President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey Tuesday evening, dismissing the former bureau chief in a letter addressing him directly.

"I have received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States recommending your dismissal as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation," the President wrote to Comey. "I have accepted their recommendation and you are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately.

"While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau," Trump added.

"It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission."

You can read Trump's letter to Comey below:

White House Statement on James Comey by Katie Reilly on Scribd

Comey's firing came not long after the FBI told the Senate Judiciary committee that Comey had misspoken during his testimony about Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin forwarding thousands of emails to her husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner. </s> We were shocked to learn President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9, but now we may be learning why he did so. In a statement written by the POTUS himself, he explains why Comey had to be terminated. Was it a result of James’ investigation into Russia meddling with the election? Read Trump’s termination letter here.

FBI Director James Comey was fired on May 9, and in his termination letter, which was written by Donald Trump, the POTUS says:

“I have received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States recommending your dismissal as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I have accepted their recommendation and you are hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately. While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgement of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau. It is essential that we find new leadership for the FBI that restores public trust and confidence in its vital law enforcement mission. I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.”

Donald Trump: See Pics Of The 45th President

The White House also released its own statement, announcing James’ firing. His termination comes on the same day James Comey came under fire for “misstating in a recent testimony that Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin had forwarded thousands of emails to her then husband Anthony Weiner,” HollywoodLife.com‘s sister site Deadline reports. Hillary recently said James cost her the 2016 election.

It must also be noted that James was also heading the investigation into Russian possibly meddling during the election and helping Trump win. Donald Trump didn’t give that as a reason for James’ firing, but the timing seems suspicious.

HollywoodLifers, how do YOU feel about Donald Trump firing James Comey? Tell us below! </s> FBI Director James Comey has been personally removed from office by President Donald Trump, according to a statement from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and reported by numerous outlets, including ABC News.

The short statement says “Today, President Donald J. Trump informed FBI Director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office.”

The statement says Trump “made the decision based on the clear recommendations of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.” It also reads “Today will mark a new day for our crown jewel of law enforcement.”

No further details are available at this time; this is a developing story. </s> Over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, President Donald Trump went on a tweetstorm criticizing the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Here’s a look at where Trump had a point and where his tweets were either misleading or wrong.

"As the House Intelligence Committee has concluded, there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State. #DrainTheSwamp"

Even the House Intelligence Committee — which released a report generally considered favorable to Trump — did not quite say that. On March 12, Republican committee members announced that they had found no evidence that Trump campaign associates colluded with Russian officials during the 2016 election. The findings are part of a forthcoming 150-page draft report, which contained no input from Democrats.

Yet even the Republican who chaired the investigation, Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, didn’t go as far as Trump did. Conaway said on NBC’s Meet the Press that there was "no evidence of collusion." That phrasing is something short of a determination that there was definitely no collusion.

Conaway also acknowledged that Democrats on the committee feel differently on that question. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on House Intelligence Committee, has said he believes there is "ample evidence" that the Trump campaign colluded with Russians.

As for Trump’s reference to "leaking, lying and corruption" at the FBI and the Justice Department, Trump is likely referring to ousted former FBI director James Comey and former deputy director Andrew McCabe.

Comey, who was fired by Trump on May 9, later testified that he made contemporaneous notes of conversations with the president that he strategically leaked to the media through a friend after his firing.

McCabe was fired shortly before his retirement after the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility reportedly recommended his dismissal. The FBI’s internal watchdog concluded that McCabe had authorized FBI officials to discuss the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, then misled investigators when asked about it. Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz is expected to release a report on McCabe’s conduct.

After his firing, McCabe said in a statement that he was being "singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey."

It’s not entirely clear what Trump meant by his reference to the State Department.

"The Fake News is beside themselves that McCabe was caught, called out and fired. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife’s campaign by Crooked H friend, Terry M, who was also under investigation? How many lies? How many leaks? Comey knew it all, and much more!"

Trump appears to be reviving a familiar line of attack he’s made against McCabe, concerning the intersection of his wife’s political activities and his role in the investigation into Clinton’s handling of sensitive emails. As we’ve noted in previous fact-checks, Trump has repeatedly been wrong on the details.

