There has been plenty of movement during another busy day in Washington, so here is a round-up of the main points. We will put this blog on hold pending any fresh developments.
Sacked FBI director JamesComey has urged the organisation to continue to protect the American people and uphold the constitution in a farewell letter obtained by CNN. He says he has “long believed that a president can fire an FBI director for any reason, or for no reason at all”.
The reasoning behind the dismissal remains the subject of much scrutiny. The White House has said Trump’s frustration with Comey had been building for months. Media reports have pointed to a range of motivations, including personal antagonism, the progress of the FBI’s inquiry into alleged Russian electoral interference and a refusal to provide Trump aides with an advance copy of his planned testimony to a Senate panel last week.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn has been issued with a subpoena by the Senate intelligence committee for documents relevant to its Russia inquiry. Flynn last month declined to provide his records.
Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House oversight and government reform committee, has asked the justice department to expand its review of the FBI’s actions during the election campaign to include the “facts and circumstances surrounding” the firing of Comey.
The last US president to fire an FBI director was Bill Clinton, who dismissed William Sessions in 1993 over financial irregularities. Time magazine has more detail on Sessions’ downfall.
It makes the point that the reaction of FBI agents to the news in both cases was very different, with “no love lost between Sessions and his subordinates”.
The reasoning behind Trump’s swift dismissal of Comey – assuming the people should be given more detail than simply that he was ‘not doing a good job’ – remains the focus at the moment.
Reuters has it from White House officials that Trump had been frustrated with Comey for months – which supports what White House deputy press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders says – but also that the turning point came when Comey refused to hand Trump aides his planned testimony to a Senate panel.
Trump, his attorney general Jeff Sessions and deputy Rod Rosenstein had wanted a heads-up from Comey about what he would say at a hearing on May 3 about his handling of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
When Comey refused, Trump and his aides considered that an act of insubordination and it was one of the catalysts for the decision, the officials told Reuters.
“It gave the impression that he was no longer capable of carrying out his duties,” one official said. Previews of congressional testimony to superiors are generally considered courteous.
A remorseless Washington Post has revived the issue of White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s spell in, or near, the wilderness after news of Comey’s sacking broke. Here is our rundown of what David Smith describes as one of Spicer’s most peculiar briefings yet.
This story has been updated to more precisely describe Spicer's location near White House bushes on Tuesday night https://t.co/kRwAq4lLeo
FBI agents around the country are still grappling with the news of James Comey’s sudden departure, with many shocked at the manner of the sacking and what it might mean for the bureau’s independence.
One recently retired agent, who served for 26 years, said: “Although they [the White House] have said publicly that they’re trying to restore faith in the FBI and the integrity of its leadership, it is, by all appearances, just the opposite.”
“I don’t think there’s any way not to think that’s going to have a chilling effect on how that investigation [into Russian interference in the US election] is conducted.”
Stepping away from Comey for a moment, Senator John McCain has launched another broadside against Trump, pledging oppose the president’s pick for trade representative owing to the administration’s “ongoing, incoherent and inconsistent trade message”.
He and fellow Republican senator Ben Sasse say in a letter that they find Robert Lighthizer’s criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) “alarming” and point out that the US should have an envoy “who will renegotiate Nafta in order to build on its successes, not as a pretext for unraveling it”.
Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general today asking him to expand the review of the FBI’s actions during the 2016 election to include the “facts and circumstances surrounding” the firing of Comey.
“You stated previously that your work includes an examination of whether Comey’s public communications and notifications to Congress about the Clinton investigation comported with Justice Department and FBI policies and procedures,” Chaffetz wrote. “You separately stated ‘if circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider including other issues that may arise during the course of the review.’ The recommendation to remove Comey indeed warrants such consideration. “
The inspector general review began in January. Chaffetz announced in April that he will not seek reelection in 2018.
Jason Chaffetz asks DOJ Inspector General to expand probe to include the decision to remove James Comey. pic.twitter.com/3q4blmMSn0
Donald Trump has continued to prosecute his point that the Democrats didn’t have much love for Comey, and appears to have linked the sacking of the director to his efforts to #DrainTheSwamp
This is Graham Russell, by the way, taking the baton from Julia as blogger #3. Comey’s letter comes across as really quite upbeat, though there may be just the hint of a pointed remark. He tells his staff that the people should see the FBI as a “rock of competence, honesty and independence”. He adds: “My hope is that you will continue to live our values and the mission of protecting the American people and upholding the constitution.”
CNN has published what it says is James Comey’s farewell letter to staff, in which he says he has “long believed that a president can fire an FBI director for any reason, or for no reason at all”.
Just obtained First on CNN --- Comey writes farewell letter to his former staff and friends pic.twitter.com/Y0zy8NAo6J
Donald Trump’s decision to meet with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office amid the firestorm over his firing of James Comey has raised more than a few eyebrows.
According to Politico, Trump issued the invitation at the “specific request” of Vladimir Putin.
Lavrov, who has served as foreign minister since 2004, had been persona non grata at the White House since 2013, Politico reports. Trump reversed that protocol following a phone call with Putin:
“He chose to receive him because Putin asked him to,” a White House spokesman said of Trump’s Lavrov meeting. “Putin did specifically ask on the call when they last talked.”
Read the rest of Politico’s report on the significance of the Lavrov meeting here.
Former FBI agents voice anger and humiliation over Comey firing
Lois Beckett
Donald Trump’s firing of the FBI director, James Comey, has left FBI agents shocked, angry and humiliated, with some former agents worried that the president has fundamentally compromised the bureau’s prized political neutrality.
Bobby Chacon, a former FBI agent who served in Los Angeles and New York and retired in 2014, compared the abrupt firing to “a punch in the stomach to agents”.
“I myself, and I would speak for a lot of agents, feel very disrespected by the administration and how this was handled,” he told the Guardian. Other former agents said the way Comey was fired was an “outrage” and said that the Trump administration’s approach “besmirches the reputation of the FBI”.
Calls are mounting for some kind of independent investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election, but the path to get one is narrow, the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland and Jon Swaine report.
Congress could pass legislation to appoint an independent prosecutor, but Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell’s opposition to such a move makes it unlikely.
What seems like the only remaining option – the appointment of a special counsel – now lies solely in the hands of the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the same man, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who authored the letter that led to Comey’s sacking in the first place.
For more on how we got here, and what could happen next, read the entire piece here.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi has threatened to force a vote on a bill that would create an independent panel to investigate ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, the AP reports.
Pelosi wrote a letter to House Democrats saying they would use a parliamentary maneuver to force a vote on the legislation if Paul Ryan doesn’t schedule one “immediately upon our return next week” from recess.
The letter said the Democrats could use a discharge petition, which would allow the legislation to go straight to the floor and skip committees, according to the AP.
Pelosi said the “fireworks at the Department of Justice demand that we remove the investigation from the Trump-appointed Justice Department leadership.”
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