Phone calls, dinner, and

an awkward HUG:

How fired FBI director James

Comey was 'unsettled'

by interactions with Trump

and was left 'disgusted' after

embrace from President at

ceremony

During a ceremony on January 22, Trump gave Comey a
special shout out and went in for a hug, which the FBI
director did not reciprocate, Witte said
Comey had to tell Trump to follow Justice Department
guidelines, which bars conversations with the White
House about active criminal investigations
Trump also tried to get Comey to take a pledge of loyalty,
and later asked him to drop the investigation into disgraced
National Security Advisor Michael Flynn

Donald Trump tried to cozy up to fired FBI director James Comey,

according

to his friends and associates who have read the fired FBI

director's memos

James Comey tried to keep Donald Trump at arm's

length

after growing

increasingly wary of the president's attempts to influence

him,

according

to his associates.

Comey, who was spectacularly ousted as the

FBI

director last week,

was said to be 'disgusted' when Trump tried tohug

him in

a public

display of closeness, according to Comey's friend

Benjamin

Wittes in

a Lawfare blog post.

Comey was also unsettled by Trump's attempts to

establish a

personal relationship with him and feared theirinteractions

might jeopardize the investigation into the Trump

campaign's

ties to Russia, according to associates who spoke to

the New York Times.

He kept a paper trail documenting his communication with
the president - in one instance, the president asked Comey to
take a pledge of loyalty, and later suggested he close a federal
investigation into disgraced National Security Advisor Mike Flynn
by saying: 'I hope you can let this go.'

Just two days after Trump entered office, he gave Comey a special
shout out during a ceremony to honor law enforcement officials who
provided security at his inauguration.

Comey, who wore a blue suit, tried to blend in with the blue curtains in
the room, only to have to cross the room in front of a crowd to greet
Trump, who went in for a hug after the FBI director extended his hand.

'Comey was disgusted. He regarded the episode as a physical attempt
to show closeness and warmth in a fashion calculated to compromise
him before Democrats who already mistrusted him,' Wittes wrote.

On another occasion, Trump called Comey to ask when the feds were
going to spread the news that he was not personally under investigation,
according to two people briefed on the call who later spoke to the Times.

Comey was troubled by Trump's attempts to cozy up to him and
spoke of 'training' the president to follow protocol and submit inquiries
about the active investigation through the Justice Department.

Donald Trump tried to cozy up to fired FBI director James Comey,
according to his friends and associates those who have read the fired
FBI director's memos

On January 22, Trump gave a special shout out to Comey during
a ceremony to honor law enforcement officials who offered security
at inauguration

Comey had spent the evening trying to blend in to the curtains, and
resigned himself to shaking the president's hand as he crossed the
room in embarassment, his friend said. He was greeted instead with
a hug, which was not reciprocated

Wittes said he decided to go public with his friendly conversations
with Comey to discount the president's accusations on Twitter that
there were 'leakers' among the intelligence community.

'We communicate regularly, but I am not among his close intimates
or advisers. I know nothing about the Russia investigation that isn’t
public. Comey has never talked to me about a live investigative
matter—and I’ve never asked him to,' Wittes said, explaining his
relationship to Comey.

'Sometimes, as friends do, we have lunch, and when we do so,
we talk about things of mutual interest.'

In interviews with the New York Times, and an account published
on Lawfare where he works as editor-in-chief, Wittes said Comey
did not want to attend Trump's ceremony on January 22.

Wittes wrote: 'There was an additional sensitivity here too,
because many Democrats blamed Comey for Trump’s election,
so he didn’t want any shows of closeness between the two that
might reinforce a perception that he had put a thumb on the scale
in Trump’s favor.

'But he also felt that he could not refuse a presidential invitation,
particularly not one that went to a broad array of law enforcement
leadership. So he went.'

Standing at 6'8", Comey spent the evening trying to blend in to the
curtains, according to Wittes - until Trump announced in front of the
entire room: 'Oh and there's Jim. He's become more famous than me.'

The moment was caught on video, and Wittes detailed Comey's
embarrassment at being singled out.

As Comey bounded across the room, he resigned himself to
shaking hands with Trump, only to be pulled into a one-sided hug,
Wittes said.

'Comey took the long walk across the room determined, he told me,
that there was not going to be a hug. Bad enough that he was there;
bad enough that there would be a handshake; he emphatically did
not want any show of warmth,' according to Wittes.

