White House Offers Competing Explanations for Comey Firing

For weeks, President Donald Trump had been seething.

Who was to blame?

It was unclear whether word of the Comey request, put to deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, ever made its way to Trump.

“It is essential that this Department of Justice clearly reaffirm its commitment to longstanding principles that ensure the integrity and fairness of federal investigations and prosecutions”, Mr. Sessions said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Fox News after the firing that the “bigger point” on the Trump/Russia inquiry was “when are they going to let that go” since “there’s nothing there”.

But for weeks, the Russian Federation investigation has not appeared to be going away. The American people are entitled to an FBI Director worthy of their trust, and Mr. Comey broke that trust.

Republican presidential candidate Trump blasts the FBI’s decision not to bring criminal charges against Clinton, who has been the subject of “lock her up!” chants at his rallies.

‘The question is, why did it happen last night?’ Schumer mused. His letter to Comey opens not with a statement of cause for the firing, but the desperate claim that Trump himself is not under investigation.

The Democratic opposition is united behind a key demand: for the Justice Department to appoint a so-called special counsel to oversee the investigation. “You’ve got the deputy attorney general, who I would say is about as independent as it comes due to the fact that he has such bipartisan support”, Sanders said.

As a Democrat who voted for Hillary Clinton, Loretta Shollenberger is no fan of Comey.

Senate Democrats said Wednesday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, whom a lot of them voted to confirm just weeks ago, has now been tainted by this week’s firing of FBI Director James Comey and can no longer be involved in deciding the next big steps in the Russian Federation probe.

Sanders said the Trump administration’s concerns peaked last week.

“I can tell you that I hold Director Comey in the absolute highest regard”.

Trump was referencing some Democrats’ apparent resentment toward Comey after he publicly acknowledged that his agency was taking a renewed look at an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails during her time as Secretary of State.

On Breakfast TV yesterday Connecticut Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal even said Mr Comey’s firing had prompted a “looming constitutional crisis”. Mark Warner (D-VA) told a Washington D.C. television station that he and Burr had invited Comey to meet with the committee on 16 May 2017 or “as soon as he can”.

But Shollenberger believes Trump’s firing of Comey had nothing to do with his handling of the probe.

As commentators on cable TV called Trump’s move an abuse of power, the president was startled and infuriated by how his action was being received, according to a person with knowledge of his reaction.

Schumer appeared to signal that he thought Sessions had “compromised” the executive branch’s investigation, arguing it needs to be conducted outside of the White House’s reach.

Like other Clinton supporters, Cheri Zettel found the timing of Comey’s firing suspicious because of the Russian Federation probe.

Cox was a casualty of the battle over access to the tape recordings made of Nixon’s White House meetings. The Trump administration also wants to simplify tax brackets from seven options to three and eliminate the estate tax.

A trio of senior aides, including Spicer, hastily headed out for TV interviews on the North Lawn of the White House.