Former FBI Director James B. Comey said that he couldn’t say whether he believed the allegations made in the unverified dossier in a preview of an upcoming interview with ABC News out Friday.
Mr. Comey said that at a dinner at the White House prior to being fired, Mr. Trump said he may want the FBI to investigate the dossier and prove the allegations — particularly his supposedly involvement with prostitutes urinating on each other in Moscow in 2013 — were untrue.
“[He] says he may want me to investigate it to prove that it didn’t happen, and then he said something that distracted me. Cause he said, ’You know if there’s even a one percent chance my wife thinks that’s true, that’s terrible.’ And I remember thinking how could your wife think there’s a one percent chance you were with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow?” Mr. Comey said in his upcoming ABC News interview.
“I’m a flawed human being, but there is literally zero chance that my wife would think that was true. So, what kind of marriage to what kind of man does your wife think [that] there’s only a 99 percent chance you didn’t do that?” he added.
Mr. Comey said that the dossier, compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, was still unverified at the time he was fired last year, but when asked if he personally believes the allegations, the former FBI director remained unsure.
“I don’t know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013. It’s possible, but I don’t know,” Mr. Comey said.
Mr. Comey added that when he first briefed the president on the issue he explained the information in the dossier he was “as graphic as I needed” in order for Mr. Trump to understand the situation. He also said he never told the president that the dossier was funded by political opponents.
The unverified dossier was late found to be funded by a the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
• Sally Persons can be reached at spersons@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.