Former FBI director James Comey’s memos detailing his interactions with Donald Trump have been released into the world.
The documents, which were sent to Congress and shared in redacted form with some media outlets, offer Mr Comey’s contemporaneous takes on his interactions with a man who was then his superior and has now become a bitter rival.
After Mr Trump fired Mr Comey, the ousted director turned to these memos to corroborate his account that the president had demanded his loyalty and urged Mr Comey to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with the Russian ambassador.
While many of the memos’ assertions had already been reported, here are some takeaways:
The president questioned Mr Flynn’s judgment
Two weeks before Mr Flynn resigned after it emerged he had misled officials about his interactions with former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, Mr Trump already had doubts.
In a January 28, 2017 memo, Mr Comey wrote Mr Trump expressed “serious reservations” about Mr Flynn’s judgment. He said Mr Trump recounted a story in which Mr Flynn revealed that an unnamed foreign leader’s call had gone unreturned for six days; angered by the oversight, Mr Trump “pointed his fingers at his head and said ‘the guy has serious judgment issues’”, Mr Comey wrote.
The president was already wary of Andrew McCabe
Formerly the deputy director of the FBI, Mr McCabe was fired days before he qualified for a full government pension. A report by the Justice Department’s inspector general had found Mr McCabe had “lacked candor” in talking about having authorised disclosures to the media.
By the time he was fired last month, Mr McCabe had become a magnet for the president's contempt. Mr Trump blistered the senior law enforcement official on Twitter, blasting his handling of an investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s email server and highlighting campaign donations to Mr McCabe’s wife from a Clinton ally. For his part, Mr McCabe has called his firing part of a sweeping campaign to discredit the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.
Mr McCabe is a recurring topic in the memos. Mr Comey describes Mr Trump referring to “your guy McCabe”, asking if Mr McCabe “has a problem with me” and if Mr McCabe is “going to be okay”. Mr Comey said he reassured the president of Mr McCabe’s professionalism.
Mr Trump was worried about salacious allegations…
A dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, which alleged the existence of tapes of Mr Trump engaging in sexual acts with prostitutes in Russia, was clearly on Mr Trump’s mind (the president has dismissed the dossier’s contents as false).
The president repeatedly rejected the allegations as false, Mr Comey wrote, but also appeared to be concerned about the fallout: “He said it bothered him if his wife thought there was even a one per cent chance it was true in any respect”, Mr Comey wrote.
In response to Mr Trump suggesting that he have the FBI investigate the matter, Mr Comey wrote, he warned the president against creating “a narrative that we were investigating him”.
…but relayed a boast about Russian women
In a subsequent conversation, Mr Trump again broached the topic and said “it really bothered him if his wife had any doubt about it”, Mr Comey wrote.
And while the president again repudiated “the hookers thing”, Mr Comey wrote, he did relay an alleged assurance from Russian president Vladimir Putin that “we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world”.
