‘Like the horse head in the bed’: Ex-intel officer says Trump fired Comey to ‘send a message’ to FBI

A former senior intelligence official on Wednesday said Donald Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey to “send a message” to FBI agents, NBC’s Ken Dilanian reports.

Trump fired Comey Tuesday afternoon, sending longtime aide Keith Schiller to deliver a Manilla envelope containing a self-aggrandizing and highly contentious letter to FBI headquarters informing the director of his ouster. The New York Times reports Comey learned of his firing on T.V. as he addressed FBI employees.

“The way this was done, I think was to send a message to the FBI agents left behind,” the unnamed former intelligence official told Dilanian. “It’s not just that they removed him—it’s that they did it in the most thuggish and humiliating way possible.”

“No notice, no nothing—instant execution,” the official continued. “The body guard delivers the letter to headquarters.”

“I think that was designed to send a message: Cut this shit out, or this will happen to you.”

“This is like the horse head in the bed,” the official continued, referring to the iconic scene from Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather.”

[h/t @BraddJaffy]