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Evan Vucci
Trump accused Comey of lying to Congress and leaking classified information.
Twitter
'Untruthful slime ball': Trump slams former FBI director James Comey
Trump tweeted that it was an honour to fire the FBI director.
TRUMP HAS BLASTED former FBI director James Comey on Twitter, calling him an “untruthful slime ball” who deserved to be fired from the role.
“It was my great honor to fire James Comey!” Trump wrote, calling him “weak” and “a proven LEAKER & LIAR”.
Trump fired Comey 11 months ago, and today’s comments mark Trump’s first remarks about him since the first copies of Comey’s upcoming book, which describes Trump as “unethical, and untethered to the truth and institutional values”, were revealed.
Donald J. Trump / Twitter
Donald J. Trump / Twitter / Twitter
Donald J. Trump / Twitter
Donald J. Trump / Twitter / Twitter
Trump accuses Comey of leaking classified information and of lying to Congress under oath. He also states that Comey’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state would “go down as one of the worst ‘botch jobs’ of history”.
Trump’s firing of Comey has been under scrutiny by special counsel Robert S Mueller III, who is investigating ties into Trump and Russia.
Trump cited Comey’s investigation into Clinton when Comey was fired, and the move was also interpreted as part of Trump’s efforts to harm any possible investigation into collusion between Trump and Russia during his election campaign.
Comey’s book, A Higher Loyalty, is out next Tuesday. Copies of the book have been leaked to the Guardian, who reports that Comey compares Trump’s presidency to a “forest fire” and makes unflattering comments about Trump’s physical appearance.
Both the White House and the Republican National Committee have attempted to undermine the book’s contents.
In his tweets, Trump asserts that Comey was an unpopular FBI director who deserved to be fired. “Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired,” he wrote.
Many viewed Trump’s firing of Comey as anti-democratic, and the move was questioned by three top Republican senators. Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, said he was “troubled by the timing and reasoning” of the decision. The move was generally derided by democrats and international media, and resulted in protests, including outside of Trump Tower in New York.
