Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Stephen Miller Wrote Trump’s First Letter About Firing Comey

When James Comey was ousted as FBI director in May, many blamed Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who wrote a memo faulting Comey’s leadership at the police agency. But it turns out, Stephen Miller might have been the one Trump wanted to articulate the reasons for the sacking.

Miller and President Trump worked to draft an initial letter that month detailing the administration’s reasons for firing Comey, all occurring before Rosenstein wrote his memo, which was used as a justification for the firing, the New York Times reported on Friday.

According to The Times, the administration’s letter was quashed by White House counsel Donald McGahn, who was worried about unspecified legal trouble that some its contents might bring. The full text of the letter is apparently in the possession of special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s office.

The White House declined to comment to The Times. “To the extent the special prosecutor is interested in these matters, we will be fully transparent with him,” Ty Cobb, an administration spokesman, said.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version