As a Virginia state candidate, Jill McCabe, a hospital physician, did receive donations linked to a longtime Clinton supporter, Terry McAuliffe, who was also the Democratic governor of Virginia.

But if Trump is insinuating these donations influenced Andrew McCabe’s approach to the Clinton email investigation — which Trump has previously suggested — he’s ignoring key facts in the timeline that undercut this assertion.

In October 2015, McAuliffe's PAC, Common Good VA, gave Dr. McCabe's campaign a total of $450,000. (An additional $17,500 had been given earlier.) The following month, McCabe lost her race. On Feb. 1, 2016 — three months after his wife's defeat — Andrew McCabe became the FBI's deputy director. In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, the FBI said it was the first time McCabe had any oversight role over the Clinton case.

Separately, Trump appears to be referring to reports that surfaced in May 2016 that the FBI was investigating McAuliffe’s campaign contributions, including $120,000 in donations from Chinese businessman Wang Wenliang through his U.S. companies.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller departs after a closed-door meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 21, 2017, in the U.S. Capitol. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

"The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!"

Trump is wrong to say the investigation into his campaign’s ties with Russia started with a dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Republican lawmakers have confirmed that George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser who was told during the election that high-ranking Russian government officials in Moscow possessed "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails," triggered the probe.

While Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein hasn’t fully laid out his rationale for why he appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller, some key facts leap out from the timeline leading up to his May 17, 2017, decision.

On March 2, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any "existing or future investigations" related to the 2016 presidential election, after he failed to disclose during his confirmation proceedings that he’d met with Russian officials during the campaign.

On May 9, Trump fired Comey, and two days later said on national television that "this Russia thing" was part of his reasoning for sacking the FBI director.

Rosenstein appointed Mueller less than a week later.

To date, Mueller has filed charges against 19 people and three companies, and obtained guilty pleas from five people, including three who worked on Trump’s presidential campaign.

Finally, Trump is wrong to say the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court was misused in order to spy on his campaign.

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page left the campaign in Sept. 2016. It was nearly a month later when FBI and Justice Department officials obtained a warrant on Oct. 21 to monitor Page after convincing the court there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of Russia.

"Wow, watch Comey lie under oath to Senator G when asked ‘have you ever been an anonymous source...or known someone else to be an anonymous source...?’ He said strongly ‘never, no.’ He lied as shown clearly on @foxandfriends."

In this tweet, Trump is alleging that McCabe’s statement, issued after his firing, contradicts Comey’s sworn testimony during a May 3, 2017, hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In an exchange with Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, Comey stated that he never authorized anyone at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump or Clinton investigations.

Grassley: "Director Comey, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about matters relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?"

Grassley: "Question two, relatively related, have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation?"

After his March 16 firing, McCabe issued a statement defending himself against allegations that he improperly permitted law enforcement officials to discuss the Clinton investigation with reporters, which referenced the FBI director, the position Comey held at the time.

"I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As deputy director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter," McCabe’s statement reads.

Here, McCabe states only that Comey was "aware of the interaction with the reporter" — not that Comey authorized it, which was what Grassley asked about.

"Spent very little time with Andrew McCabe, but he never took notes when he was with me. I don’t believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them Fake Memos?"

Just because McCabe may not have taken notes literally during a conversation with Trump doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be admissible in court. There is some flexibility in determining whether notes are "contemporaneous," and thus valid in court.

The federal rules of evidence bar many types of "hearsay" evidence -- essentially, statements made out of court and not under oath -- from being used in court. But there are exceptions to this rule, and the very first type of admissible evidence on the list is "present sense impression." The rules of evidence describe this as "a statement describing or explaining an event or condition, made while or immediately after the declarant perceived it."

The key phrase here is "immediately after." Additional commentary in the federal rules of evidence explains that "with respect to the time element, (the exception) recognizes that in many, if not most, instances precise contemporaneity is not possible, and hence a slight lapse is allowable."

If this case ever went to court, it would be up to a judge to decide whether any delay by McCabe in writing his notes was too long to classify as "immediately after." It’s premature to litigate this question, so for now, Trump has no basis for suggesting that McCabe’s notes are "fake."

"Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added...does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!"

We have previously rated Mostly False a Trump assertion about Mueller’s team that "the people that have been hired are all Hillary Clinton supporters, some of them worked for Hillary Clinton."

In addition, the Washington Post reported that 13 members of Mueller’s team are registered Democrats: Greg Andres, Rush Atkinson, Ryan Dickey, Michael Dreeben, Kyle Freeny, Andrew Goldstein, Adam Jed, Elizabeth Prelogar, James Quarles, Jeannie Rhee, Brandon Van Grack, Andrew Weissmann, and Aaron Zelinsky.

Of these, eight have given donations exclusively to Democrats: Andres, Atkinson, Freeny, Goldstein, Prelogar, Rhee, Van Grack, and Weissmann. Six of them have donated to Clinton specifically, or to a Clinton-aligned fund. One other member of the team, Quarles, has given to both Democrats and Republicans.

However, Trump left out that four other members of the Mueller team are not registered with any political party.

In addition, federal regulations bar the Justice Department from considering political affiliation or political contributions as a factor in hiring career appointees, leaving Mueller no ability to factor that into his hiring decisions. </s> ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) – Amid the fallout of President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas seeking the business records of known associates of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Looking for business records relevant to the ongoing investigation of Russian meddling in last year’s election, the subpoenas could be an indication of escalating activity in the FBI’s search into possible Trump campaign associate ties with the Kremlin.

The subpoenas were issued by U.S. Attorney Dana Boente in the last several weeks from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Alexandria, Va. The developments were first reported by CNN.

The people who received the subpoenas are known to have worked with Flynn on various contracts after he was ousted from the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014. Flynn once served as director of the agency.

Boente was only recently appointed as acting assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department’s national security division, which is responsible for oversight into the FBI’s Russia investigation.

Robert Kelner, Flynn’s attorney, did not return a call for comment Wednesday.

News of the subpoenas came amid other shockwaves rocking Washington this week, namely the firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday night.

As details unfolded on Wednesday, anonymous sources claimed Comey sought additional funds and resources for the agency’s investigation into Russia’s meddling. The sources also reportedly said Comey disclosed his request both to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and to Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who wrote a memo that served as the basis for Comey’s firing.

Comey has been invited to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee next Tuesday but he has not yet confirmed if he will attend. The hearing is likely to be classified.

Trump did not say Wednesday who Comey’s replacement would be or if they would lead the ongoing Russian investigation, but the president said on Twitter that he will find a new director “who will do a far better job, bringing back the spirit and prestige of the FBI.”

The former FBI director confirmed last week that inquiries into Flynn were a piece of the larger investigation. CNN reported on Tuesday night that investigators were exploring possible wrongdoing in Flynn’s disclosure of client payments tied to foreign governments including Turkey and Russia.

Flynn resigned in February. It was eventually discovered that he failed to disclose the nature of his communications with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to Washington.

Investigators have also reported that Flynn may have broken the law when he omitted a $45,000 paid appearance fee he collected for a television stint in Moscow promoting Russia Today, a Russian government-funded news outlet.

Kelner has previously defended Flynn, saying that his client is not hiding anything and that, in fact, he briefed the Defense Intelligence Agency both before and after his trip to Russia. </s> After President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, questions immediately arose about the President’s motivations for his dismissal — and for the recent firings of two other then-President Barack Obama-appointees who were in the middle of conducting investigations linked to Trump.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Comey’s firing was part of a “deeply troubling pattern from the Trump administration,” that appears to be linked to two other high-profile dismissals.

“They fired Sally Yates. They fired Preet Bharara. And they fired James Comey, the very man leading he investigation. This does not seem to be a coincidence,” Schumer said shortly after the announcement, calling for a special independent prosecutor into the Trump campaign’s ties to the Kremlin.

“Any person who he appoints to lead the Russian investigation will be concerned that he or she will meet the same fate as Director Comey,” he said.

CNN’s senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was not buying the idea that Comey was sacked over the Clinton investigation, saying it was “absurd.”

Toobin branded the move a “grotesque abuse of power by the President of the United States,” comparing the sacking of Comey to President Richard Nixon’s firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the Watergate scandal.

