Comey sought leverage against me with dirty dossier, says Trump

WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump accused fired Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director James Comey on Wednesday of trying to create leverage with a dossier alleged to contain compromising information about him.

Comey’s apparent goal in a pre-inauguration encounter with Trump, in which the veteran law enforcement official presented details of the dossier, was to pressure the soon-to-be-president into letting him keep his job, Trump alleged in an interview with the New York Times.

Trump said about two weeks before his inauguration in January, Comey and other officials briefed him in New York on what US intelligence agencies said was Russian meddling in the election, with the goal of helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.

The president said Comey pulled him aside and told him about a dossier compiled by a former British spy and alleged to contain embarrassing details about the president, including unsubstantiated claims that Russians possessed videos involving Trump and prostitutes.

Trump said he thought Comey told him about the dossier, which Trump dismissed as “made-up junk”, to suggest he had something to hold over the president.

In a testimony before lawmakers, Comey said he told Trump about the dossier so that the real estate mogul would not be blindsided when it was reported in the media.

Trump fired Comey in May and later said he had the FBI’s Russia investigation in mind when he did it.

Trump critics pointed to the dismissal as evidence of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offence.

Trump denied any suggestion that he or anyone in his campaign had colluded with Russians.

Trump told the New York Times he did not believe he was under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed to investigate the Russia affair.

But he did not say what he would do if Mueller did end up looking into non-Russia-related Trump financial dealings. AFP