Kellyanne Conway, refuting Chuck Schumer, says Comey's firing is 'not a cover-up'

Sen. Chuck Schumer.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In the most unsurprising news to come out of the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and senior White House aide Kellyanne Conway are at odds over whether this is part of a larger cover-up.

In a news conference Tuesday evening, Schumer said that if Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein doesn't appoint a special prosecutor to take over the investigation into Russian meddling to benefit Trump during the 2016 presidential election, it will show that Comey's firing was "part of a cover-up," later adding, "Were these investigations getting too close to home for the president?" One of the reasons why Comey was fired, the White House claimed, was the way he mishandled the investigation last year into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, causing Schumer to question the timing. "Why now?" he asked. "Why did it happen today?" He also voiced his concern that the next FBI director might be afraid of getting fired if they "run afoul of the administration."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.