Advertisement

Abrupt firing called 'Nixonian'

 
Published May 10, 2017

WASHINGTON — In dramatically casting aside James Comey, President Donald Trump fired the man who may have helped make him president — and the man who potentially most threatened the future of his presidency.

Not since Watergate has a president dismissed the person leading an investigation bearing on him, and Trump's decision late Tuesday afternoon drew instant comparisons to the Saturday Night Massacre when President Richard Nixon ordered the firing of Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor looking into the so-called third-rate burglary that would eventually bring Nixon down.

In his letter informing Comey that he was terminated as FBI director, Trump made a point of noting that Comey had three times told the president that he was not under investigation. But Comey has said publicly that the bureau is investigating Russia's meddling in last year's presidential election and whether any associates of Trump's campaign were coordinating with Moscow.

While Trump said he acted on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he had left little doubt about his personal feelings toward Comey or that Russia investigation in recent days. "Comey was the best thing that has ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for her many bad deeds!" he wrote on Twitter a week ago.

"The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?" he added on Monday.

Some Democrats immediately raised the specter of Watergate and called for a special counsel to lead an independent investigation into the Russian meddling and any ties to Trump's campaign. "This is Nixonian," Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said in a statement.

"Not since Watergate have our legal systems been so threatened and our faith in the independence and integrity of those systems so shaken," added Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said: "President Trump called me at 5:30 p.m. and indicated he would be removing director Comey, saying the FBI needed a change. The next FBI director must be strong and independent."

Even longtime Trump supporter Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee and is leading that panel's investigation of Russian meddling, said he was "troubled by the timing and reasoning of director Comey's termination."

"His dismissal further confuses an already difficult investigation by the committee," Burr said in a statement. "In my interactions with the director and with the bureau under his leadership, he and the FBI have always been straightforward with our committee. Director Comey has been more forthcoming with information than any FBI director I can recall in my tenure on the congressional intelligence committees. His dismissal, I believe, is a loss for the bureau and the nation."

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also called for a special prosecutor.

He called Comey's dismissal "shocking" and "deeply troubling." Warner said a pattern appears to be developing in the Trump administration.

The paradox, of course, is that Comey had few fans among Democrats, especially Hillary Clinton, who just last week blamed him for steering the election to Trump by publicly announcing shortly before the election that he was reopening his investigation into her private emails.

Ever since Watergate, presidents have been reluctant to take on FBI directors, no matter how frustrated they were. The only exception was President Bill Clinton, who fired William Sessions in 1993 after ethical issues were raised against him, and was accused of acting politically.

Robert Mueller III threatened to resign as FBI director during President George W. Bush's administration if a secret surveillance program he considered illegal were continued, and Bush backed down rather than risk the scandal that would have ensued.

Joining Mueller in that threat, as it happened, was a deputy attorney general named James Comey.

Timothy Naftali, a former director of the Richard M. Nixon presidential library, said Trump's dismissal of Comey was not a direct parallel to the Saturday Night Massacre because he was not appointed specifically to investigate the 2016 campaign.

"With or without Mr. Comey, the FBI will continue to investigate the 2016 campaign as it relates to Russian intervention," Naftali said. "This is another kind of mistake. Unless Attorney General Sessions can prove malfeasance or gross negligence by Comey, the timing of this action further deepens suspicions that President Trump is covering up something."

Information from Tribune News Service was used in this report.