James Comey's official portrait as the Seventh Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (Wikipedia Commons. Author: Federal Bureau of Investigation)
The memos of former Federal Bureau of Investigations Director James Comey were released of his conversations with President Donald Trump were released on Thursday night by House Republican staffers.
According to the memos, Trump and Comey spoke about the women Trump claimed falsely accused him of sexual assault, government leaks and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe — who Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently fired just days before McCabe’s retirement — over the course of several conversations.
SLIDESHOW: DONALD TRUMP’S 30 CRAZIEST TWEETS
During a meeting with the then-President Elect on Jan. 6, 2017, Comey said Trump repeatedly complimented his work, and Comey informed him that Russia allegedly had tapes of Trump with prostitutes at the Moscow Ritz Carlton’s Presidential Suite in 2013. Trump denied ever having been with prostitutes, insinuating, to Comey, that he didn’t need to pay women to have sex with him.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!
A week of political news in your in-box.
We find the news you need to know, so you don't have to.
Comey had dinner with Trump on Jan. 28 of last year, and he characterized the meeting as “conversation-in-jigsaw-puzzle.”
“The President spoke an overwhelming majority of the time,” Comey wrote in the memo. “He never asked me an open-ended question or left it to me to choose a topic of conversation … I felt comfortable throughout, although never relaxed, given the focus conversation required.”
It was during this meeting that Trump expressed to Comey his need and expectation for loyalty.
“I did not reply, or even nod or change my facial expression, which he noted because we came back to it later,” Comey wrote.
Comey later told Trump that former President Barack Obama saw the FBI’s role the same way he did in that they both believed the FBI should be independently run and not involved in policy.
While speaking with Comey on Feb. 14, 2017, Trump discussed finding leakers and said it may involve putting reporters in jail. Comey quote Trump as saying, “They spend a couple days in jail, make a new friend, and they are ready to talk.”
On March 30, 2017, Trump spoke at length about not being involved with Russia and never having interacted with Russian hookers.
During several of their conversations, Comey reiterated to Trump that the FBI was not investigating him. Trump also frequently praised Comey for his work.
Comey was fired by Trump on May 9, 2017. During a Senate hearing last year, Comey said he often kept notes about his interactions because he was worried Trump might twist the nature of their meetings to the public.
“I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting, so I thought it important to document,” Comey said.
James Comey Memos Releases April 19 2018 by The Conservative Treehouse on Scribd
On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) banned noncompete agreements in a 3-2 vote. The…
A proposed bill in California would prohibit security screening company CLEAR from skipping the general…
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a challenge to a law allowing…
The Arizona House of Representatives failed to advance a repeal of the state's 160-year-old abortion…
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) signed a bill restoring criminal charges in cases of hard drug possession.…
President Joe Biden's administration announced the first-ever national limits on toxic "forever chemicals" in drinking water. This…