James Comey and his “bitter” relationship with Donald Trump

Titled “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” the memoir reveals many “secret” details of US President Donald Trump, reflected through the “bitter” relationship between the former FBI Director and the White House boss.

Mr. James Comey at the introduction of his memoir "A Greater Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership". Photo: Reuters

James Comey's "counterattack"

With 600,000 copies sold since April 17, James Comey’s memoir “A Greater Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership” has outsold former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s memoir “What Happened” and journalist Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” in its first week of release. Flatiron Books, the publisher of Comey’s memoir, said it expects to sell more than 1 million copies of the book.

The memoir tells the story of Mr. James Comey's life as a federal prosecutor, a senior official of the US Department of Justice and the Director of the FBI - positions that gave him access to many "deep secrets" in the White House. Like journalist Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" was written based on more than 200 interviews with people close to the President, Mr. James Comey's memoir is also based on Mr. Donald Trump's conversations with senior officials in the White House that he secretly recorded - information that the public likened to "time bombs".

In the book, the former FBI Director spoke frankly about many things, from the reason for writing the book to his thoughts and decisions related to the investigation into the emails of Mrs. Hillary Clinton - the US presidential candidate in 2016, the investigation into the accusation of Russia interfering in the US election, the relationship between Mr. Comey and the President and the developments leading to his sudden dismissal on May 9, 2017.

One of the most notable pages is the two private dinners between James Comey and the President, in which Donald Trump repeatedly reminded James Comey of “loyalty”. In the name of “loyalty”, President Donald Trump asked James Comey to end the investigation into Russian election interference, the connection between figures in Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, and even “threatened” James Comey that “there were 20 other people who wanted his seat at the FBI”. Through stories spanning 300 pages of the book, Comey compared the President of the United States to a “gangster boss” who always pressured others to be loyal, regardless of law, ethics and truth. Written after James Comey was fired in May 2017, the book is considered by public opinion as a “counterattack” against Trump after what he received from the White House boss.

The battle between Mr. James Comey and Mr. Donald Trump has not yet determined a winner. Photo: CNN

The Price of Candor

James Comey’s memoir has made President Donald Trump extremely angry and criticized him with the harshest words such as “liar”, “worst FBI Director in history”. However, Donald Trump’s attitude did not surprise many people when they witnessed the not-so-smooth relationship between Trump and James Comey during Comey’s tenure, except for the short “honeymoon” period after Donald Trump was elected President.

In October 2016, with 10 days left until the US Presidential election, Mr. James Comey wrote a letter to Congress to inform that the FBI had reopened an investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of personal email to handle work while she was US Secretary of State. Comey's letter was considered the "October surprise gift" that Mr. Donald Trump promised to give to Mrs. Hillary Clinton. Explaining his decision at that time, Mr. James Comey said that he had to choose between the "very bad" option of telling the truth and the "disastrous" option of hiding the truth. And in the end, he chose the option of telling the truth frankly - a straightforward decision that contributed to Donald Trump's victory, and also helped him become one of the few senior figures appointed by former President Barack Obama to remain in Mr. Trump's apparatus.

However, it was his frankness that forced him to leave the position of FBI Director when he was still more than half of his term. Donald Trump asked for his loyalty, but he responded with silence. Then, just 2 months after Donald Trump officially took office, James Comey frankly admitted that the FBI was investigating the suspicion of Russian interference in the US election, and refused to support President Trump's claims that he was wiretapped by former President Obama. The consequences came not long after that when he was fired by President Trump for "poor handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email series".

And the most bitter thing for Mr. James Comey is probably the way he received the information about this dismissal: “I was at FBI headquarters in Los Angeles. There was a television on the wall and I was in the middle of the room thanking people for their contributions to the FBI. Then I saw the words "Comey resigns" on the television. I thought someone was joking, and I have to admit that if someone was joking, they had put a lot of effort into it… And the words "resigned" were then changed to "fired".

Many people still support President Donald Trump and oppose James Comey's memoir. Photo: Reuters

Truth and Loyalty

As the 7th Director in the history of the FBI, perhaps the way President Donald Trump removed Mr. James Comey from this powerful agency was not what he expected. When appointing James Comey as FBI Director in 2013, former President Barack Obama praised him as a person who was "extremely independent and extremely upright, not interested in politics, just doing his job well." Although President Donald Trump recently reaffirmed that he fired Mr. James Comey because his ability did not meet the requirements, perhaps many people understand that the underlying reason was James Comey's refusal to be loyal to the President.

Through the stories of “A Greater Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” James Comey may want to demonstrate the value of truth over loyalty, especially loyalty that he considers “above law and morality.” However, who wins the battle for “truth” is still undecided, as Donald Trump’s side immediately “counterattacked” that Comey was the one who made things up. According to a survey by the Washington Post, 32% of respondents said Trump was trustworthy compared to 48% for Comey — a not-so-big difference. Regardless of who is right or wrong, James Comey’s story has once again stirred up American politics, which has not been peaceful since the new President Donald Trump.