Trump admin eyed John Kelly for FBI director after Comey firing
by David Mark
| February 19, 2019 11:05 AM
Trump administration officials considered John Kelly, then head of the Department of Homeland Security, for FBI director after the president fired James Comey from that post, according to the agency's acting head at the time, Andrew McCabe.
Kelly instead became White House chief of staff in July 2007, about two months after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein floated his name for the open FBI directorship in a meeting, McCabe writes in his new book, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump.
The top FBI role became open after President Trump fired Comey in May 2017.
McCabe, who was later fired from the FBI over leaking information to the media, writes he was dumbfounded Kelly would be considered for FBI director. Kelly, a retired Marine general who capped his decorated career leading U.S. Southern Command, had no background for the FBI job, McCabe writes.
"I didn't understand what qualified Kelly as a prospect. Kelly had no law-enforcement or legal background of any kind," McCabe writes. "And why would he leave his cabinet-level position as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to become director of the FBI?"
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FBI director's job eventually went to Christopher Wray, a prominent lawyer in private practice who previously headed the Justice Department's criminal division.
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