“It is done, and I will be fine, although I will miss you and the mission deeply.”
With that, outgoing FBI director James Comey offered some final words to his bureau colleagues in a letter that was reported by CNN and The Guardian on Wednesday.
“I have long believed that a President can fire an FBI Director for any reason, or for no reason at all,” he wrote.
“I’m not going to spend time on the decision or the way it was executed.”
He went on to write that the American people “should see the FBI as a rock of competence, honesty, and independence. What makes leaving the FBI hard is the nature and quality of its people, who together make it that rock for America.”
READ MORE: Donald Trump fires FBI Director James Comey
Comey’s firing was announced in a news release on Tuesday.
In it, the White House said that U.S. President Donald Trump was acting on the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
The firing came days after Comey asked the Justice Department for resources to pursue an investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election, according to officials.
Rosenstein was one of the officials he met with to make the request, they said; the Justice Department denied that Comey had requested money from him to assist with the Russia investigation.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Comey’s firing came amid simmering tensions between him and the president.
Comey reportedly told colleagues that Trump was “outside the realm of normal” or even “crazy” after he claimed that former president Barack Obama had wiretapped his election campaign.
Comey had said during a congressional hearing in March that he saw no evidence to support that claim.
READ MORE: Trump should apologize to Obama for wiretapping allegations: former CIA chief
Trump came to believe that he couldn’t trust Comey while the FBI looked into suspected Russian interference in the election, the Times reported.
He had considered letting him go since the day of his election, the newspaper added.
The White House is seeking a new FBI director.
- With files from The Associated Press