President Trump is on the attack against James Comey as the former F. B. I. Director begins his book tour.<\/b>
\nBeginning tonight with an interview that will be broadcast by ABC News, former F. B. I. Director James Comey kicks off a tour to mark the release of his new book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, which is scheduled to be released next Tuesday. The anticipation of the release of that book and the tour that will accompany it have already set the President and the Administration off with attacks on Comey, but today those attacks shifted up into high gear thanks to a barrage of Sunday morning Tweets from the President:
For the second time in a week, President Trump on Sunday excoriated the former F. B. I. director James B. Comey in a series of tweets after details from Mr. Comey\u2019s tell-all book were leaked before its official release.
In the latest tirade, which unfolded over an hour, the president declared that Mr. Comey \u201cwill go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!\u201d He mentioned Mr. Comey\u2019s contemporaneous notes of their meetings, calling those memos self-serving and \u201cfake.\u201d
He reiterated that Mr. Comey was a \u201cslime ball,\u201d an insult he lobbed on Friday. He also questioned Mr. Comey\u2019s intelligence twice \u2014 first by saying the investigation into Hillary Clinton\u2019s emails had been handled \u201cstupidly\u201d and then, about 30 minutes later, that Mr. Comey \u201cis not smart!\u201d
Mr. Trump also questioned the integrity of former United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who said in a recent interview with NBC News that she did not discuss Hillary Clinton during her meeting with President Bill Clinton in June 2016 on a plane on an airport tarmac. Mrs. Clinton\u2019s exclusive use of a private email server has long been the subject of controversy and that meeting with Mr. Clinton cast a shadow over the federal investigation.
Ms. Lynch told NBC that Mr. Clinton told a \u201ccharming story\u201d about grandchildren and discussed issues of the day, such as Brexit.
Mr. Trump balked at that description, writing on Twitter, \u201cWas she promised a Supreme Court seat, or AG, in order to lay off Hillary. No golf and grandkids talk (give us all a break)!\u201d
The president\u2019s sharp remarks came hours ahead of Mr. Comey\u2019s first major news media appearance since being fired by President Trump last year. Excerpts from the interview, which will air on ABC News on Sunday night, have been shared by the network after details from Mr. Comey\u2019s book leaked on Thursday.
Mr. Comey\u2019s book, \u201cA Higher Loyalty\u201d describes Mr. Trump as \u201cunethical, and untethered to truth\u201d and compared Mr. Trump to a Mafia boss.
Mr. Comey also speculated about Mr. Trump\u2019s refusal to acknowledge Russia\u2019s attempt to influence the election.
\u201cMaybe it was a contrarian streak,\u201d he wrote, \u201cor maybe it was something more complicated that explained his constant equivocation and apologies for Vladimir Putin.\u201d
Mr. Trump and his allies counterattacked on Friday, and Democrats, many of whom blame Mr. Comey for Mrs. Clinton\u2019s loss in the 2016 election, issued a muted defense.
Mr. Trump continued his criticism of Mr. Comey\u2019s book on Sunday, questioning why Mr. Comey hadn\u2019t used the book to address questions such as why \u201che gave up Classified Information.\u201d
Here are the President\u2019s five tweets about Comey, released over a period of roughly an hour and twenty minutes this morning:
Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe. In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!
\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15,2018
The big questions in Comey\u2019s badly reviewed book aren\u2019t answered like, how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn\u2019t they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe\u2019s $700,000 & more?
\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15,2018
Comey throws AG Lynch \u201cunder the bus!\u201d Why can\u2019t we all find out what happened on the tarmac in the back of the plane with Wild Bill and Lynch? Was she promised a Supreme Court seat, or AG, in order to lay off Hillary. No golf and grandkids talk (give us all a break)!
\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15,2018
I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His \u201cmemos\u201d are self serving and FAKE!
\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15,2018
I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His \u201cmemos\u201d are self serving and FAKE!
\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15,2018
As The Washington Post notes, there were a number of inaccuracies in Trump\u2019s tweets:
Comey has not been formally accused of disclosing classified information or lying to Congress.
The memos Trump appears to reference are ones that Comey wrote documenting his meetings and phone calls with the president \u2014 which have since become public. Comey asked a friend to give some of those memos to the New York Times, but the memos are not thought to contain have classified material. Comey has testified about the memos under oath to Congress. He has alleged that Trump asked him to ease off a probe into fired national security adviser Michael Flynn and wanted complete \u201cloyalty.\u201d
Trump has continued to allege that McCabe was deferential to Hillary Clinton during the FBI\u2019s investigation of her use of a private email server because his wife took donations from a Clinton ally for a state Senate race in Virginia. The accusation is one that McCabe has denied and has never been proved.
McCabe claimed after his firing that he was targeted because he was a witness in Mueller\u2019s probe.
