Then-FBI director James Comey told President Donald Trump last January that former Attorney General Eric Holder was “smarter” than his successor, Loretta Lynch.
The comment was preserved in one of the memoranda that Comey wrote about his conversations with the president before he was fired — and whose contents he leaked, selectively, to the media via a New York University law professor who is now his attorney.
In a memorandum dated January 28, 2017, Comey recalls an extensive conversation with the president over dinner. When Trump asked him to compare Holder and Lynch, Comey notes, “I said I thought AG Holder was smarter and more sophisticated and smoother than AG Lynch, who I added is a good person.”
That memorandum also recalls a now-infamous exchange that was leaked to the media in which Trump allegedly told Comey “that he needed loyalty and expected loyalty.”
The memoranda were provided to Congress on Thursday by the Department of Justice. Reactions were predictably partisan, with Democrats claiming the memos corroborated Comey’s earlier statements about Trump, and Republicans claiming the memos show Comey never felt Trump was trying to obstruct justice.
Joint Nunes, Gowdy, Goodlatte stmt says Comey memos “show former Director Comey never wrote that he felt obstructed or threatened.” pic.twitter.com/9Y2UC49xz3
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) 20 апреля 2018 г.
Comey told Congress last year that he leaked the content of the memos after he was fired with the explicit intent of triggering the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the president’s 2016 campaign.