Emails from FBI agents to their staff in the hours and days following the announcement that former FBI Director James Comey had been fired reveal sadness at the news and a hope that the media reports were untrue.
David Gelios, special agent in charge of the Detroit field office, wrote the following email to his staff:
“I just saw CNN reporting that Director Comey has been fired by President Trump. I have no notification from HQ of any such thing. If I receive any information from HQ, I will advise. I’d ask all to stand by for clarification of this reporting. I am only sending this because I want everyone to know I have received no HQ confirmation of the reporting. I hope this is an instance of fake news.”
Renae McDermott, special agent in charge of the Knoxville field office wrote to her staff that, “Unexpected news such as this is hard to understand but I know you all know our Director stood for what is right and what is true!!! . . . He truly made us better when we needed it the most.”
The following day she wrote an email with the subject line “Follow up with your squads.” In it she asked leaders to check on the well-being of the people under them. “I need for all of you to make sure our/your folks are doing OK. Check with them today, tomorrow ….you get the idea,” she wrote.
Assistant Director at the FBI’s Office for Victim Assistance, Kathryn Turman wrote to her staff, “Our hearts may be heavy but we must continue to do what we do best, which is to protect and serve the American people….Hang in there. Thanks, Kathryn.”
The messages seem to undermine one of President Trump’s stated reasons for firing Comey, which is that he had lost the respect of the agents working under him.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that the “the rank and file of the FBI had lost confidence in their director,” and that she personally had “heard from countless members of the FBI that are grateful and thankful for the president’s decision.” Several days later, during an Oval Office meeting with visiting Russian officials, President Trump would call James Comey a “nut job.”
The emails have been made public through a freedom of information request submitted by Benjamin Wittes, Editor in Chief at Lawfare. Wittes’ expressed goal in obtaining the emails, he says, is to prove that President Trump and White House staff were being dishonest about their characterizations of FBI agents’ feelings toward James Comey.
The FBI released 103 pages worth of emails in total.