Trump asked me to ‘lift cloud’ of Russia probe, says sacked FBI chief
He says President assumed that he was being bugged every time he went there I never have a bad day at work, claims Putin... because I’m not a woman
DONALD Trump assured exFBI chief James Comey he ‘had not been involved with hookers in Russia’ and always assumed he was being bugged in the country, a Senate hearing is to be told today.
Mr Comey added that in a phone call in March, the US president told him the investigation into his campaign links with the Kremlin was a ‘cloud’ that was damaging his ability to govern.
He asked the FBI director what they could do to ‘lift the cloud’, Mr Comey says in his hotly-anticipated statement to the Senate intelligence committee today.
The statement also says that Mr Trump told him at a dinner that ‘I expect loyalty’ and asked him to drop an inquiry into fired National Secu- rity Adviser Mike Flynn. However, Mr Comey said he did reassure Mr Trump three times that he was not personally under investigation.
The president has claimed he received that reassurance but sceptics have previously insisted an FBI chief would never comment on an investigation in this way. Mr Trump is also said to have asked it to become public knowledge that he was not personally under investigation.
Mr Comey’s seven-page statement, which was released last night, confirms recent media reports about his deep misgivings over the president’s apparent attempt to interfere in an investigation connected to him.
He also contradicted the insistence of some senior Trump aides that the president was never briefed on salacious allegations compiled by a former British spy about how Russia had highly compromising sexual and financial material on him.
The dossier, compiled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, claimed the Russians had video evidence of Mr Trump cavorting with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room in 2013.
Mr Comey, who was sacked by Mr Trump last month, said he and US intelligence chiefs visited the future president in January.
He personally briefed him on the dossier ‘even though it was salacious and unverified’ because they believed the media was about to reveal it anyway. They also wanted to ‘blunt’ any attempt to compromise him.
According to Mr Comey, the president rang him in March and ‘said he had nothing to with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia’.
Mr Comey says he became so uneasy about his private conversations with the president that he eventually asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to ensure they were never alone together.
Mr Comey said it became clear that Mr Trump wanted to ‘create some sort of patronage relationship’ by steering the conversation so that the FBI boss had to ask to stay on in the job.
His fears were confirmed, he said, when he told Mr Trump that ‘I was not on anybody’s side politically’ but could be relied on to ‘tell him the truth’ . Mr Trump reportedly replied: ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’
At another private meeting, in the Oval Office in February, Mr Comey says the president asked him to end the FBI’s investigation over his sacked National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who had lied about his links with Russian officials.
Opponents say Mr Trump could be impeached for obstruction of justice if this can be proved.
Mr Trump yesterday picked a new FBI director, former assistant attorney general Christopher Wray.
‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty’
Vladimir Putin claims he never fails to perform at work because he is not a woman.
in a series of extraordinary interviews, the russian president said women went through ‘natural cycles’ that made them more emotional.
mr Putin also revealed he took tips from Fidel Castro on how to avoid assassination and admired ronald reagan for stopping work by 6pm every day.
The interviews were conducted by Hollywood director Oliver Stone, who asked: ‘do you ever lose it? Ever had a bad day.’ mr Putin replied: ‘ i’m not a woman so i don’t have bad days.
‘i’m not trying to insult anyone. That’s just the nature of things.
‘There are certain natural cycles which men probably have as well, just less manifested. We’re all human beings, it’s normal. But you should never lose control.’
The russian leader said it was his duty to uphold traditional values and he opposed gay marriage because it did not produce children. asked if gay people could adopt, mr Putin said: ‘i cannot say our society welcomes that.’
Stone then asked: ‘if you’re taking a shower on a submarine with a man and you know he’s gay, do they have a problem with that?’
mr Putin said: ‘ Well i’d prefer not to go into the shower with him. Why provoke him?’
With a laugh he added: ‘ You know i’m a judo master.’ russia has faced international outrage about its anti-gay laws and much of the lGBT community lives underground.
in the interviews, screened from monday on US TV network Showtime, mr Putin accused Washington of having an imperialist mentality. He said the West reneged on a pledge after the fall of the Berlin Wall that the eastern border of Nato would stop at Germany’s eastern border. He claimed the military alliance was ‘a mere instrument of foreign policy for the US, it has no allies, only vassals’.
in the interviews mr Putin described whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was granted asylum by russia after fleeing the US, as a courageous and foolhardy man.
He joked that russia was better than the US at surveillance because it did not have the same technology, suggesting its agents had to rely on their wits.
US intelligence agencies believe that russian hackers stole democratic party emails and leaked them to Wikileaks to help donald Trump in the US election.
Former director of national intelligence James Clapper has said that russia poses ‘an existential threat to the United States’. But with wry smile mr Putin said in the film: ‘Unlike many partners of ours we never interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries.’
He revealed that he admired mr reagan and said he was a ‘happy man, very well organised’.
The russian leader, who works out every day, said it was a ‘great achievement’ that the US president was able to stop work at 6pm each day and watch TV with his wife.
When Stone brought up personal security mr Putin said he spoke to Castro about assassination plots. mr Putin has survived at least five while the Cuban leader lived through around 50.
mr Putin said: ‘Castro said: “do you know why i’m still alive? Because i was the one to deal with my security personally’’.’
He told Stone that his security officers were ‘performing quite successfully’ and that he trusted them completely.
in one scene the two men watch the anti-war satire dr Strangelove, the first time mr Putin had seen it. His verdict was that ‘little has changed’.
‘You should never lose control’