A UNITER, NOT A DIVIDER:

The former official stressed that whatever differences existed within the FBI about Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation, "bureau agents are united in their contempt for how he was fired."

Comey learned of his removal, three years into a 10-year term, from a television newscast while speaking to agents on a trip to Hollywood, California.

"People at the FBI are outraged and angry" over Comey's firing, said Jeff Ringel, a 21-year FBI veteran who is now with the Soufan Group, a strategic security firm in New York City. "It was unprofessional, crass and cowardly the way that Comey was blindsided." [...]

Few professionals in the Justice Department believe that Comey's firing was tied to anything other than the displeasure of the White House at the Russia probe.

"Everybody reads this as the White House wanting to send a warning shot across the bow of the Russia investigation and to slow it down," said Schroeder, who now teaches at Duke University's law school.

Some career investigators may not take kindly to the political pressure, said Alex Whiting, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches at Harvard Law School.

"If they feel like this was designed to push them back, they will be emboldened," Whiting said, and may confront Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who has taken the reins of the Russia probe because Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdrew from involvement in the inquiry after it was disclosed that he met twice with Russia's ambassador last year.

Whiting said he believes Rosenstein "is very weakened" as a result of his role in Comey's "orchestrated firing," and will soon feel pressure from senior Justice Department officials to name a special counsel to take over the Russia influence investigation.

"It's very possible that in the next few days, the political pressure will be so intense that he'll have little choice," Whiting said.

He said many career Justice Department officials care deeply about its image and the perception that it remains free of political meddling.

"Any time that there's a perception that the independence of the Justice Department may have been compromised by a political decision, that's very damaging to the institution," Whiting said. "And it's a lasting damage."

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