Trump: Joe Lieberman is top contender for new FBI director

Former senator Joe Lieberman withdrew from consideration for FBI director citing "any appearance of a conflict of interest." (Video: Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post, Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

President Trump said Thursday that Joe Lieberman was his top choice to become FBI director, filling the slot left open after Trump fired James B. Comey, his previous FBI head, last week.

Trump, speaking to a group of television anchors at the White House Thursday, said that Lieberman, the former senator from Connecticut and Democratic vice presidential nominee, is his leading candidate to run the agency.

The president also told the group that he was close to a decision, an assertion he repeated later at a joint appearance with President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia.

“We're very close to an FBI director,” Trump told reporters as he posed for photos with Santos in the Oval Office, saying his choice would be announced soon.

Some senators on Capitol Hill Thursday were expressing skepticism Thursday about choosing a politician to lead the independent investigations bureau.

Lieberman, originally a Democrat and later an independent, was not always Trump's top pick, either. Previously, the president had expressed interest in Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) for the post. Cornyn took himself out of the running, saying he believed he could best serve the president by remaining in the Senate.