James Comey CNN town hall

By Veronica Rocha and Brian Ries, CNN

Updated 9:28 p.m. ET, May 9, 2019

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8:02 p.m. ET, May 9, 2019

NOW: James Comey takes stage for CNN town hall

It's two years to the date since President Trump fired former FBI Director James Comey -- and he's here to talk about that day and everything that's happened since.

Who's asking the questions: The audience is made up of students and professionals from more than a dozen states living in the D.C. area, and their questions are all their own.

Our CNN town hall starts now.

Watch it live in the video player above (refresh if you don't see it), on CNNGo or CNN on your TV.

7:46 p.m. ET, May 9, 2019

Here are 7 things to know about James Comey

From CNN's Gregory Krieg

Former FBI Director James Comey is an unlikely candidate to take center stage in the most charged political drama of this generation, but history shows he has a tendency to turn up in the headlines.

Here are some them:

He delivered an unprecedented "October Surprise" in the 2016 election. He announced — less than two weeks before the presidential election — that the bureau would investigate more emails potentially related to Hillary Clinton's private server.
Comey opposed Bush White House officials in a dramatic standoff. When then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was hospitalized in 2004, Bush officials rushed to his side in an effort to have him sign off on an extension to the wiretapping program, which Justice Department attorneys had deemed illegal, according to Comey's account. The weakened Ashcroft managed to make clear his refusal and Gonzales and Card left the room -- with Comey, then Ashcroft's top deputy, watching on -- without a word.
He prosecuted Martha Stewart. Comey brought a series of charges against Stewart in 2003 in connection with a dodgy 2000 stock deal. She was ultimately convicted and sentenced to five months in prison.
He'd investigated the Clintons previously. Their first run-in came in the mid-1990s, when Comey joined the Senate Whitewater Committee as a deputy special counsel. In 2002, Comey, then a federal prosecutor, took over an investigation into President Bill Clinton's 2001 pardon of financier Marc Rich, who had been indicted on a laundry list of charges before fleeing the country
Comey was locked up and held at gunpoint. In October 1977, he and his younger brother were held captive in their home by the so-called "Ramsey Rapist."
He was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate in 2013. Comey became the seventh FBI director when he was confirmed by the Senate on July 29, 2013, by a 93-1 count, with Sen. Rand Paul the lone holdout. He succeeded Robert Mueller III.
Comey was a registered Republican for many years. In testimony on Capitol Hill, he insisted that his FBI is "resolutely apolitical." Comey himself, however, does have a partisan past — as a Republican.

7:35 p.m. ET, May 9, 2019

Tonight's James Comey town hall starts at 8 p.m. ET

Former FBI Director James Comey will take questions at a town hall moderated by CNN's Anderson Cooper tonight at 8 p.m. ET.

The town hall will be held exactly two years to the day after President Donald Trump fired Comey, citing Comey's handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as his reasoning.

Comey was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate as FBI director in July 2013 with a 93-1 vote, and served until his firing on May 9, 2017.

Comey has been a harsh critic of Trump, and said at a previous CNN town hall, "I don't believe he is morally fit to be president of the United States."

In October 2016, less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Comey announced the FBI would investigate more emails potentially related to Clinton's private server. Clinton later said she believes the decision cost her the presidential election.