President Donald Trump accused former FBI Director James Comey of trying to leverage a potentially compromising dossier over him in order to keep his job.
In an interview with The New York Times published Wednesday, Trump said he was presented with the dossier by Comey in a meeting held in New York, before he took office.
The meeting, Trump said, was held about two weeks before the inauguration and he believed it was Comey’s attempt to hold the unsubstantiated allegations over his head.
During the sitdown, they discussed what information US intelligence agencies had on Russia’s potential meddling in the election.
Trump said that after the meeting, Comey took him aside and notified him that the FBI was in possession of a ‘dirty dossier’ accumulated by a former British intelligence officer.
The dossier is alleged to contain compromising information on the president, including unsubstantiated claims that Russians possess videos involving Trump and prostitutes.
Buzzfeed later published the dossier in full after it was reported that then President Barack Obama and Trump were made aware of its existence during a daily briefing.
Buzzfeed said that much of the information in the packet, compiled as opposition research for the Clinton campaign, was unverified and not thoroughly vetted.
Trump said he thinks Comey told him about the dossier – which Trump dismissed as ‘made-up junk’ – to suggest he had something to hold over the president.
‘In my opinion, he shared it so that I would think he had it out there,’ Trump said.
Asked if he thought Comey was seeking leverage over him, Trump said, ‘Yeah, I think so.’
In testimony before lawmakers, Comey said he told Trump about the dossier so that the real estate mogul would not be blindsided when it was reported in the media.
Trump fired Comey in May and later said he had the FBI’s Russia investigation in mind when he did it.
Trump critics point to the dismissal as evidence of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense.
The Times said the interview with Trump was wide-ranging but dominated by talk of the Russia probe.
Trump has denied any suggestion that he or anyone in his campaign colluded with the Russians.
Trump also told the New York Times that he did not believe he was under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, appointed to investigate the Russia affair.
‘I don’t think we’re under investigation,’ the Times quoted Trump as saying. ‘I’m not under investigation. For what? I didn’t do anything wrong.’
The Times said Trump warned that Mueller would be crossing ‘a red line’ if he looked into Trump family finances not related to the Russia investigation.
‘I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia,’ Trump said.
But he did not say what he would do if Mueller did end up looking into non-Russia-related Trump financial dealings.
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