In January, Comey Reportedly Told Trump He’d Give Him ‘Honesty’—Not Loyalty

FBI Director nominee James Comey listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 9, 2013, as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination. Comey spent 15 years as a federal prose... FBI Director nominee James Comey listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 9, 2013, as he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination. Comey spent 15 years as a federal prosecutor before serving in the George W. Bush administration, where he is best known for facing down the White House over a warrantless surveillance program. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump asked James Comey to pledge loyalty to him during a one-on-one dinner days after his January inauguration, multiple sources close to the ousted FBI director told both the New York Times and NBC News.

Comey, who, according to the Times report, reluctantly accepted the dinner invitation at the White House, told the President instead that he’d provide him with “honesty” and declined to answer questions about the bureau’s ongoing investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian officials to influence the 2016 election.

This account, which was backed up by unnamed current and former FBI officials who spoke to NBC News, differs wildly from the account Trump provided in his own conversation Thursday with the network’s star anchor, Lester Holt.

Trump told Holt that Comey requested the dinner and asked the President to keep him in his post as FBI director. He also reiterated, as he wrote in his letter dismissing the FBI Director on Tuesday, that Comey told him three times he was not personally under investigation as part of the Russia probe.

An unnamed former senior FBI official told NBC News that Comey would never have said such a thing to the President, as it is a breach of protocol to comment on ongoing investigations.

“He tried to stay away from it,” the former official told NBC. “He would say, ‘look sir, I really can’t get into it, and you don’t want me to.'”

The White House disagreed with these characterizations of the dinner, telling the Times that those accounts were not accurate.

“The integrity of our law enforcement agencies and their leadership is of the utmost importance to President Trump,” Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told the newspaper. “He would never even suggest the expectation of personal loyalty, only loyalty to our country and its great people.”

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Notable Replies

  1. And this morning Trump foreshadowed his plan to essentially disconnect the media from the White House.

    He’s desperate and circling the drain. Here’s hoping the FBI goes into overdrive to bury him.

  2. But but but, Donnie inferred there are “tapes” so Comey must be lying. /s

  3. Are we great again, yet?

  4. I’m all in favor of having Trump personally deliver White House news.
    He should be interviewed 5 times a week.

  5. Maybe Trump is King Lear (Or maybe King Leer? haha). Comey is definitely Cordelia, though.

    CORDELIA: I love your Majesty
    According to my bond; nor more nor less.

    KING LEAR: How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little,
    Lest it may mar your fortunes.

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