• Democrats demand independent Russia probe

United States President Donald Trump defended his firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey yesterday as Democrats intensified accusations that the ouster was intended to undermine an agency probe into his presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to sway the 2016 election.
Trump’s abrupt move on Tuesday stunned Washington and was swiftly condemned by Democrats and by some in his own party. Senior Democrats pressed for an independent investigation into the Russia issue.
In the White House as he met with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office, Trump was asked by reporters why he fired Comey, responding, “He wasn’t doing a good job, very simply.”
In a flurry of Twitter posts earlier, Trump offered a further explanation and lambasted his critics.
“Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike. When things calm down, they will be thanking me,” he said. “The Democrats have said some of the worst things about James Comey, including the fact that he should be fired, but now they play so sad!”
The Trump administration said on Tuesday Comey’s firing was over his handling of an election-year FBI probe into then-Democratic presidential nominee Senator Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
Many Democrats have criticized Comey’s management of that investigation, but they sharply questioned the timing of his dismissal, given that Trump could have acted soon after taking office on Jan. 20 and that he has repeatedly criticized the FBI and congressional probes into alleged Russian meddling in the presidential election.
Comey had asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week for a significant boost in resources for the agency’s probe, and later briefed U.S. lawmakers on the request, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing three unnamed officials.

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