President Trump’s move to fire FBI Director James Comey should not impede the ongoing FBI investigation of alleged ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, according to the White House.
“You all will not let this go until it does [get finished] and so we’d love to let that be completed,” Sarah Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, told reporters Wednesday.
Sanders said Trump fired the FBI director for breaking “the chain of command” and deciding on his own not to prosecute Hillary Clinton, after Attorney General Loretta Lynch recused herself. She denied that Trump was motivated by frustration that Comey has allowed an investigation of the Trump team’s alleged connections to Russia to continue.
“[Trump] wants [the FBI] to continue with whatever they see appropriate and see fit, just the same as he’s encouraged the House and Senate committees to continue any ongoing investigations,” Sanders said.
Trump attacked Comey throughout the 2016 election for declining to recommend an indictment of Clinton, but then praised him when he notified Congress that the investigation had been reopened. But Sanders said that such comments shouldn’t undermine the administration’s argument that Comey has shown himself to be an unacceptable leader of the FBI.
“He was a candidate for president, not the president,” she said. “Those are two very different things. Once you take over leading the Department of Justice, that’s very different from being a candidate in a campaign.”
