Washington wants to know if Comey was asked to pledge his loyalty to President Trump
According to The Washington Post, The New York Times and other top media outlets are reporting that President Donald Trump asked FBI Director James Comey for his loyalty. This conversation reportedly took place at a dinner at the White House not long after President Trump took office.
In an interview with NBC News Lester Holt, President Trump said that dinner meeting was requested by Comey to ask the new Commander in Chief to keep him on as the FBI Director.
But multiple media reports tell a different story one that had President Trump wanted the meeting with Comey. Reluctantly, Comey accepted the invitation to dine at the White House.
During the dinner, the conversation about the 2016 election and crowd sizes took a turn to the question of loyalty. Though Comey turned Trump down on the question of loyalty, Comey did say he would always be honest with the president. Comey said he was not “‘reliable’ in the conventional political sense,” according to the New York Times.
According to both the New York Times and the Washington Post, Comey, who was an Obama nominee with six years left to serve, believes that it was from this moment that his time as FBI director would run short.
That set the stage for this week’s firing of Comey by President Trump that has Washington wondering just what was the real reason for the high level termination.
We have the White House saying that it was a report based on a recommendation from the Justice Department to do so. A report that was based on Comey’s handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email issues.
The White House spokespeople were clear that the firing had nothing to do with the FBI was probing possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
In an interview Hold, President Trump contradicted his own press shop by saying that the Russia thing, likely did factor into his firing of Comey.
Expect Comey to return to “The Hill,” to go on the record to give his account of the matter.
Meanwhile, President Trump took to Twitter to warn Comey about his possible leaking information to the press. Something Comey has denied on numerous occasions.
James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
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