This past Tuesday, on May 16th 2017, President Trump fired the FBI director James Comey. Comey, who investigated the Clinton email scandal, was currently also looking into the election to try and discover if Trump was communicating with Russia. Comey said that he wasn’t even aware of his dismissal until he watched the news on TV. In a signed letter released by the White House, Trump informed him that he was “hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately,” explaining that he reached the conclusion that Comey is “not able to effectively lead the bureau.” The dismissal of Comey came as a surprise to many, and he was only the second FBI director to ever get fired.

Before Trump fired Comey he had also fired Flynn. Flynn had been investigating Russia which is why the news is saying that Trump fired him. Trump was saying that Flynn mislead him with what he was doing with the investigation with Russia.  Once Trump fired Comey it was more evident that he did this because Comey would not drop the investigation on him and Russia.

Republican Sen. Richard Burr, who is leading a Senate intelligence committee probe into alleged Russian influence on the election, expressed disquiet at the firing of Comey, which he described as a “loss for the bureau and the nation.” In fact, most government officials opposed of his dismissal and it was unexpected.

Now, the FBI was in need of a new director. Robert Mueller is who they appointed. Mueller is a formed federal prosecutor with a clean history. He is going to unbiasedly investigate the questions surrounding the Trump campaign and the Russians.

Not only did the general public disapprove of Comey’s dismissal, but it also came off as suspicious. Firing an FBI director is very uncommon, so the fact that Trump fired the one who was investigating him and his campaign draws more attention to the situation. Some think that Trump fired him in order to stop the investigation and get time to clear suspicions of his ties with Russia and Russian officials.

We asked students from Hall High School what they thought of this news. Hannah Bienstock said, “I think Trump fired Comey because Comey wasn’t doing what Trump wanted him to do. He felt that Comey was too independent, not appreciated of him, and that he felt that Comey might dig too deeply and be too independent with his investigations on him.” As you can see Bienstock does believe that Trump’s reasoning behind the firing was to make sure that he would not get exposed.

We then asked another student, Anna Welch, what she thought of the situation and she said, “I Think trump fired Comey out of fear. Trump was afraid the investigation would turn up unwanted information about the doings of both himself and his administration.” Anna also believes that President Trump did not give his full reasoning for why he dismissed Comey off the bureau.