WASHINGTON _ Republicans are gearing up their campaign to discredit former FBI chief James B. Comey ahead of his tell-all book's release next week, but President Donald Trump took things into his own hands on Friday morning.
In sharply pejorative terms _ even by Trump's standards _ he described the man he fired as an "untruthful slime ball."
Trump also said, "It was my great honor to fire James Comey!" Although aides originally explained the firing as a response to Comey's mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server, the president later explained that the Russia investigation was on his mind when he made the decision.
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who was soon appointed to continue the probe, is believed to have expanded the investigation to examine whether Trump sought to obstruct justice, including by firing Comey.
Ahead of his book's formal release (portions have been leaked), the first of several interviews with Comey is being broadcast by ABC News on Sunday night. In excerpts released on Friday morning, Comey says Trump wanted him to prove that the president never had prostitutes urinate on a hotel bed in Moscow, an unverified allegation that was included in an infamous dossier against Trump.
Comey said he was stunned by the exchange with Trump.
"I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don't know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013," he said. "It's possible, but I don't know."
