First Run News

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to soon toughen rules on prosecuting drug crimes, according to people familiar with internal deliberations, in what would be a major rollback of Obama-era policies that would put his first big stamp on a Justice Department he has criticized as soft on crime. Mr. Sessions has been reviewing a pair of memos issued by his predecessor, Eric H.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, on Tuesday escalated calls among Democrats to appoint a special counsel to oversee the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, especially given Russian interference in the 2016 election. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing that investigation, was also the face of Mr. Trump’s decision to fire Mr. Comey: The administration released a lengthy memo from Mr. Rosenstein recommending that Mr.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s decision on Tuesday to fire the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, immediately fueled calls for an independent investigator or commission to look into Russia’s efforts to disrupt the election and any connections between Mr. Trump’s associates and the Russian government. Calls to appoint an independent prosecutor have simmered for months, but until now, they had been voiced almost entirely by Democrats. Mr.

WASHINGTON — When President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director on Tuesday, the White House made public a memorandum from Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, recommending the dismissal. The firing was highly fraught because the F.B.I. is investigating contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russia. Mr. Rosenstein, who served as the United States attorney in Maryland under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has a reputation as a by-the-book, nonpartisan prosecutor.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s decision on Tuesday to fire James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director who had been leading an investigation into possible ties between his campaign and Russia, came in a bombshell announcement that left Washington reeling. But it had been a long time coming. Whatever the stated reasons, Mr.

The J. Edgar Hoover, died in office after overseeing the bureau for 48 years. In the years before Hoover’s death, a new confirmation process for the F.B.I. director was developed. After Hoover, the director was nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. In 1976, it became law that the director would be limited to a 10-year term. In its 109-year history, only one F.B.I.

President Trump dismissed the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, on Tuesday afternoon on the recommendation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary. Mr. Comey led the bureau as it undertook the task of investigating the campaigns of both major party nominees for president of the United States.

WASHINGTON — The day before he upended the 2016 election, James B. Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, summoned agents and lawyers to his conference room. They had been debating all day, and it was time for a decision. Mr. Comey’s plan was to tell Congress that the F.B.I. had received new evidence and was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton, the presidential front-runner. The move would violate the policies of an agency that does not reveal its investigations or do anything that may influence an election. But Mr.

WASHINGTON — In dramatically casting aside James B. Comey, President Trump fired the man who may have helped make him president — and the man who potentially most threatened the future of his presidency. Not since Watergate has a president dismissed the person leading an investigation bearing on him, and Mr. Trump’s decision late Tuesday afternoon drew instant comparisons to the “Saturday Night Massacre” in October 1973, when President Richard M.

■ President Trump has fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, the White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday. ■ Mr. Comey was delivering a speech in Los Angeles when he learned he had been fired. ■ His dismissal drew a quick rebuke from Democrats and concern from several Republican lawmakers. ■ Several lawmakers called for a special counsel to take over the investigation into Russian meddling in the election. Mr. Comey was addressing a group of F.B.I.