Trump considering 11 candidates to replace Comey

US President Donald Trump is considering 11 candidates to replace former FBI Director James Comey following his sacking earlier this week, according to senior White House officials.

The White House has already started having conversations with some of the candidates but, "the list is fluid and could change", the officials told ABC News on Friday.

Texas Senator John Cornyn, former Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, Judge Michael Garcia of the New York Court of Appeals and Acting Federal Bureau of Investigation's Director Andrew McCabe are expected to be interviewed on Saturday by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, with others to follow in the coming days.

The other seven on the list are: former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly; former House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers; South Carolina Republican Representative Trey Gowdy; executive assistant director for the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services branch of the FBI Paul Abbate; Mayor of Colorado Springs John Suthers; former federal appellate court judge and incumbent executive vice president of Boeing Michael Luttig; and former deputy attorney general under former President George W. Bush Larry Thompson.

Comey was sacked on Tuesday and Trump, in his dismissal letter wrote that he was firing him on the advice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because of his handling of the bungled investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton private emails.

--IANS

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