In part, that may be because the precedent for an FBI director to be removed from office is short. In fact, it’s only happened once before. To some extent, that’s a function of the age of the agency. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was created within the Department of Justice by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte in 1908 at the urging of Stanley Finch, who pushed for Justice to have its own investigatory team. Finch became the first head of the Bureau of Investigation. President Trump informed FBI Director James Comey he had been dismissed on May 9, stemming from a conclusion by Justice Department officials that he had mishandled the probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

1. Here’s how unusual
it is for an FBI
director to be fired
By Philip Bump May 9
In part, that may be because the precedent for an FBI director to be
removedfrom office is short.In fact, it’s only happened once before.
To some extent, that’s a function of the age of the agency. The
Federal Bureau of Investigation was created within the Department
of Justice by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte in 1908 at the
urging of Stanley Finch, who pushed for Justice to have its own
investigatory team. Finch became the first head of the Bureau of
Investigation.

3. It’s also due in large part to J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the agency
for nearly half of its existence. As of Comey’s firing, Hoover was the
director of the bureau for 44 percent of the time that there has been
an FBI.
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There simply haven’t been that many directors of the FBI. Only 11
people (all men) have held the position; seven more have served as
acting directors in between confirmations. Of those 11, only one,
besides Comey, has been fired: William Sessions, who served from
1987 to 1993.

4. The Post’s 1993 story explains why Sessions was terminated — and
why it happened when it did:
[President Bill] Clinton’s action ended an agonizing public debate
that began last January when a scathing report from the Justice
Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) accused
Sessions of numerous ethical lapses.Although aClinton spokesman
immediately described the report as “disturbing” and
administration officials concludedwithin weeks of takingoffice that
Sessions had to be replaced, the White House permitted him to stay
on for months — a delay that senior FBI officials say badly
demoralized the bureau and exacerbated an already painful rift
between the director and top bureau managers. . . .
Sessions’s future was thrown into doubt earlier this year when the
OPR report foundthat he had abused his office by settingup official
appointments to justify charging the government for personal
travel, improperly billed the FBI nearly $10,000 for a fence around
his home, and refused to turn over documents on his $375,000
home mortgage, which investigators said they suspectedinvolved a
“sweetheart deal.”
Worth noting for future trivia contests: Comey was ostensibly fired
for his handling of the investigation into the wife of the president
who last fired an FBI director.
Even Hoover— whose tenure at the FBI has become known as much
for his willingness to stretch the boundaries of decency and the law
— was never fired. Presidents Truman and Kennedy had
entertained the idea (about 20 and 40 years into Hoover’s tenure,
respectively), but Hoover’s political strength made doing so

5. impossible. Hoover died while still holding the position — shortly
before the Nixon White House became mired in Watergate.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/05/09/heres-how-unusual-
it-is-for-an-fbi-director-to-be-fired/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.a60708a6d781