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Trump Fires FBI Director James Comey Of Westport

WESTPORT, Conn. — FBI Director James Comey, a Westport resident, was fired Tuesday by President Donald Trump, the same day Comey came under fire for his Congressional testimony last week. 

FBI Director James Comey, a Westport resident.

FBI Director James Comey, a Westport resident.

Photo Credit: FBI

"Today, President Donald J. Trump informed FBI Director James Comey that he has been terminated and removed from office," said a statement from the White House press secretary's office. ". President Trump acted based on the clear recommendations of both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions."

"The FBI is one of our nation's most cherished and respected institutions and today will mark a new beginning for our crown jewel of law enforcement," Trump said in the statement. 

A search for a new FBI director will begin immediately, the statement said.

Earlier Tuesday, the FBI had notified Congress that Comey misstated key findings from the Hillary Clinton email investigation when he testified about the case last week, according to the Washington Post. Comey said that only a "small number’’ of emails had been forwarded to former Rep. Anthony Weiner, not the “hundreds and thousands’’ he had claimed in his testimony last week, the Post said.

Comey, 56, testified before Congress for hours last week in defense of his handling of the Clinton probe, which many believe played a role in the outcome of the presidential election.

Comey, a Westport resident, was sworn in as the seventh director of the FBI in the agency's modern era in September 2013.

Comey, a Republican, served as deputy attorney general from December 2003 through August 2005 under President George W. Bush. He was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before that.

President Barack Obama nominated Comey for the position in June 2013. The Senate confirmed his nomination with a vote of 93-1 in late July 2013.

From 2005 to 2010, he worked as general counsel at Lockheed Martin Corp.

In 2010, Comey became general counsel of the Westport-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. Earlier that year, he left Bridgewater to become senior research scholar and Hertog Fellow on National Security at Columbia University Law School in New York. 

Click here for the story from the Washington Post.

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