FBI Director
James Comey sought to expand his agency's probe into alleged Russian meddling
in the 2016 U.S. election days before President Donald Trump fired him on
Tuesday, a congressional source said on Wednesday.
With the
Republican president facing a storm of criticism from many Democrats and some
lawmakers in his own party, the Trump administration accused Comey of
"atrocities" on the job and denied his firing was related to the FBI
investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign's possible collusion
with Moscow to sway the election.
The ouster
stunned Washington and plunged Trump deeper into a controversy over his
campaign's alleged ties with Russia that has dogged the early days of his
presidency.
Democrats
intensified accusations on Wednesday that Comey's removal was intended to
undermine the FBI probe and demanded an independent investigation. Some of
Trump's fellow Republicans called the action troubling.
Trump, who
met Russia's foreign minister at the White House on Wednesday, defended his
abrupt firing of Comey from a law-enforcement post he had held since 2013,
saying he had not been doing a good job.
The
president had been considering letting Comey go "since the day he was
elected," Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a
news briefing. She said he acted in part after Attorney General Jeff Sessions
and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein this week "outlined the basic,
just, atrocities in circumventing the chain of command in the Department of
Justice" that she said Comey had committed.
A
congressional source with knowledge of the matter said Comey told lawmakers
within the past few days that he had asked the Justice Department for more
funding for the Russia probe. Comey informed lawmakers of that request after
the Senate intelligence committee had asked the FBI to speed up its Russia
inquiry, the source said.
Democrat
Dianne Feinstein, the leading Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told
reporters she understood that Comey was seeking more resources for the FBI
investigation.
"We
know that there are subpoenas being requested in the Eastern District of
Virginia, and that this investigation has been going on," Feinstein told
reporters.
She said she
met with Comey on March 15 along with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. At the
time Comey said it was "a big counter-intelligence and criminal
investigation," Feinstein said.
Responding
to media reports that Comey had asked Rosenstein last week for a significant
boost in resources for the agency's probe, Justice Department spokesman Ian
Prior said in an email, "Totally false."
U.S.
intelligence agencies concluded in a January report that Russian President
Vladimir Putin had ordered an effort to disrupt the 2016 election that included
hacking into Democratic Party emails and leaking them, with the aim of helping
Trump.
Russia has
denied any such meddling. The Trump administration denies allegations of
collusion with Russia.
'LOST THE
CONFIDENCE'
The Trump
administration said on Tuesday Comey's firing was over his handling of an
election-year FBI probe into then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary
Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
Many
Democrats have criticized Comey's management of that investigation, but they
sharply questioned the timing of his dismissal, given that Trump could have
acted soon after taking office on Jan. 20 and that he has repeatedly criticized
the FBI and congressional probes into Russia's role in the election.
Asked by
reporters why he fired Comey, in the White House as he met with former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office, Trump said, "He
wasn't doing a good job, very simply."
In a flurry
of Twitter posts earlier, Trump offered a further explanation, saying Comey had
"lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and
Democrat alike," and lambasted his critics.
Republicans
control both chambers of Congress, and a growing number of Republicans also
expressed doubts over Trump's move. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, a Republican, stood by Trump, accusing Democrats of
"complaining about the removal of an FBI director who they themselves
repeatedly and sharply criticized."
He also
dismissed Democratic calls for the Justice Department to appoint a special
prosecutor to look into Moscow's role in the election and possible ties between
Trump associates and Russia. Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell said a new
investigation would "only serve to impede" existing probes such as
one under way in the Senate intelligence committee.
The Senate's
minority leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, said Rosenstein should appoint a
special prosecutor, and he also called on McConnell to hold closed and
potentially classified briefings with all U.S. senators to question the top
Justice Department officials, Sessions and Rosenstein.
'TOO CLOSE
TO HOME'
Schumer said
such briefings should address why Sessions, who previously recused himself from
involvement in the Russia investigation after misstating his own contacts in
2016 with Russia's ambassador to Washington, was able to influence the firing
of the man conducting the FBI's Russia investigation.
"We
know Director Comey was leading an investigation in(to) whether the Trump
campaign colluded with the Russians, a serious offense. Were those
investigations getting too close to home for the president?" Schumer said.
Some Democrats
compared Trump's move to the "Saturday Night Massacre" of 1973, in
which President Richard Nixon ordered the firing of an independent special
prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal that eventually led Nixon to
resign.
As the
controversy swirled, Trump met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in
the Oval Office on Wednesday. Afterward, Trump said the two had "a very,
very good meeting" and discussed the need to stop the killing in Syria's
lengthy civil war.
Their
meeting was the highest-level public contact between Trump and Putin's
government since Trump took office on Jan. 20.
Asked
earlier by reporters at the U.S. State Department before a meeting with
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson if Comey's firing would cast a shadow over the
talks, Lavrov responded in a sarcastic tone: "Was he fired? You're
kidding. You're kidding."
The Kremlin
said it hoped Comey's firing would not affect Moscow's ties with Washington,
saying it believed his dismissal had nothing to do with Russia. Putin also said
the ouster would not impact U.S.-Russian relations.
Trump's
nominee as the new director would need to win Senate confirmation. Trump's
possible choices to head the FBI on an interim basis, according to a White
House official, include: acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe; Assistant Director
Paul Abbate; Chicago FBI agent Michael Anderson; and Richmond, Virginia agent
Adam Lee.
U.S. stocks
wavered and Treasury yields were little changed on Wednesday as Comey's firing
spurred some concern among investors that the fallout could hinder the
president's economic agenda.
REUTERS
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