Donald Trump Administration Struck By New Storm As Fired FBI Chief James Comey Set To Release Memoir

Former FBI director James Comey who was fired by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017, will next week release a memoir that is expected to paint an extremely unflattering portrait of Trump.

According to excerpts of the book obtained by the Washington Post, Comey writes that meetings with the U.S. President gave him "flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob. 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 organisation above morality and above the truth".

The result was "the forest fire that is the Trump presidency", he says.

Another excerpt of the book obtained by the New York Post, in which Comey recounts that at a dinner with Trump early in his presidency, the conversation turned to the possible existence of a salacious tape involving the president of the United States and called the ‘pee tapes.’

Writes Comey, according to the Post: "He brought up what he called the 'golden showers thing. It bothered him if there was 'even a one percent chance' his wife, Melania, thought it was true. ... 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. I said it was up to him."

That revelation landed like an atomic bomb in political Washington, reported CNN. News of the existence of the alleged "pee tape" had first come to the fore when BuzzFeed published the full dossier on Trump prepared during the 2016 election campaign by former British spy Christopher Steele. Most news organizations -- including CNN -- had avoided reporting on it. BuzzFeed News published the full, unverified dossier that included the infamous claim that Russian authorities had evidence of Trump watching prostitutes urinate in a hotel suite.

The former FBI director also notes that Trump raised the matter with him of the Steele dossier on at least four separate occasions. He also notes he never saw the president laugh, which he said was a sign of Trump's "deep insecurity, his inability to be vulnerable or to risk himself by appreciating the humour of others, which, on reflection, is really very sad in a leader, and a little scary in a president".

In the book, Comey also writes that White House chief of staff John Kelly said Trump's dismissal of him was "dishonourable", according to the Daily Beast.

An interview of Former FBI Director James Comey with ABC News will be aired on Sunday, kicking off the book tour. Preview sales of A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies & Leadership have already made the memoir a best-seller on Amazon.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 13, 2018 11:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).