President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey Tuesday evening over the handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, the White House announced.
He was accused of delivering an "October surprise" in the 2016 election when he announced the FBI was reopening its investigation into Clinton's emails just days before the election.
Comey, who was appointed director in 2013, was leading an investigation into whether Trump campaign members worked with Russia to influence the election.
Here are 5 things to know about Comey:
He grew up in New Jersey.
Comey was born in Yonkers, New York, on Dec. 14, 1960 and moved to Allendale, New Jersey, with his family and three siblings.
Comey and his wife, college sweetheart Patrice Failor, had six children together, but lost their 9-day-old son, Collin, to an infection.
He studied chemistry and religion.
While at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, Comey studied chemistry and religion and wrote a thesis on theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and televangelist Jerry Faldwell, CNN reported.
Comey went on to graduate with a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1985.
He was once held hostage.
When Comey was 16 years old, he was held hostage by a man dubbed "the Ramsey Rapist," who was suspected in other home invasions as well as rapes involving teenaged babysitters, the Daily Beast reported.
Comey, his younger brother Peter and three neighbors were held at gunpoint in their parents’ suburban New Jersey home.
He worked on the high-profile Martha Stewart case.
As a U.S. attorney working white-collar crimes, Comey worked on lifestyle magnate Marta Stewart’s insider trading case.
Stewart had been indicted in 2003 on several charges connected to a 2000 stock deal and later, convicted on all counts.
He was a registered Republican.
Before Comey gained a reputation for being politically independent when he threatened to resign if George W. Bush sought the re-approval of the post-9/11 warrantless wiretapping program, he was a registered Republican for most of his adult life, according to CNN.
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