WASHINGTON – Former FBI director James Comey says in a new book thatPresident Donald Trump reminded him of a mafia boss who demanded absoluteloyalty, saw the entire world against him, and lied about everything.
According to excerpts of the book leaked by US media on Thursday, Trump wasalso obsessed with the alleged existence of a video in which Russianprostitutes said to be hired by Trump urinated on the bed in a Moscow hotelroom.
In the book to be released officially next Tuesday, Comey, whom Trump firedin May 2017, says the US president lives in “a cocoon of alternativereality” that he tried to pull others around him into, according to*TheWashington Post*.
Meetings with Trump gave Comey “flashbacks to my earlier career as aprosecutor against the Mob,” he writes.
“The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyaltyoaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large andsmall, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization abovemorality and above the truth.”
But Comey goes farther to say that Trump, congenitally, has no sense ofwhat is right and wrong.
“This president is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutionalvalues,” he writes, according to The New York Times.
“His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty.”
*´A Higher Loyalty´*
The book, entitled “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” hastriggered worries now rippling through the White House and Republicanestablishment over the damage it might do to the already deeply troubledTrump presidency.
The White House has sought to cast doubts about Comey´s reputation: theRepublican Party this week put up a website called “Lyin´ Comey” toundermine the book.
But among both Republicans and Democrats in Washington´s establishment, thereputation of Comey — who has served in the FBI under three presidents –is much stronger than his book´s target.
Last year Comey revealed that Trump had pressured him to drop aninvestigation into Mike Flynn, the US leader´s former national securityadvisor, and also demanded a loyalty pledge.
Getting neither, the president fired Comey on May 9, complaining of theongoing investigation into possible Trump campaign-Russia ties.
A week later the Justice Department appointed a special prosecutor RobertMueller, who has doggedly pursued the probe as well as possible obstructionof justice by Trump. He has issued 19 indictments so far, including of topTrump lieutenants.
But “A Higher Loyalty” shares little new about the Russia investigation,with Comey bound to respect the classified nature of the Muellerinvestigation that Trump just this week labeled “fake & corrupt.”
*Sought ´pee tape´ investigation*
According to the *New York Post*, Comey says Trump was obsessed with the”pee tape,” the existence of which was first reported by a former Britishintelligence agent who researched alleged links between Trump´s campaignand Russia.
Trump asked Comey to investigate “what he called the ´golden showersthing´” Comey writes, saying Trump was determined to prove to his wifeMelania that it did not exist.
“He just rolled on, unprompted, explaining why it couldn´t possibly betrue, ending by saying he was thinking of asking me to investigate theallegation to prove it was a lie.”
At one point Trump discussed the political implications of the dossier andpossible strategies while intelligence community leaders remained in theroom, wrote Comey, according to *ABC News* which also obtained a copy ofthe book.
“Holy crap,” Comey wrote. “They are trying to make each of us an amicanostra´ – a friend of ours. To draw us in. As crazy as it sounds, Isuddenly had the feeling that, in the blink of an eye, the president-electwas trying to make us all part of the same family.”
Trump returned to the matter in a call to attempt to prove why it could notbe true.
“I´m a germaphobe. There´s no way I would let people pee on each otheraround me,” he insisted.
But Trump´s concern over the alleged video extended to the numerous sexscandals that have dogged him over decades as a New York real estate tycoon– and have returned to haunt him in the White House.
In the past year two women, one a pornographic film star and the second aPlayboy model, have said they were paid off to be silent about affairs theyhad with Trump over a decade ago while he was married to his current wifeMelania.
Speaking on the Moscow video, Comey said, Trump “strongly denied theallegations, asking — rhetorically, I assumed — whether he seemed like aguy who needed the service of prostitutes.”
“He then began discussing cases where women had accused him of sexualassault, a subject I had not raised,” Comey wrote. “He mentioned a numberof women, and seemed to have memorised their allegations.” – APP /AFP