Highlights of Comey book: Seven details from tell-all tome that has Trump fuming
WASHINGTON — James Comey’s new tell-all isn’t officially out yet, but it’s already infuriated President Donald Trump, who has called Comey an “untruthful slime ball,” and declared that he considered it an honour to fire the FBI director.
The pre-launch brouhaha is based on media reports about what’s in the book, “A Higher Loyalty.” Here are some of the eye-catching details:
— Comey admits he treated the election candidates differently. During the campaign, Comey never informed the public that he was investigating Trump’s ties to Russia. Yet he released a damaging letter just before the election about Hillary Clinton. Comey explains the double standard: He was sure Clinton would win and he didn’t want the next president and the FBI tainted by news of a coverup. In hindsight, he says he might have done some things differently. After hearing this rationale, one former Clinton campaign aide, Zerlina Maxwell, told MSNBC on Friday: “It’s infuriating.”
— He compares Trump to a mob boss. Comey writes that the president gave him flashbacks to his days prosecuting the Cosa Nostra. Regarding a private dinner with Trump where the president demanded loyalty, Comey compared it to the Mafia induction ceremony of Sammy (The Bull) Gravano. “I sat there thinking, Holy crap, they are trying to make each of us ‘amica nostra’ — friend of ours. To draw us in,” Comey writes in an excerpt cited by ABC.