The FBI director saw his reputation compromised when he became embroiled in the 2016 election campaign. He was first criticized by Republicans when he announced he wouldn’t be charging then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over her emails, and then by Democrats for publicly reopening the case days before Americans went to the polls.

Why was he fired?

The Trump administration attributed Comey’s dismissal to his handling of the investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. In a signed letter released by the White House, Trump informed Comey that he was “hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately,” explaining that he reached the conclusion that the erstwhile director was “not able to effectively lead the bureau.”

What was he investigating?

As head of the FBI, he was overseeing the investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to the Kremlin. Democrats have ridiculed the notion that the Clinton issue is what truly prompted Comey’s dismissal, drawing parallels to Watergate-era firings and suggesting Comey was getting too close to the White House with the Russia probe.

Where is the investigation now?

At a hearing last week, Comey confirmed that the FBI’s investigation into accusations of coordination between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian officials was continuing. It’s not clear if the incoming FBI director will pick up where Comey left off.

Appointed by Obama, former Deputy Attorney General Yates had been running Trump’s Justice Department as Acting Attorney General while Trump’s nominee for the role, Sen. Jeff Sessions, awaited confirmation. She became a household name when Trump abruptly removed her from the temporary position.

Why was she fired?

Ostensibly for her refusal to implement the first iteration of Trump’s ban on travelers from a number of Muslim-majority countries.

“The acting Attorney General, Sally Yates, has betrayed the Department of Justice by refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement at the time, explaining the President’s actions.

What was she investigating?

As part of the probe into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump administration, then-acting Attorney General Yates met with White House counsel to inform them that then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn wasn’t telling the truth about his interactions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and, as a result, represented a blackmail risk.

“We believed that General Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians,” Yates said in a Senate subcommittee hearing aimed at gathering details of the Russian hacking of the 2016 election on Monday in Washington.

“Logic would tell you that you don’t want the national security adviser to be in a position where the Russians have leverage over him,” she added.

Where is the investigation now?

Yates said Monday that she warned the White House earlier this year that former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn could be “essentially blackmailed by the Russians.”

Preet Bharara, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was known as one of Wall Street’s fiercest watchdogs and a widely respected prosecutor.

Why was he fired?

Bharara first refused to resign along with 46 US attorneys across the country. Although it is common for incoming administrations to replace district attorneys when transitioning to power, Trump had previously assured Bharara that he’d keep his job.

Sources told CNN that Bharara had been told after a meeting with Trump in November that he could stay on, and that he felt blindsided by the request. He was fired after refusing to comply.

At the time, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren posted a series of tweets suggesting Bharara was removed in part because he “had authority over Trump Tower.”

Bharara suggested that this was indeed the case. “I wanted it to be on record that there was a deliberate decision to change (his) mind and fire me, particularly given what my office’s jurisdiction is,” he said.

What was he investigating?

Bharara’s office had many investigations ongoing at the time of his firing, including one involving Trump favorite Fox News.

And then there’s the President’s claim that he was wiretapped in Trump Tower on orders of then-President Obama, whose investigation led back to the Southern District of New York.

“Trump has undoubtedly decided that he wants his own pick rather than the choice of Senate adversary (and minority leader) Chuck Schumer in place as the top federal prosecutor in New York,” CNN legal analyst Paul Callan wrote in March.

Where is the investigation now?

Members of both parties have said they have seen no evidence to back up Trump’s allegations about Obama, and, addressing a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee, Comey said that he had “no information” to support claims by the President that he was wiretapped on the orders of his predecessor. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Director James Comey asserted Thursday that President Donald Trump fired him to interfere with his investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election and its ties to the Trump campaign.

“It’s my judgment that I was fired because of the Russia investigation,” Comey told the Senate intelligence committee in explosive testimony that threatened to undermine Trump’s presidency.

“I was fired in some way to change, or the endeavor was to change, the way the Russia investigation was being conducted,” Comey testified under oath. “That is a very big deal, and not just because it involves me.”

