilber at [email protected]
Appeared in the May. 10, 2017, print edition as 'Before the Dismissal, A Growing Frustration.'
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