Trump, Comey and Special Counsel Robert Mueller Could Come Face-to-Face at FBI Ceremony Next Week

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller leaves after a closed meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 21. Alex Wong/Getty

President Donald Trump could soon be in the same room as the man who is investigating his election campaign and the man he fired as head of the FBI.

On September 28, the FBI will hold its installation ceremony for Christopher Wray, who was sworn in as the new director in August by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Because it is customary for the president of the United States and past FBI directors to attend such ceremonies, Trump could encounter former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired, and Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who, as the Department of Justice's special counsel, is now looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign.

Related: New FBI Director Sworn In Quickly And Quietly

Trump could also encounter the FBI deputy director, Andrew McCabe, whom the president incorrectly claimed received money from Hillary Clinton. (Two entities affiliated with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally, gave money to the state Senate campaign of McCabe's wife.) Wray plans to keep McCabe as deputy director, an FBI spokesperson has told Newsweek.

The Washington Post first reported about the ceremony.

An FBI spokesperson could not say whether the bureau expects Trump, Mueller and Comey to attend. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel, declined to comment on whether Mueller plans to be there. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not available to say whether Trump will attend.

Tensions between Trump and Comey have been high since the firing, especially as Mueller is said to be looking into whether the president obstructed justice in the process. Trump has called Comey "a leaker" for giving a memo he wrote to a friend to pass along to a reporter. Huckabee Sanders has suggested that the Justice Department should look into prosecuting Comey.

Relations between Trump and Mueller are not warm, either. The president and his lawyers have said they would seek to remove Mueller if the special counsel moved too far outside his Justice Department mandate with his probe.

In 2013, at the installation ceremony for Comey, then-President Barack Obama attended and spoke, and Mueller, then the outgoing FBI director, was in the audience.

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Max Kutner is a senior writer at Newsweek, where he covers politics and general interest news. He specializes in stories ... Read more

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