President Trump had the legal authority to fire James B. Comey on Tuesday, and he originally said that doing so was necessary because, in his view, Mr. Comey committed serious violations of law-enforcement norms during his investigation of Hillary Clinton last year.
But critics say that Mr. Trump has himself violated a longstanding norm of American politics: the unwritten rule that presidents should not remove the F.B.I. director without extreme justification, in order to avoid politicizing law enforcement. Before Tuesday, only one F.B.I. director had ever been fired, and that was after an investigation found he had committed egregious ethical violations — and after he refused entreaties to resign.
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Mr. Mickey, however, sees hopeful signs in the early response to Mr. Comey’s firing. He pointed out that in the hours after his firing was announced, several Republican lawmakers issued statements criticizing Mr. Trump’s actions.
“I feel heartened by the elite establishment freakout,” he said. “I wouldn’t be too pessimistic about some spiral into destruction.”
