Trump Is Said to Keep James Comey as F.B.I. Director
WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, told his top agents from around the country that he had been asked by President Trump to stay on the job running the federal government’s top law enforcement agency, according to people familiar with the matter.
A decision to retain Mr. Comey would spare the president another potentially bruising confirmation battle. It also would keep Mr. Comey at the center of the F.B.I.’s investigation into several Trump associates and their potential ties with the Russian government.
Retaining Mr. Comey could also help calm the bureau’s work force, which has been rattled after a tumultuous few months in which the F.B.I. and the director himself were sharply criticized for moves that many felt influenced the outcome of the presidential election.
During the campaign, Mr. Trump harshly criticized the F.B.I. and Justice Department for not bringing criminal charges against Hillary Clinton in connection with her use of a personal email server. After Mr. Trump was elected in November, he said in a nationally televised interview that he had not made up his mind about whether he would ask Mr. Comey to resign.
When Mr. Comey and the president-elect met in Trump Tower for the first time earlier this month for an intelligence briefing, Mr. Trump told the F.B.I. director that he hoped he would remain in his position, according to people briefed on the matter. And Mr. Trump’s aides have made it clear to Mr. Comey that the president does not plan to ask him to leave, these people said.
Then, last Wednesday, during a weekly conference call, Mr. Comey relayed the news to his senior employees, who are known as special agents in charge.
Under federal law, the F.B.I. director is appointed to a 10-year-term, intended to overlap more than one administration as part of post-Watergate overhauls created to give the director independence and insulate the job from politics. The president can fire the director. Mr. Comey, a former senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush, was appointed by President Obama in 2013.
Those who described the plans for the F.B.I. director spoke on the condition of anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing confidential conversations between Mr. Trump, his aides and Mr. Comey.
Representatives for the F.B.I. and White House declined to comment.
Mr. Comey will have to manage an increasingly difficult relationship with Mr. Trump and his White House, as the F.B.I. is leading an investigation into ties between Mr. Trump’s associates — including his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort — and the Russian government. As part of that inquiry, agents have examined intercepted communications and financial transactions. Mr. Comey has repeatedly declined to discuss the investigation with members of Congress.
Mrs. Clinton and many Democrats blame Mr. Comey for her defeat, and it is not clear whether she would have kept him on had she won.
In July, Mr. Comey held a news conference to announce that the bureau was recommending to the Justice Department that Mrs. Clinton or her aides not be charged in connection with the mishandling of classified information on her personal email server. At the news conference, Mr. Comey took the unusual step of criticizing how Mrs. Clinton and her aides handled classified information, saying it was “extremely careless.”
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These Are the Bad (and Worse) Options James Comey Faced
When federal officials concluded their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, had a decision to make on how to announce that news. The choices he made in July set the F.B.I. on the path toward the predicament it faces today.
Then, 11 days before the election, Mr. Comey sent a letter to Congress saying new emails that appeared related to the investigation had surfaced, which the bureau needed to analyze.
The letter set off a flurry of reports about Mrs. Clinton’s personal email server. The emails had been found as part of an unrelated investigation into illicit text messages Anthony D. Weiner — the estranged husband of Mrs. Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin — had sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Two days before the election, Mr. Comey sent another letter to Congress, saying that the emails had not changed the F.B.I.’s original recommendation to not charge Mrs. Clinton.
Republicans most likely would have attacked Mrs. Clinton if she had asked Mr. Comey to resign upon her election, but some people close to her have said that she was willing to endure whatever political cost was necessary in order to ensure Mr. Comey lost his job.
The Justice Department’s inspector general is investigating Mr. Comey’s handling of the Clinton email case, including both his decision to discuss it at a news conference and to disclose just days before the election that he had new information that could lead him to reopen it.
The F.B.I. says it welcomes the investigation, and F.B.I. officials say they believe more information will be made available to the public that will help explain his actions.
On Sunday at the White House, Mr. Trump held an event to honor law enforcement officers who provided security for the inauguration. After calling the Secret Service director to the front of the room, Mr. Trump spotted Mr. Comey.
“Oh, there’s Jim, he’s become more famous than me,” Mr. Trump said.
P.C: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/trump-comey-fbi-director-.html?_r=0
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