He believed he was immovable, protected by his networks and all the secrets collected by his police services: James Comey, the powerful director of the FBI, was however abruptly dismissed on Tuesday by US President Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton's e-mails
Officially, this two-meter-tall policeman was dismissed with immediate effect for the mistakes made in his research on Hillary Clinton's e-mails. James Comey had become an annoying character for the administration. This former federal prosecutor and former deputy secretary of justice was in fact an ejection chair, mainly since the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election fell on the FBI.
After the explosive case of Clinton's e-mails and the most sensitive about Russian intervention put James Comey at the centre of those turbulences, with the mission impossible to avoid the friction with the White House.
The FBI director allowed himself to pull out some yellow, sometimes hard cards, such as when he categorically contradicted Donald Trump over the veracity of wiretaps. Donald Trump received the message: the words of the FBI chief, strengthened by the official character of the investigations he oversaw, are not easily erased.
In the eye of the storm
Hillary Clinton suffered it on her own when James Comey recommended at a surprise press conference in July 2016 not to denounce the former Secretary of State for the case of her emails sent from a private server.
That day James Comey filled the shoes of the former first lady in the campaign but he did not confirm to the Republicans, who hoped that the Democrat candidate was formally charged to justice. Ten days before the presidential elections, Comey relaunched the case of electronic messages, Republicans applauded him and praised his autonomy, which they doubted a few months earlier.
Everything indicated that he was able to maintain the helm of the FBI ship in the middle of the storm.
Notoriously marginalised by the Republicans, James Comey had been appointed by Obama to his current position but Donald Trump asked him to continue in office. Tenacity is one of the most outstanding features of his character.
Combining firmness and pedagogy, He tirelessly pitted Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to convince Apple to unlock a smartphone used by the perpetrator of an attack in California. Finally, they were the FBI experts who got it.
