Former FBI director James Comey has some harsh words for President Donald Trump in his new tell-all memoir "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership," which is due out next week.
"This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values," Comey writes. "His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty," according to an excerpt from the book in The New York Times.
Comey, who was fired by Trump last May after serving under two previous administrations, details conversations with Trump about the Steele dossier for the first time. The information gathered by former British spy Christopher Steele on Trump, includes alleged interactions between Trump and prostitutes in Moscow in 2013 that the Russians had allegedly filmed.
Trump has denied the allegations and said information in the dossier, which was partly funded by Trump campaign opponents, is false.
Comey, a Republican, said in the book that Trump brought up the dossier at least four times, offering "varying explanations to convince Comey it was not true," the Post reported.
He even asked Comey what could be done to “lift the cloud” around some details in the dossier because Melania was so upset, the former FBI man explained.
In a one-on-one dinner with Trump at the White House, Comey compared the president to a "mob boss," according to the Times.
“The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and above the truth,” Comey wrote in describing Trump.
Comey's book is a scathing review of Trump's presidency and character, but he stops short of calling Trump's behavior illegal.
“I have one perspective on the behavior I saw, which while disturbing and violating basic norms of ethical leadership, may fall short of being illegal,” he wrote, according to the Post.
Comey's firing on May 9, 2017, led to the Department of Justice and special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible Trump campaign collusion.
The book, which also discussed the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails, is due out Tuesday.
Credit: Brooks Kraft
Credit: Brooks Kraft
About the Author
