Oh, you mean another thing Comey said is untrue? Who would have thought?
There was great indignation and much disapproval last year when it was reported that President Trump had asked then-FBI Director James Comey for “loyalty.” Such a request, it was said, was more characteristic of a mob boss than a president — “mob boss” being a phrase Comey himself would use in a book whose title (A Higher Loyalty) he took from the president’s request.
Now, Comey’s book and the revelations it has triggered are casting new light on the “loyalty” issue — a light that makes Trump’s position look far more understandable.
The short version is this: In Trump’s first meeting with the FBI director, on January 6, 2017, when Trump was president-elect, Comey asked to meet alone with Trump. When the two were by themselves, face-to-face, Comey told Trump about the “golden showers” episode in the Trump dossier. Comey didn’t discuss any other parts of the dossier. He just outlined the dossier’s tale of Trump involved in a kinky sex show in a Moscow hotel room in 2013.
Not long after the Comey-Trump one-on-one meeting, news organizations reported that the intelligence community had briefed the president-elect on allegations of misconduct. Almost immediately after those reports, BuzzFeed published the entire dossier, “golden showers” and all.
Comey’s memo of the meeting — released in the midst of Comey’s publicity tour — does not mention that Trump asked for loyalty. In fact, it notes that Trump said a number of complimentary things about Comey. “He said he thought very highly of me and looked forward to working with me,” Comey wrote. But no talk of loyalty, at least as far as Comey noted.
At Comey’s next meeting with the president, however, on January 28, Trump brought up loyalty, according to the Comey memos. The two men were discussing leaks and how damaging they could be. Comey explained to the president that “the entire government leaks like crazy.” Then Comey wrote that, “[Trump] replied that he needed loyalty and expected loyalty.”
The news of that exchange — leaked by Comey after Trump fired him — spurred widespread outrage over Trump’s mention of loyalty. But the context of Trump’s statement — not known until now — adds to our understanding of the president’s talk.
Why would Trump wonder about the FBI director’s loyalty? Perhaps because in their first meeting, the FBI director dropped the Moscow sex allegation on Trump, followed immediately by its publication in the media. It seems entirely reasonable for a president to wonder what was going on and whether the FBI director was loyal, not to the president personally, but to the confidentiality that is required in his role as head of the nation’s chief investigative agency.