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Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by President Donald Trump in May 2017, is currently on a book tour promoting his upcoming memoir, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” which is set to be released April 17, 2018. In the book, which is being published by Macmillan’s Flatiron Books, Comey, “shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions.”
Comey was appointed as FBI Director by President Barack Obama in 2013 for a 10-year term that ended when he was fired by Trump. He was previously the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the Deputy Attorney General and a private lawyer, including as general counsel for companies like Lockheed Martin and Bridgewater Associates. According to his publisher, Comey’s forthcoming book, which will be available in hardcover for $17.99 and on Kindle, for $14.99, explores his time in government services, including, “his journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader.”
You can buy James Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty, here.
Comey’s Book Features Stories From His Involvement in ‘Some of the Most Consequential Cases & Policies of Recent History’
According to the book description from Comey’s publisher, “Mr. Comey served as director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017, appointed to the post by President Barack Obama. He previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the U.S. deputy attorney general in the administration of President George W. Bush. From prosecuting the Mafia and Martha Stewart to helping change the Bush administration’s policies on torture and electronic surveillance, overseeing the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation as well as ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, Comey has been involved in some of the most consequential cases and policies of recent history.”
Comey has a series of national TV, radio and podcast appearances scheduled to promote his book in the days before and after its release, along with a nationwide meet-and-greet tour.
Comey is kicking off his TV tour with an interview Sunday in primetime on ABC with George Stephanopoulos. In an interview excerpt released by ABC News, Comey told Stephanopoulos, he does not remember “consciously thinking” about the election results when he announced that the FBI had reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton. He did say, “I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, and so I’m sure that it was a factor. I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been, that she’s going to be elected president and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out.”
He also said Trump asked him to investigate the unverified claims made in the Christopher Steele dossier published by Buzzfeed News. In that dossier of supposed intelligence gathered by Steele, an ex-British spy, is information about a so-called “pee tape,” that features prostitutes peeing on each other in a Russian hotel room while Trump watched. Comey told ABC that the president asked him to investigate the, “golden showers thing,” because First Lady Melania Trump was upset by the allegations.
“I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don’t know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013,” Comey told Stephanopoulos. “It’s possible, but I don’t know. … it bothered him if there was ‘even a one percent chance’ his wife, Melania, thought it was true. He just rolled on, unprompted, explaining why it couldn’t possibly be true, ending by saying he was thinking of asking me to investigate the allegation to prove it was a lie. I said it was up to him.”
Comey Writes in the Book About Trump’s Hand Size & Calls Him ‘Ego Driven’
Other excerpts from the book have been released in the days before it is released. In one excerpt, Comey talks about Trump’s hand size.
“His face appeared slightly orange with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles, and impressively coifed, bright blond hair, which upon close inspection looked to be all his…..As he extended his hand, I made a mental note to check its size. It was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so,” Comey wrote. It wasn’t the only time he described Trump’s features negatively, as he wrote in another passage, “I stared at the soft white pouches under his expressionless blue eyes. I remember thinking in that moment that the president doesn’t understand the FBI’s role in American life.”
Comey also wrote a harsh condemnation of Trump in one excerpt from the book,” This President is unethical, and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty.”
Comey’s publisher has also said that the book is expected to be a major success. It is already no. 1 on Amazon’s best-seller list. Macmillan had planned an initial run of 150,000 books, but it will now print 850,000, according to CNN. It is expected to match or exceed another anti-Trump political book, Michael Wolff’s, “Fire and Fury,” which has sold more than 2 million copies since its January release.
“This is the largest first printing we’ve done so far this year,” Macmillan president Don Weisberg told CNNMoney about Comey’s book. Sales are expected to spike as Comey tours the country and appears on TV and radio. After the ABC primetime interview, he will make stops on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “Fresh Air,” CBS’ “The late Show With Stephen Colbert,” ABC’s “The View,” CNN’s “The Lead With Jake Tapper” and MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” along with others, including podcasts. He will also be part of a CNN town hall about his book.
Comey’s Book Has Been Met With Outrage From Trump & Republicans, Who Have Tried to Attack His Credibility
Ousted FBI director James Comey is sworn in during a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill June 8, 2017 in Washington, DC.
The promotion of Comey’s book has led to a backlash from President Donald Trump, along with some members of Congress and the Republican National Committee, which launched “LyinComey.com” to attack him. An email to reporters Sunday night about Comey was titled, “JAMES AND THE GIANT BREACH.”
Trump has unleashed several tweets about Comey.
“James Comey is a proven LEAKER & LIAR. Virtually everyone in Washington thought he should be fired for the terrible job he did-until he was, in fact, fired. He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted,” Trump tweeted April 13. “He lied to Congress under OATH. He is a weak and untruthful slime ball who was, as time has proven, a terrible Director of the FBI. His handling of the Crooked Hillary Clinton case, and the events surrounding it, will go down as one of the worst “botch jobs” of history. It was my great honor to fire James Comey!”
On April 15, Trump tweeted, “Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe. In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!”
He added, “The big questions in Comey’s badly reviewed book aren’t answered like, how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn’t they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe’s $700,000 & more? Comey throws AG Lynch “under the bus!” Why can’t we all find out what happened on the tarmac in the back of the plane with Wild Bill and Lynch? Was she promised a Supreme Court seat, or AG, in order to lay off Hillary. No golf and grandkids talk (give us all a break)!”
I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His “memos” are self serving and FAKE!
Slippery James Comey, a man who always ends up badly and out of whack (he is not smart!), will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also attacked Comey’s credibility, saying during a press briefing just days before the book’s release, “The American people see right through the blatant lies of a self-admitted leaker. This is nothing more than a poorly executed PR stunt by Comey to desperately rehabilitate his tattered reputation and enrich his own bank account by peddling a book that belongs in the bargain bin of the fiction section.”
You can buy James Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty, here.