Comey also accused the Trump administration of spreading “lies, plain and simple” about him and the FBI in the aftermath of his abrupt firing last month, declaring that the administration then “chose to defame me and, more importantly, the FBI” by claiming the bureau was in disorder under his leadership. And in testimony that exposed deep distrust between the president and the veteran lawman, Comey described intense discomfort about their one-on-one conversations, saying he decided he immediately needed to document the discussions in memos.

“I was honestly concerned that he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so I thought it really important to document,” Comey said. “I knew there might come a day when I might need a record of what happened not only to defend myself but to protect the FBI.”

The revelations came as Comey delivered his much anticipated first public telling of his relationship with Trump, speaking at a packed Senate intelligence committee hearing that brought Washington and parts of the country to a standstill as all eyes were glued to screens showing the testimony. The former director immediately dove into the heart of the fraught political controversy around his firing and whether Trump interfered in the bureau’s Russia investigation, as he elaborated on written testimony delivered Wednesday. In that testimony he had already disclosed that Trump demanded his “loyalty” and directly pushed him to “lift the cloud” of investigation by declaring publicly the president was not the target of the FBI probe into his campaign’s Russia ties.

Comey said that he declined to do so in large part because of the “duty to correct” that would be created if that situation changed. Comey also said in his written testimony that Trump, in a strange private encounter near the grandfather clock in the Oval Office, pushed him to end his investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia asked Comey the key question: “Do you believe this rises to obstruction of justice?”

“I don’t know. That’s Bob Mueller’s job to sort that out,” Comey responded, referring to the newly appointed special counsel who has taken over the Justice Department’s Russia investigation.

In a startling disclosure, Comey revealed that after his firing he actually tried to spur the special counsel’s appointment by giving one of his memos about Trump to a friend of his to release to the press.

“My judgment was I need to get that out into the public square,” Comey said.

Trump’s private attorney, Marc Kasowitz, seized on Comey’s affirmation that he told Trump he was not personally under investigation. Though Comey said he interpreted Trump’s comments as a directive to shut down the Flynn investigation, Kasowitz also maintained in his written statement that Comey’s testimony showed that the president “never, in form or substance, directed or suggested that Mr. Comey stop investigating anyone, including suggesting that that Mr. Comey ‘let Flynn go.’”

The Republican National Committee and other White House allies worked feverishly to lessen any damage from the hearing, trying to undermine Comey’s credibility by issuing press releases and even ads pointing to a past instance where the FBI had had to clean up the director’s testimony to Congress. Republicans and Trump’s own lawyer seized on Comey’s confirmation, in his written testimony, of Trump’s claim that Comey had told him three times the president was not directly under investigation.

Trump himself was expected to dispute Comey’s claims that the president demanded loyalty and asked the FBI director to drop the investigation into Flynn, according to a person close to the president’s legal team who demanded anonymity because of not being authorized to discuss legal strategy. The president has not yet publicly denied the specifics of Comey’s accounts but has broadly challenged his credibility, tweeting last month Comey “better hope there are no ‘tapes’” of the conversations.

“Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” Comey remarked at one point Thursday, suggesting such evidence would back up his account over any claims from the president.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California asked the question that many Republicans have raised in the weeks since Comey’s firing as one media leak followed another revealing Comey’s claims about Trump’s inappropriate interactions with him.

Discussing the Oval Office meeting where Comey says Trump asked him to back off Flynn, Feinstein asked: “Why didn’t you stop and say, ‘Mr. President, this is wrong,’?”

“That’s a great question,” Comey said. “Maybe if I were stronger I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation I just took it in.”

The hearing unfolded amid intense political interest, and within a remarkable political context as Comey delivered detrimental testimony about the president who fired him, a president who won election only after Comey damaged his opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the final days of the campaign. Clinton has blamed her defeat on Comey’s Oct. 28 announcement that he was re-opening the investigation of her email practices. “If the election were on Oct. 27, I would be your president,” Clinton said last month.

Thursday’s hearing included discussion of that email investigation, as Comey disclosed that then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch instructed him to refer to the issue as a “matter,” not an “investigation.”

“That concerned me because that language tracked how the campaign was talking about the FBI’s work and that’s concerning,” Comey said. “We had an investigation open at the time so that gave me a queasy feeling.”

