Memos by ex-FBI director James Comey detailing his conversations with Donald Trump have been published.
The memos cover the president’s concerns about a lurid intelligence dossier and also go into his relationship with his former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn.
The notes quote the president as saying Mr Flynn had “serious judgment issues”.
Mr Trump tweeted that the memos showed there was no “collusion and no obstruction”.
Mr Trump sacked Mr Comey last year while he was leading an FBI investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Since then the men have been locked into a bitter and public war of words.
Mr Comey has painted Mr Trump as “morally unfit” to be US president, and suggested he may have obstructed justice by trying to pressure him into dropping any investigation into Mr Flynn.
Mr Flynn was forced to resign over charges that he had lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russia.
The memos were requested by three Republican committee chairmen – Devin Nunes, Robert Goodlatte and Trey Gowdy – last week in the belief that their contents would disprove allegations that Mr Trump had sought to obstruct justice.
US media report that while there is little new in the published memos, they do shed light on Mr Trump’s character and offer an intimate look into the private interactions among White House officials.
“The Comey memos suggest Trump has a scattershot and self-obsessed mindset,” writes Stephen Collinson for CNN, adding that the president does not appear to care about “protocol boundaries” between the White House and the justice department.
That Mr Comey’s memos are so detailed – they include information about who was sitting where in meetings, the precise times that conversations began and their durations – also add to his credibility, the New York Times reports.
So what in the memos?
Details published in Mr Comey’s 15 pages of notes are consistent with allegations in his new book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.
In his memos, Mr Comey writes that he was asked by Mr Trump to drop an inquiry into links between Mr Flynn and Russia.
“I hope you can let this go,” Mr Trump is reported to have said after a White House meeting. Mr Trump strongly denies Mr Comey’s account.
The memo was written immediately afterwards. Mr Trump is also disclosed to have told Mr Comey that he had reservations about Mr Flynn: “The guy has serious judgment issues.”
Other conversations documented in the memos include Mr Trump’s concerns over salacious allegations in an intelligence dossier.
At a meeting in Trump Tower in New York just days before Mr Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, Mr Comey spoke alone with the then president-elect about details of an alleged encounter involving prostitutes in Russia.
Mr Comey writes that he is taking the allegations seriously, adding that “portions of the material were corroborated by other intelligence”.
The allegations claim that Russia has damaging information about Mr Trump’s business interests, and that he had been filmed with prostitutes at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow during the Miss Universe pageant in 2013, something Mr Comey said Mr Trump called “nonsense”.
Un-redacted copies of the memos will be made available to US lawmakers later on Friday.
What does Trump think of Comey?
Mr Trump has referred to Mr Comey as “slippery” and a “slimeball” and the “worst FBI director in history”.
He continues to attack him over his “many lies” – Mr Trump has even suggested he be jailed over his testimony to Congress.
“Why did he lie to Congress (jail),” Mr Trump tweeted earlier this month, adding: “How come he gave up classified information (jail).”
He has also criticised Mr Comey’s new memoir, saying the “badly reviewed book” raises “big questions”.
BBC
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