Prosecutor fired by Trump administration after hesitancy on Comey case

A Justice Department prosecutor was fired after saying he would struggle to take on a criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey alongside his other responsibilities, according to multiple media reports.

Robert K. McBride was working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District ‌of Virginia when he was let go after expressing his hesitancy to ‌personally push forward with the prosecution, ‌according to reports by The New York Times and by MS NOW, which reported the news first. Each outlet cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

In ​additional potential context for the firing, ‌the news outlets ⁠each cited an anonymous source as saying McBride also had private meetings with federal judges ‌in the district. Officials have not publicly accused McBride of any professional wrongdoing.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District ‌of Virginia declined to comment.

Comey’s case was dismissed in November, after a federal judge ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor who secured charges against the ‌former FBI director, ​was ‌serving unlawfully. The Justice Department has appealed that decision.

Halligan sought the charges, which alleged that Comey lied to Congress and obstructed a congressional proceeding, ‌after Trump on social media last year called for Comey to be prosecuted.

Tensions between Trump and Comey go back ​years. Trump in 2017 fired Comey from heading the FBI, which was investigating possible contacts between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government. In the following years, ⁠Comey became a prominent critic of the president.