Many Democrats still blame Comey for Clinton’s loss, leading Trump to apparently believe they would applaud him for firing Comey last month. The opposite was the case as the firing created an enormous political firestorm that has stalled Trump’s legislative agenda on Capitol Hill and taken over Washington.

Under questioning Thursday, Comey strongly asserted the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia did indeed meddle in the 2016 election.

“There should be no fuzz on this. The Russians interfered,” Comey stated firmly. “That happened. It’s about as unfake as you can possibly get.”

Trump has begrudgingly accepted the U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia interfered with the election. But he has also suggested he doesn’t believe it, saying Russia is a “ruse” and calling the investigation into the matter a “witch hunt.” </s> US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday fired Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s former No. 2 official who was deeply involved in the agency’s investigations of Hillary Clinton and Russia’s role in the 2016 US election and was repeatedly criticized by President Donald Trump.

McCabe said in a lengthy statement that he believes he is being politically targeted because he corroborated former FBI Director James Comey’s claims that Trump tried to pressure him into killing the Russia probe.

Trump ousted Comey last year and later acknowledged in a televised interview that he fired Comey over “this Russia thing.”

“Based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately,” Sessions said in a statement.

McCabe’s dismissal came two days before his 50th birthday, when he would have been eligible to retire from the Federal Bureau of Investigation with his full pension. The firing – which comes nine months after Trump fired Comey – puts McCabe’s pension in jeopardy.

It also is likely to raise questions about whether McCabe received an overly harsh punishment due to political pressure by the Republican president, who has blasted McCabe on Twitter and called for his ouster.

Comey’s firing paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to tap Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is now leading the investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Trump has denied there was any collusion.

“I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey,” McCabe said in his statement.

“This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort … to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally.”

McCabe had stepped down from his position as FBI deputy director in January but remained on leave pending retirement.

His departure was triggered by a critical report from the Justice Department’s inspector general that eventually led to a recommendation that he be fired.

The report said McCabe misled investigators about his communications with a former Wall Street Journal reporter who was writing about McCabe’s role in probes tied to Clinton, including an investigation of the Clinton family’s charitable foundation.

In his statement, McCabe denied ever misleading investigators.

He added that the release of the inspector general’s report was “accelerated” after he testified behind closed doors before the US House Intelligence Committee where he revealed he could back up Comey’s claims. Comey’s firing has become central to questions about whether Trump unlawfully sought to obstruct the Russia investigation.

McCabe could potentially be a crucial witness in Mueller’s investigation.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App </s> PALM BEACH, Fla. -- U.S. President Donald Trump is attempting to rewrite history on his rationale for firing James Comey as FBI director last year.

In a Wednesday morning tweet sent as Comey promotes his criticism-filled new book, Trump says he "was not fired because of the phoney Russia investigation." But in an interview days after the sudden firing, Trump revealed that the probe into potential collusion during the 2016 campaign was on his mind at the time he made the decision.

The White House's initial explanation for Trump's decision was Comey's handling of the Clinton email investigation, and it released a memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein justifying the decision. But two days after firing Comey, Trump undercut that rationale.

In the interview with NBC on May 11, 2017, Trump said, "In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story."'

Trump decided to fire Comey over the objections of his top advisers at the time, including chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Comey's firing, and Trump's subsequent suggestion that the Russia investigation was a factor in the decision, led Rosenstein to appoint special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the investigation. Mueller is now investigating the Comey firing as part of an investigation of potential obstruction by the president.

Appearing Wednesday on ABC's "The View," Comey said he doesn't know why Trump fired him. But he said the president's Wednesday tweet that Comey was not dismissed because of the "phoney Russia investigation" illustrates a problem the former FBI director said he's been trying to highlight during his book-promotion tour.

"It matters that the president is not committed to the truth as a central American value," Comey said.

In an interview with ABC that aired Sunday, Comey said there is "certainly some evidence" that Trump had obstructed justice when Comey said the president pushed him to take a lenient stance toward former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States.
James Comey, the former FBI Director who was dismissed by President Donald Trump last month, appears before the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Comey says he believes he was fired because of the FBI investigation into the possible collusion between President Trump's campaign team and Russia's interference in the 2016 elections.