With the political punditry debating whether Trump's real motive to sack Comey was the FBI Director's escalating probe into Trump's ties to Russia, despite - as Trump stated in his letter to Comey - the president allegedly being assured three times there was no investigation - the NYT reported moments ago that Comey had requested a significant increase in funds and personnel in connection with the Russia probe just days before he was fired.
From the NYT:
Days before he was fired, James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, asked the Justice Department for a significant increase in money and personnel for the bureau’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the presidential election, according to three officials with knowledge of his request.
Mr. Comey asked for the resources during a meeting last week with Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who wrote the Justice Department’s memo that was used to justify the firing of the F.B.I. director this week.
Mr. Comey then briefed members of Congress on the meeting in recent days.
To be sure, this completes the circle of theories presented earlier by Politico and WaPo, both of which suggested that the real reason behind Comey's termination was not disappointment over handling of the Hillary scandal, but self-preservation ahead of the Russian probe.
Predictably, the a DOJ spokeswoman flatly denied the Times' report on Wednesday:
James Comey, who was fired as FBI director yesterday by President Trump, did not ask Deputy Atty Gen. Rod Rosenstein for more money and resources, Justice Dept spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores tells reporters.
... although a congressional official told NBC News that Comey had briefed Congress about his request for more funding and personnel toward the Russia investigation.
Nonetheless, the Washington Post, minutes after the DOJ denial, also reported that Comey requested more resources from Justice Dept for his bureau’s investigation of possible links between Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Meanwhile, Senator Dianne Feinstein, asked if she was aware that Comey recently requested more resources, says “that’s my understanding. I didn’t hear him say it. But that’s my understanding that’s the case.”
Ultimately, and as has been the case for months, the narrative boils down to the NYT's word (and that of its echo chamber, the WaPo), or rather the various "unnamed sources", versus that of the president, and in this case the DOJ... and absent formal evidence and charges that Trump was indeed involved in some shady dealings with Putin, that's how it shall remain, with few if any on either side of the ideological divide convinced by innuendo.