White House circulates negative stories about Comey after firing

by Jordan Fabian - 05/09/17 6:30 PM ET

The White House circulated negative press clippings on FBI Director James Comey minutes after announcing his firing Tuesday evening.

The one-page sheet circulated by the White House contained four stories, most of them about Democrats criticizing Comey’s decision to disclose developments in the investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

One of the clips was a Wall Street Journal editorial calling for Comey’s resignation because “he has lost the trust of nearly everyone in Washington, along with every American who believes the FBI must maintain its reputation as a politically impartial federal agency.”

{mosads}The story selection, and the release itself, added confusion to the circumstances surrounding his firing, given that President Trump frequently cheered Clinton’s email woes when he ran against her in 2016.

Trump said in late October “it took a lot of guts” for Comey to inform Congress he was looking into new emails related to the Clinton probe.

Comey’s firing comes as the FBI investigates whether any Trump associates coordinated with Russia in its effort to meddle in last year’s election.

“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to lead the bureau,” Trump wrote in a letter to Comey dated Tuesday.

Tags Donald Trump Hillary Clinton James Comey