President Donald Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey. In a statement, Trump says Comey's firing "will mark a new beginning" for the FBI.
A Senate Intelligence Hearing today heard that the investigation into the alleged links between the Trump Campaign and Russia will continue unhindered.
"There has been no effort to impede our investigation to date," acting FBI director Andrew McCabe told the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a hearing that capped two days of high drama provoked by the dismissal, according to The Telegraph.
"You cannot stop the men and women of the FBI from doing the right thing," he said.
"All of the agents involved in the investigation are still in their positions."
The hearing came as Rod Rosenstein, the US deputy attorney general reportedly threatened to quit after it emerged that the Trump administration intended to use his letter regarding James Comey's conduct during the election to justify firing the FBI director.
The revelations came as senators said they would question Rosenstein. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader said his involvement in the firing of Comey had brought his "integrity" into question.
Rosenstein wrote a memo on Tuesday regarding Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal in the lead up to the presidential election in which he said "the FBI's reputation and credibility have suffered substantial damage, and it has affected the entire Department of Justice".
Donald Trump said he was following the advice in that memo when he made the shock decision on Tuesday to fire Comey.
But Trump had already made the decision last week, as he grew increasingly frustrated with the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's links with Russia, according to the Washington Post.
He had called Rosenstein and his boss, attorney general Jeff Sessions, to the White House on Monday morning and asked them to lay out the case against Comey in writing, according to a White House source.
United States President Donald Trump. Photo/AP
Once it became clear that Rosenstein's letter - which says the decision to remove an FBI director "should not be taken lightly" - had become the justification for the move, the deputy attorney general threatened to quit, the newspaper reported.
Trump has insisted that he fired Comey over his conduct during the election campaign, saying yesterday he was "not doing a good job".
The White House yesterday said he had been considering firing him "since the day he was elected president."
But questions have been raised over the timing of the move, five months after the events discussed in Rosenstein's letter.
Multiple reports have suggested Trump had shown mounting anger over the probe into Russia role in the election, for which Comey had requested more personnel and resources in the days leading up to his dismissal.
