Trump Calls Comey a ‘Leaker and Liar’ After Book Details Drop

Ivan Pentchoukov
4/13/2018
Updated:
4/13/2018

President Donald Trump called the former director of the FBI, James Comey, a “proven leaker and liar” and a “weak and untruthful slime ball” in a Friday morning tweet, less than a day after the release of excerpts from Comey’s upcoming book.

“James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH.”

“He is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI,” Trump added. “His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!”

Comey’s book will be released next week. His interview with ABC is set to air on Sunday.

Trump fired Comey last May, setting off a chain of events that led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump and Comey traded barbs before, but Trump’s Friday tweets are the first since details of Comey book have been revealed.

In calling Comey a proven liar, Trump may be referring to the fact the Comey drafted the exoneration of Hillary Clinton before she was interviewed by the FBI, but told Congress under oath that he made the decision after Clinton was interviewed.
Trump may also be referring to Comey’s statement under oath that he did not coordinate Clinton’s exoneration with anyone outside the FBI. That claim has come under scrutiny after texts were discovered between top FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. In one of the texts, Page wrote to Strzok that “potus wants to know everything we are doing,” raising questions about coordination between President Barack Obama and the FBI.

Another text from Page to Strzok also indicated that the FBI coordinated the exoneration with the Justice Department. Following Attorney General Lorotta Lynch’s statement that she would follow the FBI’s recommendation in the Clinton email probe, Page wrote, “it’s a real profile in couragw [sic], since she knows no charges will be brought” against Clinton. The text suggests that the FBI had coordinated with the Justice Department, contrary to Comey’s sworn statement.

In calling Comey a leaker, Trump is likely referring to the notes Comey admitted to leaking to his friend. Comey violated FBI’s policies for handling sensitive government documents and may have broken the law by mishandling classified documents. In January this year, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley revealed that at least one of Comey’s memos contained classified information.

During his time as FBI Director, Comey was criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike.

“One of the few areas of true bipartisan consensus in Washington is Comey has no credibility,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders wrote in a tweet accompanied by a video of Democrats slamming Comey.
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Ivan is the national editor of The Epoch Times. He has reported for The Epoch Times on a variety of topics since 2011.
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