Washington D.C. [U.S.A.]: United States President Donald Trump has called former FBI director James Comey a “showboat” and a “grandstander.”
“He’s a showboat, he’s a grandstander, the FBI has been in turmoil. You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that. 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 of Comey, in an NBC interview.
Trump flatly said that he had decided to fire Comey even before receiving a recommendation from the deputy attorney general.
Trump also said he called on Comey to ask for an update on a possible criminal investigation into his ties with Russia.
“He wanted to stay on at the FBI,” Trump said, “and I said I’ll, you know, consider and see what happens But we had a very nice dinner, and at that time he told me, ‘You are not under investigation.”’
Trump also said that two phone calls were made – one made by himself and another by Comey. The President admitted, “I actually asked him, yes. I said, ‘If it’s possible would you let me know, Am I under investigation?
He said, ‘You are not under investigation.'”
Deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, when asked at Thursday’s White House press briefing, said it was inappropriate for Trump to have asked Comey if he was under investigation.
“No, I don’t believe it is,” she said. (ANI)