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 President Trump’s drive to find a new FBI director has lost its “Joe-mentum.” Former senator Joseph I. Lieberman today withdrew his name from consideration for the post, citing a conflict of interest because his law firm colleague has signed on to help the White House with the Russia investigations.  Former Sen. Joe Lieberman told MSNBC Thursday that appointing him head of the FBI would have looked “terrible” after President Donald Trump retained an attorney from the law firm where Lieberman works to represent him in the Russia investigation. Related: Trump Says Lieberman a Top Pick for FBI Director 
 
 "With your selection of Marc Kasowitz to represent you in the various investigations that have begun, I do believe it would be best to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, given my role as a senior counsel in the law firm of which Marc is the senior partner," Lieberman wrote Trump in the letter.
– Joe Lieberman, who was at one point considered the front-runner for FBI director, has dropped out of the running. The former senator said he wanted to avoid the "appearance of a conflict of interest" after President Trump hired Marc Kasowitz, who works at the same law firm as Lieberman, to help the White House deal with the Russia investigation, reports the Wall Street Journal. Other candidates, including former Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, have also withdrawn from consideration, but the Justice Department has continued to interview candidates while Trump is on his foreign trip, including former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, reports the Washington Post. Lieberman told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace Thursday that it wouldn't have looked good if he had taken the job, NBC News reports. "With everything swirling in Washington, you can't have a director of the FBI coming from the same law firm as the president's private lawyer. It looks terrible," he said.