Trump Fires FBI Director Comey to Stop Russia Investigation, Tells Russians "Pressure Taken Off"

| Importance: 6/10 | Status: confirmed

Trump fired FBI Director James Comey while under FBI investigation for Russian connections. Day after firing, Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Ambassador Kislyak in Oval Office that he had “faced great pressure because of Russia” which had been “taken off” by Comey’s termination. In NBC interview, Trump admitted he was thinking of “this Russia thing with Trump and Russia” when making decision. Mueller Report documented as textbook “referee neutralization” to obstruct justice investigation.

Key Actors

Donald Trump James Comey Sergey Lavrov Sergey Kislyak Rod Rosenstein

Tags

obstruction-of-justice referee-neutralization russia-investigation fbi institutional-capture kleptocracy

Sources (3)

Help Improve This Timeline

Found an error or have additional information? You can help improve this event.

✏️ Edit This Event ➕ Suggest New Event

Edit: Opens GitHub editor to submit corrections or improvements via pull request.
Suggest: Opens a GitHub issue to propose a new event for the timeline.