Kellyanne Conway says James Comey’s own actions led to his firing

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, said Wednesday that FBI Director James B. Comey’s firing had nothing to do with the ongoing Russia investigation.

“The president took the advice of the deputy attorney general who oversees FBI. [Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein] brought those concerns to the attorney general who brought them to the president who made the decision to remove [Comey]” Ms. Conway said on CNN.

Ms. Conway said Mr. Comey’s own actions brought Mr. Rosenstein to this conclusion, not influence from the White House over the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

“The idea that you think that this was about Russia and not about an FBI director who just yesterday forced his bureau to correct testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee where he said Huma Abedin had this practice that she forwarded hundreds of thousands of emails —,” said Ms. Conway before being interrupted by CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

“There are any number of issues and events that brought the president to this decision,” she said.

Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also defended against claims the decision had anything to do with Russia, saying the investigation will continue regardless of who is leading the FBI.

“Frankly, if that’s going to continue it’s going to continue whether Director Comey is there or not,” she said on MSNBC.

Ms. Conway reiterated this point as well.

“The idea that the FBI has one thing going on and it’s the Russia investigation, and the idea that this is somehow Jim Comey attorney at law, one person in charge of it, is really irresponsible to not report to your viewers that many people are involved in these investigations,” she said.

Ms. Conway also hinted that Mr. Trump has a replacement for Mr. Comey in mind already, but that he will make that public on his own time.

When Mr. Cuomo said that the administration didn’t have anyone lined up to replace Mr. Comey, Ms. Conway responded, “You don’t know that.”

“You want to question the timing of when he hires, when he fires. It’s inappropriate. He’ll do what he wants to do,” she said.

Ms. Conway and Ms. Sanders both said they presumed that Mr. Rosenstein began the review of Mr. Comey on his own, but said they couldn’t say for sure how the probe into Mr. Comey’s performance began.