Putin was first to congratulate Trump, reveals Comey

Newly released memos by sacked FBI director say Theresa May discovered she was not fastest to call

THERESA MAY thought she was the first world leader to congratulate Donald Trump after his inauguration, only to find that she had been beaten by Vladimir Putin. The disclosure was contained in memos written by James Comey, the former FBI director fired by Mr Trump.

His memos were made public yesterday after the FBI handed them over to several congressional committees.

In them Mr Trump also repeatedly protested his innocence to Mr Comey over allegations involving prostitutes during his visit to Russia in 2013.

Mr Comey wrote: “The president said the ‘hookers thing’ is nonsense but that Putin had told him ‘We have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world’. (He did not say when Putin had told him this).”

Concerning the phone calls, Mr Comey described how he had dinner with Mr Trump at the White House on Jan 27 2017, and the president was fuming about an incident earlier that day when he had met with Mrs May.

In the memo the identity of the first leader to call Mr Trump was blacked out as classified, but officials have now confirmed it was Mr Putin.

Mr Comey wrote: “The president apparently discovered during his toast to Teresa [sic] May that XXX had called four days ago. Apparently, as the president was toasting, he was explaining that she had been the first to call him after his inauguration. Flynn [national security adviser Michael Flynn] interrupted to say that XXX had called (first, apparently).”

Mr Comey said that was when Mr Trump first learnt of the call from Mr Putin and he “confronted” Mr Flynn, who replied that a return call to the Russian president was scheduled in two days’ time. That prompted a “heated reply” from the president who said that “six days was not an appropriate period of time” to return such a call.

Mr Comey wrote: “In telling the story the president pointed his fingers at his head and said ‘the guy [Mr Flynn] has serious judgment issues’.” Mr Flynn was fired a few weeks later after misleading Mike Pence, the vice-president, about his own contacts with Russia.

Responding to the claims about Russian prostitutes, Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin’s spokesman, said: “President Putin could not have said that, and did not say that, to President Trump.” Meanwhile, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said Mr Trump had invited Mr Putin to the US during a phone call last month, and that Mr Trump indicated he would be glad to make a reciprocal visit to Moscow.

Mr Comey is currently on a book tour. Writing on Twitter, Mr Trump accused him of “making lots of money from a third rate book (that should never have been written). Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don’t think so!”