McCabe\u2019s attorney, Michael R. Bromwich, responded Sunday to the president\u2019s claims, tweeting: \u201c1. The book isn\u2019t out so you don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it. 2. The Comey and McCabe memos are very real. 3. The story about \u2018McCabe\u2019s $ 700,000\u2019 has been fully explained. . 4. Your strategy of attacking beloved former FBI leaders \u2014 not smart.\u201d
The president\u2019s tweet about Comey and Loretta E. Lynch appears to reference a part of the book in which Comey says the then-attorney general was conflicted on the Hillary Clinton investigation because of unspecified classified information that he said he was aware of \u2014 and that Lynch wanted him to call the probe a \u201cmatter.\u201d
Trump also references a meeting that Bill Clinton \u2014 whom he calls \u201cWild Bill\u201d \u2014 and Lynch had on a Phoenix tarmac in July 2016 that was seen as questionable, as Lynch was leading the investigation into Hillary Clinton. There is no proof, however, that Bill Clinton offered Lynch a job or a favor to have her ease off the investigation into his wife. The two said that their planes just happened to be on the same tarmac and that they made casual conversation after Clinton asked to come aboard Lynch\u2019s plane.
Trump also attacked Comey for writing that political considerations may have driven him to reopen the Clinton investigation in the final days of the 2016 election campaign. Comey writes that it is possible \u201cmy concern about making her an illegitimate president by concealing the restarted investigation bore greater weight than it would have if the election appeared closer or if Donald Trump were ahead in all polls.\u201d
\u201cUnbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton email probe. In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!\u201d Trump wrote in one of his tweets.
That admission by Comey has drawn condemnation from others, including former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R), who worked closely with Comey and has often lavishly praised him.
\u201cIt is exactly what they teach you not to do,\u201d Christie said on ABC. \u201c. .. The hubris he shows in that interview is extraordinary to me. Not the guy I worked with or worked for.\u201d
Still, it is unclear why Trump thought reopening the probe into the email server would help Comey get a job with the Clintons. Clinton and her allies resented the move and said it hurt her chances to become president. And when Trump fired Comey, he cited a memo that said Comey\u2019s termination was partly because he was unfair to Clinton.
In addition to the President\u2019s Twitter tirades, the full-court press against the former F. B. I. Director is being repeated by Trump\u2019s political allies and other. For example, the Republican National Committee is spearheading a campaign centered around a party-established website called \u201cLyin\u2019 Comey\u201d that alleges to catalog the lies that Comey has told over the years. It also features many of the attacks that were leveled against him by Democrats during the investigation regarding former Secretary of State Clinton\u2019s use of a private email server and the manner in which Clinton and those working under her handled classified information. This includes many of the critical comments that have been made both during and after the 2016 campaign regarding the letter Comey wrote to Congress advising that he had reopened the investigation just eleven days prior to the election.
As I noted previously, much of the current attention regarding Comey\u2019s book is focusing on the salacious aspects of Comey\u2019s book, including allegations of what can only be described as bizarre sexual preferences that are set forth in the dossier prepared by Christopher Steele, a former MI6 agent who has worked with the F. B. I. in the past but has largely spent the last decade as a private investigator. That dossier has played a limited role in the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, collusion between people close to Trump and persons associated with the Russian government, and other questionable legal and ethical issues raised by Trump\u2019s business dealings. The dossier also includes certain allegations regarding encounters between Trump and Russian prostitutes which have not been verified, but which have remained persistent enough that one has to wonder if there might not be some truth to them after all. In any case, it\u2019s this last part of the dossier that has apparently been Trump\u2019s biggest obsession ever since the contents became public, and it seems to be at least part of the reason for his overall effort to undermine the Mueller investigation and James Comey himself.
In the end, Trump\u2019s obsession with Comey\u2019s book and the allegations it contains seems likely to backfire and only bring more attention to both Comey\u2019s book and the allegations, revelations, and comments he may make during the course of the many interviews he\u2019ll be giving over the course of the next week to ten days. This is a phenomenon known as the Streisand Effect in which the effort to conceal or discredit negative information has the opposite effect of causing people to seek out that information, or to pay more attention to it than they otherwise might have done. We saw a similar example of this last month in reaction to the allegations that former adult film actress Stormy Daniels has made against the President regarding a sexual encounter between her and Trump around the time that Trump\u2019s wife Melania as pregnant with his fifth child. When Daniels finally sat down for an interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes, it managed to draw in 22 million viewers, making it one of the most-watched episodes of that show in quite some time. While it\u2019s unclear if Comey\u2019s interviews, which begin tonight with an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC, will garner quite that big an audience, at least some evidence of the impact that the attention the Administration is helping to draw to the book tour is paying off given the fact that Comey\u2019s book is already at the top of Amazon\u2019s Best Seller List even though the book won\u2019t be released until Tuesday. Additionally, CNN notes that Comey\u2019s publisher expects as many as 850,000 copies of the book to be sold just in the opening weeks of the tour. With Trump likely to pay even more attention to the book in the days to come, those numbers are only likely to increase.<\/p>\n

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