President Donald Trump’s motive for firing former FBI Director James Comey last year was that Comey wouldn’t publicly exonerate the President from his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump’s new lawyer said Wednesday night.
“He fired Comey because Comey would not — among other things — say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation,” Rudy Giuliani said during a revealing interview with Sean Hannity Wednesday night. “He fired him and he said ‘I’m free of this guy.’”
That disclosure partially props up Comey’s assertions that he was fired because Trump asked him to pledge personal loyalty to the President. Trump has denied those allegations and the White House claims Comey was fired because of his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt shortly after he fired Comey last May, Trump suggested that his rationale for firing Comey was related to the Russia probe.
