FBI agents change their Facebook profile photos to James Comey – a gesture normally reserved for slain colleagues

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

The firing of FBI Director James Comey has reportedly sent morale plunging at an agency already enduring one of its most tumultuous periods in history.

Andrew McCabe, who was the FBI’s deputy director, has now become its acting head after Donald Trump ousted Mr Comey earlier this week. Mr McCabe is due to testify before senators.

Not everyone inside the FBI was a supporter of Mr Comey. But several reports said the way he was treated had left many feeling angry and frustrated. The Daily Beast said at least a dozen agents posted images on their private Facebook pages of themselves with Mr Comey, or else of Mr Comey alone.

The gesture is apparently usually reserved for a colleague who dies in the line of duty,

“The real impact will be the distrust of the agency under the leadership of the new director,” one agent told the website.

“No matter who gets the job, there will be a cloud of suspicion because the President is unpopular with much of the population. That bad faith will make it harder to do my job.”

The New York Times said that another senior FBU official said the president had damaged his standing among agents, many of whom were conservative and supported MrTrump as a candidate.

They also denied a claim made by White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who told reporters the FBI’s rank-and-file supported the sudden firing of their director

One former senior FBI official, Frank Montoya Jr, said: “People are stunned right now.”