A former associate deputy director of the FBI in charge of investigations is sharing his reaction to President Donald Trump firing James Comey as FBI director.
NBC 5 spoke to Bill Revell, who had a career in the FBI spanning several presidencies. He began serving in 1964 under President Lyndon Johnson.
Revell, who ended his career as the agent in charge of the FBI's Dallas division, interacted with Comey several times and says he was surprised by the timing of his ouster.
"I expected him to be removed earlier, because I knew that he had crossed the line with both the press conference and the description of the investigation that he gave at the press conference," said Revell.
Revell is talking about the press conference last summer, during which Comey announced that then-candidate Hillary Clinton would not be prosecuted for her use of a private email server.
"There is no precedent for that whatsoever, but I think the action should have been taken if it was going to be taken at the time. In other words, last July or last August," Revell added.
Revell expects it will be a long time before the U.S. Senate confirms a replacement for Comey.
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"The FBI will continue to do the work. It will continue to conduct whatever investigations are necessary. It will not be swayed by any political partisanship. Everybody in the Bureau now is a career person, not a political appointee. The director is the only political appointee, so it will continue unabated," he said.
