Speeding up the timeline leading to his inevitable termination, acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe sat in for his former boss James Comey during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday, and his testimony confirmed he's not attempting to curry favor with President Trump any more than his predecessor had.
McCabe, a career FBI agent who ran the Washington field office and oversaw national security investigations out of headquarters, was a target of Trump's on the campaign trail following reports that his wife had accepted campaign donations from a close ally of Hillary Clinton during a failed bid for the state Senate.
"That is not accurate", McCabe told senators.
Other US officials said it was unclear whether word of Comey's request, put to deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, ever made its way to Trump.
That Trump would press the director to provide this information in private, at a time when Comey was very careful to not make any such statement in public, risks invalidating the investigation.
So, Trump chose to fire Comey, according to the reports.
"We know that there are subpoenas being requested in the Eastern District of Virginia, and that this investigation has been going on", Feinstein told reporters.
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A congressional source with knowledge of the matter said Mr Comey told lawmakers within the past few days he had asked the Justice Department for additional resources - mainly more staffing - for the Russian Federation probe.
In a flurry of Twitter posts earlier, Trump offered a further explanation, saying Comey had "lost the confidence of nearly everyone in Washington, Republican and Democrat alike", and lambasted his critics. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, stood by Trump, accusing Democrats of "complaining about the removal of an Federal Bureau of Investigation director who they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticised".
McCabe, who was Comey's deputy, is expected to be replaced by a candidate now being vetted by the head of the Justice Department, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and other White House appointees.
A day earlier, the committee announced it had issued subpoenas to Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, for documents related to its Russian Federation investigation.
"I can tell you that the majority, the vast majority of Federal Bureau of Investigation employees, enjoyed a deep and positive connection to Director Comey", said McCabe, who called it the "greatest privilege and honor in my professional life to work with him". That is why. I'm pretty confident, because one thing we've learned from the last two years of Donald Trump is that what it seems like he's doing is exactly what he's doing.
Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., right, and Ranking Member Mark Warner, D-Va., conduct a Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee hearing in Hart Building titled "World Wide Threats" on May 11, 2017.
She said she met with Comey on March 15 along with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. But the panel's lead Democratic lawmaker, Mark Warner, made clear in his opening remarks that the Russian Federation investigations, and Comey's firing, were paramount.
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