President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey Tuesday, citing his lack of trust in Comey’s ability to lead the nation’s top law enforcement agency. Critics have questioned the timing of Comey’s firing since one of the reasons given for the decision was Comey’s handling of the investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s emails. The last time a president fired the FBI director was July 1993 when President Clinton relieved William Sessions of his duties five and a half years into his ten-year term amid ethical questions surrounding his use of FBI resources. On Washington Week, Jack Nelson of the Los Angeles Times explained why Clinton waited six months into his presidency to dismiss Sessions despite knowing about the accusations of impropriety from Day 1. “President Clinton let him hang in there for about six months because he wanted to show that there was nothing political about getting rid of him,” Nelson said.
Web Video: President Clinton Fires FBI Director
May. 10, 2017 AT 3:01 p.m. EDT
TRANSCRIPT
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
PAUL DUKE: We have a new chief of the FBI, Jack, President Clinton announcing his choice this week at the same time that he got some stunning news affecting the White House family.
JACK NELSON: Well, he named Judge Louis Freeh, a federal judge in New York, as the new director replacing William Sessions, the FBI director who had been the director for five and a half years who insisted on being fired. They tried to get him to retire. He insisted on being fired, and so the president accommodated him. He fired him and named this judge.
NELSON: The agency has been very troubled under the directorship of Mr. Sessions because, as you know, Mr. Sessions leaves with a cloud over his head, having been accused of all sorts of improprieties – misuse of a FBI plane and other things.
DUKE: Well, why did he stick around so long?
NELSON: Well, he stuck around, Paul, because he says that he needed to show that the FBI was not going to be subjected to political pressure and that, if he were to just leave, it would be like there was political pressure. So he not only stuck around until he was fired; he went around to all the talk show last night and this morning and talked about the FBI and the independence of the FBI. But the thing about it was I think that President Clinton let him hang in there for about six months because he wanted to show that there was nothing political about getting rid of him.
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