CNN contributor Jeffrey Toobin unloaded on President Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday, calling the move a “grotesque abuse of power.”
“This is the kind of thing that goes on in a non-democracy,” Toobin told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer just after the White House announced Comey had been fired.
In a letter issued by the White House, Trump said he fired Comey, an Obama appointee, on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Rosenstein, who is overseeing the investigation into Russian meddling in the election, cited Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton investigation as the rationale for his recommendation.
In his harsh rebuke, Toobin compared Comey’s firing to President Richard Nixon’s firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, a move known as the Saturday Night Massacre.
“This is the kind of thing that goes on in non-democracies, that when there is an investigation that reaches near the President of the United States, or the leader of a non-democracy, they fire the people who are in charge of the investigation,” said Toobin, a former federal prosecutor.
“This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is something that is completely outside how the American law is supposed to work.”
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