Comey admits he didn’t tell Trump the dossier was funded by Democrats

Comey admits he didn’t tell Trump the dossier was funded by Democrats

April 14, 2018

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Like Hillary Clinton, former FBI director James Comey just won’t go away. He’s set to release a new memoir, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership” next week, and recently sat down for an exclusive interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. While the full interview is set to air this Sunday, several clips have already been released, and one, in particular, is already grabbing attention.
Speaking with Stephanopoulos, Comey admits that he did not, when he was still director of the FBI, tell President Donald Trump that the infamous Steele dossier was funded by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign — Trump’s political rivals — because he did not view it as necessary.

Comey withholds key information
In the released clip, Stephanopoulos inquired about the meeting in which then-FBI director Comey informed Trump about the infamous Steele dossier.
“Did you tell him the Steele dossier had been financed by his political opponents?” asked Stephanopoulos. To which Comey responded, “No. I didn’t…”

Pressing the issue, Stephanopoulos continued, “But did he have a right to know that?” Comey replied:
That it had been financed by his political opponents? I don’t know the answer to that.
Apparently, it was unclear to the former FBI head whether Trump should know that members of the opposing political party, specifically the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign, were actively working to undermine his candidacy and eventually his presidency.

Take a look for yourself:


Trump takes to Twitter

Trump tweeted a fiery response, calling Comey “a proven LEAKER & LIAR” who deserves prosecution. “He leaked CLASSIFIED information, for which he should be prosecuted. He lied to Congress under OATH.”

In testimony before Congress last year, Comey admitted that he disclosed information from an important meeting with President Trump to a friend. “So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter,” Comey testified.
Comey further told Congress that he has never been an anonymous source or known someone else to be an anonymous source, which was recently contradicted by his successor Andrew McCabe, who, upon being dismissed, released a statement saying that he “was one of only a few people who had the authority to” share information with reporters” — authority he would have been granted by Comey.

The president’s tweet continued by calling attention to Comey’s role in helping Hillary Clinton escape charges for using a private email server for confidential communications, violating protocol:

The White House joins in
On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined the president in condemning Comey. “The American people see right through the blatant lies of a self-admitted leaker,” said Sanders, who went on to call Comey’s book “a poorly executed PR stunt” written to “rehabilitate his tattered reputation.”
Sanders concluded by referring to Comey as a “disgraced partisan hack,” and calling his dismissal one of President Trump’s “greatest achievements.”
For nearly a year now, since his firing, Comey has kept quiet, apparently writing his book. But now there appears to be a better reason — every time Comey opens his mouth, he says something that gets him in trouble. This most recent admission of withholding key information from Trump is a case in point.
As more information about Comey’s dubious actions as FBI director comes to light, Trump’s decision to fire him is looking more and more justified.
Tune into ABC tomorrow at 10 pm to watch the full interview.