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Source – NYTimes

My Thoughts: To be honest, he should've also been fired for doing poor job investing Clinton's emails during the Election. I'm really glad he lost his position, but this is just a simple man's opinion.

Then why didn't he do that back in January?
Why now, 5 months later?
Why does the President continue to say that he's not under investigation, when the now-former FBI Director said that he is?
Why did Jeff Sessions get involved in this decision?
Why was he fired while he was in Los Angeles at a hiring event?

There's a lot of questions around the timing of the firing, and now there's increased calls for an independent commission.

Donald J. Trump wrote:

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 effectively lead the Bureau.

"I'm totally innocent you guys! And this firing has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Comey was leading an investigation against me."

We should keep our eyes on the Eastern District of Virginia.
Grand Juries.
Rocket Docket.
RICO.
FARA.
FISA.
Sealed indictments.
And Comey was involved.

Speaking of Grand Juries…

CNN wrote:

Federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn seeking business records, as part of the ongoing probe of Russian meddling in last year's election, according to people familiar with the matter. CNN learned of the subpoenas hours before President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey.

I do not have confidence in [Comey] any longer…

--Chuck Schumer, Democratic Minority Leader, 2016

President Trump called me and informed me he was firing Director Comey. I told the president, "Mr. President, with all due respect, you are making a big mistake."

--Chuck Schumer, Democratic Minority Leader, 2017

BrentD15 said:

Then why didn’t he do that back in January?

Was probably waiting for DAG Rosenstein's investigation to conclude, plus not wanting to trigger a shitstorm right after inauguration.

Why does the President continue to say that he’s not under investigation, when the now-former FBI Director said that he is?

Donald Trump himself is not under investigation, members of his campaign are. Presumably, if a "smoking gun" is ever found linking him to the Russia stuff, then he will be.

Why did Jeff Sessions get involved in this decision?

Why wouldn't he? He's the Attorney General. AKA Comey's (now former) boss. He recused himself from the Russia investigation. This isn't the Russia investigation.

Why was he fired while he was in Los Angeles at a hiring event?

Poor communication (a running theme of this administration) + Trump likely not caring. Wouldn't be the first time a high ranking official got the boot and found out about it from the news.

pssssh… nothin personnel…
…
…
…kid

You keep including that "I have no confidence in Comey any longer" talking point, if it helps you sleep at night.

The systems of checks and balances are failing because the Republican Party is implicated in the investigation.

Firstly, I think it might be helpful for the entire discussion that you actually preemptively attempt to answer the litany of questions you pose instead of going "wow, there's a lot of questions" to imply that something's rotten in Denmark. Not doing so doesn't point out that there's an issue, but rather implies that you're not capable of even attempting to answer the questions you pose and yet intend said questions to make their own assertions for you.

Furthermore,

The systems of checks and balances are failing because the Republican Party is implicated in the investigation

Elaborate. Because currently, this doesn't make sense-- neither in any applicable local context, nor in its own right.

If someone could actually tell me why Comey deserves to keep his job, im all ears. As far as i can see, the mans got a bad habit of turning to the media with half-baked information that'll get people's attention more then he does actually running the FBI. He didn't seem to be on top of stopping the long list of domestic terror attacks during the obama years, but releasing inflammatory info on clinton, and now starting a red scare 2.0 with trump, he seems to have a handle on.

I don't trust the person who acts like a buzzfeed reporter running the countries biggest security organization.

Astatine said:

Elaborate. Because currently, this doesn’t make sense-- neither in any applicable local context, nor in its own right.

Notice how few of them are actually taking serious the exceptionally high possibility that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, and will plan to do so until they are stopped.

The fact that they're trying to make this a partisan issue by saying "Well, Democrats were calling for his firing last year!" don't hold up when such criticisms aren't exclusive to seeing the FBI director, he decided to keep during the transition, getting fired a day after the hearing from his former Activing Attorney General as a possible obstruction of justice. And then there was the fact that Trump hired a law firm to issue a rebuttal over his Russian connections.

And do you also need reminders of how Devin Nunes acted in his House Intel Committee investigation?

