The Herald (South Africa)

Ex-FBI boss Comey a coward, says Trump

- Andrew Beatty

UNITED States President Donald Trump yesterday accused James Comey of cowardice by leaking accounts of his meetings with the president, days after the ex-FBI director testified that Trump sought to derail the Russian probe.

“I believe the James Comey leaks will be far more prevalent than anyone ever thought possible,” Trump wrote in an early morning tweet. “Totally illegal? Very cowardly!” Sacked FBI chief Comey delivered his bombshell allegation­s at a Senate hearing on Thursday, saying in his sworn testimony that he had asked a friend identified as a Columbia University law professor, to release a memo of his conversati­ons with the president to the media.

Comey said he had hoped releasing the informatio­n via the media would prompt the appointmen­t of a special counsel to handle the Russia probe.

He branded the president a liar and said Trump urged him to abandon the investigat­ion into the former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, an allegation Trump has denied.

On Friday, Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowsk­i, criticised Comey as being not man enough for having leaked the memo via his friend rather than doing it himself. “He gave his notes to a Columbia law professor because he wasn’t man enough to give the notes directly to the media when he wanted them out to the media,” Lewandowsk­i said.

Though Trump has lambasted Comey as a leaker he also claimed total and complete vindicatio­n following the ex-FBI chief’s testimony, focusing on Comey’s confirmati­on that Trump was not personally being probed.

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