Updated at 10:13 p.m.
Excerpts from former FBI Director James Comey’s upcoming book are emerging, just days ahead of the publication of “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”
In one excerpt, Comey claims that President Trump requested he launch an investigation into accusations detailed in the so-called “Trump dossier” that claimed Trump hired Russian prostitutes to perform sex acts involving urine during a stay at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Moscow.
According to the salacious and largely unverified dossier, the Kremlin had a tape of Trump paying the hookers that could be used as blackmail. Comey said Trump was interested in investigating the allegations to convince First Lady Melania Trump the accusations were false.
“He brought up what he called the ‘golden showers thing’ … adding that it bothered him if there was ‘even a one percent chance’ his wife, Melania, thought it was true,” Comey wrote in his book, the New York Post reports.
“He just rolled on, unprompted, explaining why it couldn’t possibly be true, ending by saying he was thinking of asking me to investigate the allegation to prove it was a lie,” Comey added. “I said it was up to him.”
Elsewhere in the book, Comey opens up about how White House chief of staff John Kelly, then head of the Homeland Security department, reacted when Trump fired Comey in May 2017.
Comey says Kelly told him he “didn’t want to work for dishonorable people” — a jab at Trump. Kelly also said he was exasperated and “intended to quit” his job.
Sources who have read Comey’s book told the Daily Beast that Comey told Kelly he should remain at his post because “this president” needed people of character in the administration.
Senior White House officials disputed this characterization of the interaction between Comey and Kelly to the Daily Beast, arguing Kelly did not call Trump “dishonorable” in his account of the conversation.
In another excerpt, Comey ridiculed Trump for being shorter than he anticipated and described Trump as having “bright white half-moons” beneath his eyes. Additionally, he argued that Trump’s ties are “too long,” according to the Associated Press.
Trump is somewhere in the 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3 range while Comey is 6-foot-8. Comey also commented on the size of Trump’s hands, claiming the are “smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so.”
A separate excerpt shows Comey compared Trump to a mafia boss as he described how Trump sought loyalty from him.
“I need loyalty. I expect loyalty,” Trump told Comey at a private White House dinner in January 2017, according to ABC News.
“The demand was like Sammy the Bull’s Cosa Nostra induction ceremony,” Comey wrote in the excerpt.
Comey also said that Trump displayed mob boss-like characteristics during the presidential transition period.
When Comey was fired last spring, Trump originally said Comey was ousted per the suggestion of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, but confessed days later the “Russia thing” was a factor.
Amid other emerging details from the book, which appears to have been obtained early by multiple news outlets, Comey takes a subtle swipe at Republican leaders in Congress who “stood idly by” or “silent” while Trump attacks the credibility of the FBI and Justice Department.
Comey stands by how he managed the FBI’s investigation into the unauthorized email server of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, used while she was secretary of state, but apologizes to Clinton and her supporters for not being able to “do a better job explaining” why he made the choices he did regarding the investigation.
Comey also opens up about interactions he had with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, about whom he said there was “unverified” information discovered by the U.S. government in 2016 from a classified source “would undoubtedly have been used by political opponents to cast serious doubt on the attorney general’s independence in connection with the Clinton investigation.”
The book is scheduled to be released on April 17 and will include Comey’s thoughts on “what good, ethical leadership looks like and how it drives sound decisions,” according to its publisher, Flatiron Books.
The Republican National Committee has worked with the White House to draft a 1,000-word talking points memo for Trump, his administration, and GOP officials across the country to counter Comey’s book and his accompanying book tour and slate of TV interviews. The Washington Examiner obtained access to the full document, which can be read here.