Comey's friend Benjamin Wittes (left), a fellow at Brookings Institute,
spoke out about the fired FBI director's discomfort interacting with Trump

Five days later, Trump is said to have demanded loyalty from Comey
during a private dinner at the White House, associates of the now fired
FBI director claim.

Comey told associates that he was summoned to the White House
for a one-on-one dinner with Trump, during which Trump asked
Comey twice to pledge loyalty to him as the new Commander in Chief.

Sources claim Comey declined to do so but said he told the
President he would always be honest with him.

According to Wittes' conversations with Comey, Trump was
'perceptibly uncomfortable' with the FBI director's answer - and followed
up by 'trying to be chummy in a fashion that Comey felt was
designed to absorb him into Trump’s world—to make him part of the team.'

Weeks after Trump entered office, he asked Comey when federal
authorities were going to release news that he was not personally
under investigation.

Comey informed the president that he should not speak to him directly
and advised him to follow Justice Department guidelines, which prohibit
conversations with the White House about active criminal investigations.

Unless they are 'important for the performance of the president’s
duties and appropriate from a law enforcement perspective,' inquiries
are to be submitted to the Justice Department, with the attorney general
or deputy attorney general acting as a liaison if necessary.

Wittes said: 'I do know this: Comey understood Trump’s people as
having neither knowledge of nor respect for the independence of the
law enforcement function.

'And he saw it as an ongoing task on his part to protect the rest of the
Bureau from improper contacts and interferences from a group of people
he did not regard as honorable.'

It remains unclear if Comey answered any of Trump's questions. In
the letter announcing the FBI director's dismissal, the president wrote:
'I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions,
that I am not under investigation.'

In the letter announcing the FBI director's dismissal, the president wrote:
'I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions,
that I am not under investigation.'

Trump then called Comey in for a meeting on February 14, one day
after Flynn was forced out of his National Security Advisor position,
and suggested he drop the investigation

Trump then called Comey in for a meeting on February 14, one
day after Flynn was forced out of his National Security Advisor
position for lying about the nature of his conversations with the
Russian ambassador to the US.

Comey's memo recounted the meeting, claiming Trump said:
'I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.'

'He is a good guy,' according to Comey's retelling of the meeting.
'I hope you can let this go.'

The next day, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, asked
Comey to refute news reports that Trump's associates had been in
contact with Russians during the campaign.

Sean Spicer, however, has hit back at the reports, saying :'There
was never any attempt to interfere in this investigation.
As the president previously stated, he respects the ongoing
investigations and will continue working to fulfill his promises to
the American people.'

And on March 1, Comey was told the president needed to talk to
him urgently. He delayed boarding a helicopter, only to realize
Trump simply wanted to squeeze in some chitchat, according to Wittes.

'What bothered Comey was twofold—the fact that the conversation
happened at all (why was Trump calling him to exchange pleasantries?)
and the fact that there was an undercurrent of Trump’s trying to
get him to kiss the ring,' Wittes wrote.

Comey was troubled by what he perceived was Trump's
repeated attempts to foster a personal relationship,
and thought any contact was 'inappropriate'.

While Wittes said his conversations with Comey only
serve as 'pieces of a much larger mosaic', his takeaway was
that Trump kept the FBI director around thinking he could
somehow quash him into submission.

'Once he realized that he couldn’t do that -- and that the
Russia matter was thus not going away -- he pulled the trigger,'
Wittes concluded.

The day after that, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff,
asked Comey to refute news reports that Trump's associates had
been in contact with Russians during the campaign

Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House oversight committee,
requested on Tuesday to see any and all documentation the fired
FBI director James Comey kept of his communications with
President Donald Trump by May 24.

On Thursday, Chaffetz said he will resign from Congress next month,
a move that calls into question the future of the House
Oversight Committee's investigation of President Donald Trump
and his campaign's ties with Russia.

Chaffetz, a Republican, said in a letter sent to media and constituents
that his last day will be June 30. He said last month that he would
not seek re-election in 2018 and that he was considering leaving office early.

The statement does not mention the investigation he is overseeing into
Comey's dismissal as well as the Trump campaign's role in Russia's
alleged efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

Chaffetz said in the letter he wants to spend time with his family,

return to the private sector and possibly run for Utah governor.

(Culled from the Mail, UK)