FBI Director James Comey sought to expand his agency's probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election days before President Donald Trump fired him on Tuesday, a congressional source said on Wednesday.
With the Republican president facing a storm of criticism from many Democrats and some lawmakers in his own party, the Trump administration accused Comey of "atrocities" on the job and denied his firing was related to the FBI investigation into the Trump 2016 presidential campaign's possible collusion with Moscow to sway the election.
The ouster stunned Washington and plunged Trump deeper into a controversy over his campaign's alleged ties with Russia that has dogged the early days of his presidency.
Democrats intensified accusations on Wednesday that Comey's removal was intended to undermine the FBI probe and demanded an independent investigation. Some of Trump's fellow Republicans called the action troubling.
Trump, who met Russia's foreign minister at the White House on Wednesday, defended his abrupt firing of Comey from a law-enforcement post he had held since 2013, saying he had not been doing a good job.
The president had been considering letting Comey go "since the day he was elected," Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told a news briefing. She said he acted in part after Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein this week "outlined the basic, just, atrocities in circumventing the chain of command in the Department of Justice" that she said Comey had committed.
A congressional source with knowledge of the matter said Comey told lawmakers within the past few days that he had asked the Justice Department for more funding for the Russia probe. Comey informed lawmakers of that request after the Senate intelligence committee had asked the FBI to speed up its Russia inquiry, the source said.
Democrat Dianne Feinstein, the leading Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters she understood that Comey was seeking more resources for the FBI investigation.
"We know that there are subpoenas being requested in the Eastern District of Virginia, and that this investigation has been going on," Feinstein told reporters.
She said she met with Comey on March 15 along with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. At the time Comey said it was "a big counter-intelligence and criminal investigation," Feinstein said.
Responding to media reports that Comey had asked Rosenstein last week for a significant boost in resources for the agency's probe, Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said in an email, "Totally false."