Comey Reportedly Asked For Money For The FBI’s Russia Probe Before He Was Fired

President Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Alexander Shcherbak / Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

What We Know So Far:

· Days before President Trump fired him as FBI Director, James Comey asked the Justice Department for more money to investigate the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, according to the New York Times. But the Justice Department is saying this isn’t true.

· Comey’s sudden dismissal on Tuesday evening sent shockwaves through Washington, where few people were given a heads-up before the president’s decision became public.

· Some Republicans have now joined Democrats in calling for independent investigations into the Trump campaign’s alleged Russia ties.

· After meeting with Russian diplomats on Wednesday, Trump said he sacked Comey because he was “doing a bad job.” During a Twitter rant, he also blasted Democrats for what he said was hypocrisy.

Russia foreign minister refuses to answer questions on Comey firing

Alexander Shcherbak / Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday dismissed a question from a reporter on whether he was happy with the firing of FBI Director James Comey, who had been overseeing an investigation into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

“I thought we were all adults here,” Lavrov responded at the press conference in Washington, DC. “I never thought I’d have to answer questions like this here, especially in the United States of America with your deeply developed democratic system.”

Lavrov, who is making his first visit to US capital since 2013, deferred to President Trump’s previous statements on Russia’s involvement in the election.

“President Trump has publicly said on multiple occasions about what he thinks regarding claims that we’re meddling with your internal politics,” Lavrov said. “His public statements are enough for me. There’s no need here to somehow secretly, whispering in the ear, talk about this.

“We know the position of President Trump and we know the position of those who want to prove the opposite. The problem is that there isn’t a single bit of proof provided to anyone,” he said.