The 5-Minute Fix: How Comey became Trump’s chief antagonist

April 16, 2018

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Keeping up with politics is easy now

By Amber Phillips

A lifelong Republican and President Trump's first FBI director is now Trump's chief antagonist.

FBI director James B. Comey said on Sunday that Trump is “morally unfit to be president.” And that's just the start. Comey is no longer a Republican, and he's out with a book that calls Trump a congenital liar and an unethical leader.

Trump and Comey shake hands in January 2017, when tensions were already high. (Andrew Harrer / EPA)

This is not normal, people. So how did it happen? Here are some key moments Comey says he had with Trump that, in hindsight, motivated him to become the president's most outspoken critic:

July 5, 2016: Comey announces he won't recommend charging Hillary Clinton with a crime for using a private email server while secretary of state. Trump spends the rest of the election bashing Comey as a symbol of “the swamp” he's campaigning to drain.

Jan. 6, 2017: Trump wins, and Comey was forced to start his relationship with the president tenuously. He decided to brief Trump on an unsubstantiated dossier by an ex-British spy that alleges Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to win. It contained some guaranteed-to-go-viral (and evidence-free) accusations that Trump watched prostitutes urinate on a bed in a Moscow hotel room. Comey writes in his book that Trump was fixated on the prostitute thing.

Jan. 27, 2017: The newly inaugurated president allegedly asks Comey for “loyalty” over dinner. Comey will later testify to Congress he was freaked out by that.

May 9, 2017: Trump fires Comey, in part citing Comey's handling of the Clinton email investigation. Days later Trump says it was actually because of “this Russia thing.”

May 2017: An ousted Comey says he had planned to keep everything that worried him about Trump “in a box” — until Trump taunted him with tweets like this:

June 8, 2017: Comey turns into Trump's No. 1 enemy. He pulls his opinions of Trump out of the box for the world to see. He leaks his notes about Trump to the press, and he testifies to Congress that Trump lied about why he fired Comey. Less than a year later, Comey writes a whole book about why he doesn't like Trump. And that brings us to Tuesday, the book's release.

Trump and the Porn Star Update: What Trump and his lawyer want from the courts

Michael Cohen arrives for hearing

Their No. 1 request is impossible since it already happened: for the FBI to not raid Michael Cohen's office and residences.

The FBI did just that last week as it investigates whether Trump's personal lawyer committed campaign finance or bank fraud by paying Trump affair accusers (like porn star Stormy Daniels) during the election.

Having lost that battle, Trump and Cohen went to court on Monday to request two things, which they also didn't get:

To let the president review the seized documents and remove any he says are protected by attorney-client privilege. A judge said no. Attorney-client privilege doesn't apply if it happened in the context of a crime, something we can't rule out when it comes to paying Trump's accusers.
To keep Cohen's clients besides Trump secret. That didn't work. Cohen's lawyer (yes, lawyers have lawyers) told the court Monday that Cohen also recently advised Fox News host Sean Hannity. That means Hannity's conversations with Cohen could now be with the FBI. And Hannity is close to Trump.

Why does all this matter so much? As a friend pointed out, Cohen is at the center of nearly every major political story right now. And that's for good reason. Cohen has been one of the president's closest legal advisers for a decade. If anyone knows Trump's secrets, it's Cohen. And that means that any legal trouble Cohen finds himself in could ensnare the president.

It's Monday. You probably need a drink already. Here are three talking points to make happy hour last a little longer:

1. Did you know … that children (and laptops) aren't allowed on the U.S. Senate floor? Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) just became the first sitting senator to give birth, and Politico reports she's lobbying to change the prohibition on kids. (Apparently senators have given up on trying to change the laptop restriction.)

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Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) SHAWN THEW/EPA-EFE

2. Did you know … that former House speaker John A. Boehner used to oppose marijuana legalization? Now he's lobbying for a cannabis company — except he's getting some of his facts wrong about how many people actually go to jail over pot.

3. Did you know … The Washington Post won two Pulitzer Prizes on Monday? A team of formidable Post reporters shared an award with the New York Times for their reporting on Russian interference in the election. Another intrepid team won for breaking the news of sexual misconduct allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.

I'll leave you with an insane video that sprung from the Moore investigation. A conservative activist tried to sting The Post by lying about a sexual encounter with Moore, and The Post turned right back around and stung her in a covert video. It's a nine-minute master class in Pulitzer-Prize winning journalism.