Stunned FBI agents grapple with Comey firing
WASHINGTON — FBI agents continued to reel Wednesday from Director James Comey’s unceremonious dismissal a day earlier, their surprise at the manner of his ouster coupled with questions about who will next lead the bureau.
Many agents working in field offices across the country learned about their director’s firing in much the same way he did: from news reports that flashed on television screens and buzzed on phones.
They privately described a day afterward spent processing the news, swapping praise about their former boss, and grappling with angst that Comey wasn’t given a chance to notify employees. Many saw him as a strong and supportive leader even if some believed he at times set the bureau on the wrong path. And many did not want to see him go, especially in the midst of the bureau’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s campaign had ties to Russia’s meddling in the election.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that “countless” FBI employees had lost faith in Comey’s leadership. But the president of the FBI Agents Association, Thomas O’Connor, said he was known to be responsive to their concerns, and he called the firing a “gut punch.”