Black Graphic T said:

…starting a red scare 2.0 with trump,…

Why get so defensive over Russia? The FBI is still going to investigate those implications, if you haven't been paying attention.

And even if there is nothing there, why not just let the investigation go through, they don't come up with anything, and the President can gloat all the way to 2020? He's either scared that they'll manufacture evidence of Russian connections, or that there are, indeed, connections to the Russians that can throw his presidency into legal jeopardy.

The fact that the White House was surprised at the explosion of outrage over his firing not just from Democrats, but from Republicans, is only more reason that something reeks to high heaven with Comey's firing.

Who said anything about being defensive, im calling it as i see it. The way people are acting with this, and the level of hysteria and paranoia people have now regarding russia, is starting to come close to matching the levels in the 50's and 60's. The investigation should continue, but it needs to be handled by people only interested in the truth, and not on making publicity from the events ala comey.

The fact treason is being thrown around as something people think has actually occurred matches the fear of communism from McCarthyism. And personally i feel it is a red herring that people want to be true so they can throw the Senate, congress, and entire current administration, out of office and behind bars. When in truth, this administration is practicing cronyism, which is common in most modern presidential administrations, but dtill bad and deserves to be called out more then chasing down how russians are making chem trails to turn the frogs gay.

When Nixon fired Cox his office was sealed

Who's in control of Comey's files currently?

Aren't you the same guy who said trump wqs guilty of treason for even having a potential tie to russia via funding? Now you look at the guy who gave away active us agents identities to everyone and then got sheltered by russia all this time. Seems a tad hypocritical of you ask me.

Zozzler said:

Who’s in control of Comey’s files currently?

The current Acting FBI Director, Andrew McCabe.

Black Graphic T said:

Aren’t you the same guy who said trump wqs guilty of treason for even having a potential tie to russia via funding? Now you look at the guy who gave away active us agents identities to everyone and then got sheltered by russia all this time. Seems a tad hypocritical of you ask me.

I can say that a guy did incredibly shitty things, and still agree with a couple things he said.
They are not mutually exclusive and shouldn't be treated as though they are.

BREAKING NEWS:
James Comey asked Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for increased funding for the Trump-Russia probe days before Comey was fired.

McConnel rejects calls for a special prosecutor

"Please trust GOP to make an unbiased investigation into a man we worship"

Kind weird how few of them are actually standing up against such nonsense.
Especially someone who's wife is the Secretary of Transportation.

I don't know Snowden, but I really wanted him to be fired.

Trump may have just admitted to firing Comey because of the Russia investigation, but I’m not sure because he’s incapable of forming coherent sentences. Watch for yourself here.

TBH, it's hard to trust anything he says in the video after I head "the electoral college is almost impossible for a republican to win" as the only two times the electoral college had elected a president who got fewer votes than their opponent this century were Republican, and the four biggest electoral college wins in the past 50 years going to Republicans (Reagan 1984: 525, Nixon 1972: 520, Reagan 1980: 489, George H. W. Bush 1988: 426).

I'll admit what he says doesn't really help his case much in the "I fired him for reasons completely independent of the Russian allegations against my campaign", but at the same time, it's hard to point and say that the opposite is really what he really meant.

Hmmmmm

I can't wait to see the "facts" that "prove" what he claims.

Also a fun fact for the road

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1512

>irrelevant information currently inapplicable because no actual threat of action or coercion was lodged

Stop grasping at straws.

I'd be more concerned if trump puts another of his friends into the fbi position. Cronyism and Nepotism are far more serious and far more dangerous then anything of this russia nonsense.

@Black Graphic T
It's a 'Giuliani becomes FBI Director' episode
I actually think he's more likely to go with Ray Kelly or Mike Rogers since they're "sure fire" candidates with no controversy or bitterness to them. Of course, Gorsuch was supposed to be "sure fire" too…

Apparently, Mike Pence is also being implicated in the decision to fire James Comey.

Next, we're gonna hear that Jared Kushner persuaded Trump to go through with it. :P

Two weeks ago!