Trump Fires FBI Director Comey

Local Editor

US President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey at the recommendation of US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to a White House announcement.

"The FBI is one of our Nation's most cherished and respected institutions and today will mark a new beginning for our crown jewel of law enforcement," said President Trump.

"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," Trump told Comey in a letter.

The letter announcing the termination was hand-delivered to FBI headquarters by Keith Schiller, a Trump security aide, according to several reports citing a White House official.

A search for a new permanent FBI Director will begin immediately.

The firing of Comey comes days after he testified to Congress on investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

Earlier Tuesday, the FBI wrote to Congress to correct misstatements Comey made regarding a separate investigation into Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information.

Comey had testified that top Clinton aide Huma Abedin had forwarded "hundreds and thousands" of emails to her husband, former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, the FBI clarified that most of those emails had been on his laptop via backup devices, while only a few had been the result of forwarded emails, the Associated Press reported.

Comey reportedly heard of the news from TV reports while addressing FBI employees at the Los Angeles field office, according to New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt and New York Magazine reporter Yashar Ali.

Comey was due to speak at an FBI recruiting event in Hollywood Tuesday evening, but that speech has been canceled.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team