Washington, Apr 17 (PTI) James Comey said today that Donald Trump threatening a private citizen is "not normal" after the US president suggested that the former FBI Director should serve jail time.

Comey's book titled 'a Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership' in which he is highly critical of Trump hit book stores today. Last year, Trump had abruptly fired Comey. A furious Trump in a series of tweets over the past few days has accused Comey of lying and suggested that he would face jail.

"The president of the United States just tweeted that a private citizen should be jailed. I think the reaction of most of us was, 'meh, it's another one of those things. This is not normal. This is not ok. There is a danger that we will become numb to it and we will stop noticing the threats to our norms," Comey told the popular National Public Radio or NPR.

In a mass email sent to his supporters, Trump today slammed Comey.

"If James Comey really had something big to say, why would he put it in a book and try to make millions off of it? The truth is James Comey is a grandstanding liar who put his own interests above America's,' Trump said.

"Comey represents the worst of the swamp. He doesn't want hardworking Americans like you to win," Trump wrote.

Comey, however, refuted the allegations that his book is against Trump.

"One of the things I've been worried about with my work this week is that people think it's a book about Donald Trump, and it's not. It's a book about ethical leadership," the former FBI Director said.

"I tried to tell stories to interest people, but I hope without even knowing it they're learning things about making hard decisions. But I couldn't write about ethical leadership without including those stories about Donald Trump. But I hope that people will find useful the entire thing. I suppose after initial period of focus on President Trump, maybe we can get people to think about it in the way you did, right?" he said.

In the book, Comey said, he is trying to be introspective and cross-examine himself. "Because I'm looking back and saying, 'you were sitting in an environment where all the polls showed that Hillary Clinton was going to win, could that have influenced you?' And my answer is, of course it could have. But I don't think it would have changed the decision," he told NPR.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)