Subject: FBI Chief James Comey Stirs Tensions, Becomes Political Problem for WH

FBI Director James Comey's famously independent streak is reportedly ruffling feathers at the White House on issues ranging from cybersecurity to rising crime rates — and the potentially explosive investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server.

The Republican, praised for standing up to the Bush administration over a warrantless wiretapping program in 2004, may be proving more than President Barack Obama bargained for, The Hill reports.

"He takes very seriously the fact that he works for the executive branch," Leo Taddeo, a former agent in the FBI's cyber division, tells The Hill.

"But he also understands the importance of maintaining his independence as a law enforcement agency that needs to give not just the appearance of independence but the reality of it."

In the Clinton email server probe, for example, Obama has publicly defended Clinton, saying she "made a mistake" with the setup but that it wasn't "a situation in which America's national security was endangered."

The Hill reports that Comey pushed back, saying the president wouldn't have any knowledge of the probe, and Comey ensured lawmakers last week he's "very close, personally" to the investigation, The Washington Times reports.

The FBI director is proving he is "not attached to the strings of the White House," Ron Hosko, the former head of the FBI's criminal investigative division, tells The Hill, which characterizes him as a critic of Obama's law enforcement strategies.

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