Comey: president wanted me to investigate Russian prostitutes slur

DONALD TRUMP wanted James Comey to investigate the infamous allegations that he had paid Russian prostitutes to urinate on a hotel bed to prove that they were a lie, the former FBI chief has claimed.

“He brought up what he called the ‘golden showers thing,’ adding that it bothered him if there was ‘even a one per cent chance’ his wife, Melania, thought it was true,” writes Mr Comey in his book, to be published next week.

“He just rolled on, unprompted, explaining why it couldn’t possibly be true, ending by saying he was thinking of asking me to investigate it to prove it was a lie. I said it was up to him.”

Mr Comey writes that the conversation took place during a private dinner on Jan 27 2017, where he claims the president also demanded “loyalty”.

The dinner was held days after Buzzfeed published an intelligence dossier produced by Christopher Steele, a British former spy, alleging that the Kremlin had a tape of Mr Trump paying prostitutes to urinate on a bed once occupied by Barack Obama. In the book, Mr Comey also claims that Mr Trump’s chief of staff called the president “dishonourable” over his firing.

Mr Trump sacked Mr Comey in May, when he was heading up an investigation into possible collusion between Russians and the Trump campaign during the 2016 election, saying he was “not able to effectively lead the bureau”. He was in California on a work trip at the time and only learned of his exit when he saw the news break on TV.

According to the Daily Beast, Mr Comey claims in his memoir that John Kelly, who was at the time the head of the Department of Homeland Security, called him within minutes of his dismissal to offer his support.

Mr Comey reportedly writes that Mr Kelly, now the White House chief of staff, was “emotional” over the manner in which he was fired. He went on to say that he “intended to quit” in protest because “he didn’t want to work for dishonourable people” in a pointed reference to Mr Trump.

Mr Comey’s searing book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, is the first time he will lay out his account of his time in office to the public.