Ever since news broke that Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, people have been wondering why. After all, it’s arguable that Trump is only in office because Comey reopened the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server just days before the election… thus handing the win to Trump. But now, thanks to a leaked Department of Justice memo, we know why.
In essence, Comey was fired because he chose to close the investigation into Hillary’s server last summer, “usurping” authority from the Department of Justice. On July 5th, Comey held a press conference announcing that he would not be recommending criminal charges against Hillary, angering officials at the Department of Justice. A letter from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein laid out the grievances.
“The Director was wrong to usurp the Attorney General’s authority on July 5, 2016, and announce his conclusion that the case should be closed without prosecution,” the letter read. “It is not the function of the Director to make such an announcement. At most, the Director should have said the FBI had completed its investigation and presented its findings to federal prosecutors. The Director now defends his decision by asserting that he believed Attorney General Loretta Lynch had a conflict. But the FBI Director is never empowered to supplant federal prosecutors and assume command of the Justice Department.”
It’s been amusing to see the angst over Comey’s firing from Democrats, considering that it wasn’t that long ago that they were calling for his head, as evidenced in this video from Maxine Waters:
Or this tweet from John Podesta:
The American public is getting mildly nauseous listening to Jim Comey https://t.co/fiE9zaT0x0