The memos, which Comey wrote immediately after several meetings with Trump in the weeks after his inauguration on January 20, 2017, depict a president deeply worried about the impact of the probe into Russian meddling in the election the previous year.
James Comey has slammed US President Donald Trump over his behaviour described in the Mueller report and claimed that the Republican leader would have been arrested if he was not in office.
In an interview with CNN, the former FBI chief let loose on Trump, accusing him of attempting to obstruct the course of justice.
Comey mentioned Trump’s attempts to fire Mueller in 2017 before being advised against it by his legal counsel, as an example of such obstruction.
Trump fired Comey shortly after the FBI launched an investigation into Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 US presidential elections — allegedly with the intent of getting Trump elected — and implicated several Trump associates.
The president had allegedly asked Comey to drop the case before firing him, a request Comey rebuffed.
In the outcry that followed a special counsel, former FBI chief Robert Mueller, was appointed to lead the investigation.
Trump has been fierce and outspoken in his criticism of the investigation, and of both Mueller and Comey.
Is Robert Mueller ever going to release his conflicts of interest with respect to President Trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty & contentious business relationship, I turned him down to head the FBI (one day before appointment as S.C.) & Comey is his close friend..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
He has repeatedly referred to the inquiry, which concluded in February as a ‘witch hunt’ and has not shied away from making things personal and petty.
Before the report was published, he repeatedly accused Mueller of having a conflict of interest over his purported friendship with Comey.
“Is Robert Mueller ever going to release his conflicts of interest with respect to President Trump, including the fact that we had a very nasty & contentious business relationship, I turned him down to head the FBI (one day before appointment as S.C.) & Comey is his close friend..” He wrote on Twitter in July 2018.
Even after the publication of the Mueller report, which Trump and right-wing pundits claimed ‘cleared’ him, the attacks on Comey and Mueller have continued.
“He’s certainly not obsessed with me the way some others are obsessed with me,” James Comey to @andersoncooper on whether Mueller is “in love” with him as Trump said today
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 10, 2019
On Thursday, Trump launched a blistering attack on the pair. Mueller, he said, was “somebody that is in love with James Comey”, and implied he had an axe to grind because of a business dispute with him.
Comey, according to Trump, was a liar: “Your judge (Mueller) has a fantastic relationship with James Comey. Well, he’s a part of this. He lied to Congress, he leaked - he’s a liar, a leaker,” he said.
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