Trump’s Story About Why He Fired James Comey Is Already Falling Apart
President Donald Trump and his aides
claimed he fired FBI Director
James Comey Tuesday because Comey mishandled the bureau’s investigation of former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. They argued it had nothing to do with the fact that Comey was
leading an investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian interference in the 2016 election. But by Wednesdaymorning, that story — which never made much sense in the first place — was
falling apart, and the White House was stumbling to defend it.
The idea that Trump fired Comey because of how he handled the Clinton email investigation was
inconsistent with the president’s previous actions. Trump has long clashed with Comey over issues unrelated to the White House’s stated reason for his ouster. He fumed over Comey’s decision to confirm in March that Trump associates were under FBI investigation for possible ties to Russian government officials. He resented Comey’s refusal to back his unsubstantiated claim that former President Barack Obama spied on him. And during the campaign, he criticized Comey’s decision to recommend no criminal charges be filed against Clinton for her use of a private email server ― the opposite of the argument Rosenstein made in the letter the White House claims was the impetus for Comey’s dismissal.
If Trump
truly believed Comey had treated Clinton unfairly, it would have made sense for him to fire the FBI director on his first day in office.