President Donald Trump's firing of FBI Director James Comey could allow him to head the Senate investigation into Russian interference in the recent presidential election, according to Maine independent Sen. Angus King.
"I had a fun idea in the middle of the night," the Senate Intelligence Committee member said on CNN's "New Day" program Wednesday.
"The Intelligence Committee ought to hire James Comey to direct our investigation. He's already got his clearances, knows the subject, man of integrity. I'm going to float that today and see what kind of reaction I get."
When host Chris Cuomo asked "would that be allowed?"
King replied: "I don't know why not. He's a free man. As of today he doesn't have a job."
Some of King's fellow Senate Democrats, New Jersey's Cory Booker, Washington's Maria Cantwell and Ohio's Sherrod Brown, renewed their calls for an independent investigation into reports of Russian interference after Comey's dismissal, though they did not call for Comey himself to lead the inquiry.
King also brought up Attorney General Jeff Sessions, wondering, "what is Jeff Sessions doing involved in this?" And added that Sessions "said he's going to have nothing to do with the Russia investigation in any shape or form, directly or indirectly and yet he is involved in firing the guy who is leading the investigation for the FBI."
The senator also questioned Trump decision to wait until now despite the fact that "they supposedly… fired James Comey for stuff that he did last summer or last fall, and suddenly now they say well 'he's got to go.'
"The timing just doesn't pass the straight face test in terms of what's the real motivation for this."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.