Former FBI Director James Comey is now leaking details of a private dinner with President Donald Trump to the media, through some of his close associates.
According to the New York Times, the FBI director had dinner with Trump in January after the inauguration, citing private details of the meeting that portray Comey as a martyr.
Comey’s people, “who have heard his account of the dinner” and spoke anonymously, insist that Trump asked the director to pledge his personal loyalty to him, but he declined. They added that Comey was wary about dining with the president, but believed he couldn’t turn him down.
The White House, however, disputed the report.
“We don’t believe this to be an accurate account,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the deputy press secretary. “The integrity of our law enforcement agencies and their leadership is of the utmost importance to President Trump. He would never even suggest the expectation of personal loyalty, only loyalty to our country and its great people.”
According to the White House, one of the many reasons Comey was fired was because he failed to stop sensitive leaks of information to the media.
In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Trump said he asked Comey whether he was under investigation during a dinner with the FBI director and also spoke with him on the phone.
“I said, if it’s possible would you let me know, am I under investigation? He said, ‘You are not under investigation.'” Trump told Holt.
Trump said Comey was “a showboat” and “a grandstander.”
“You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that,” he said. “You take a look at the FBI a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil, less than a year ago. It hasn’t recovered from that.”
Trump said that he was anxious for the results of the FBI investigation into Russia’s efforts to disrupt the election.
“If Russia or anybody else is trying to interfere with our elections, I think it’s a horrible thing and I want to get to the bottom of it and I want to make sure it will never ever happen,” he said.