Donald Trump morally unfit to be US President, says fired FBI chief James Comey

Former FBI director James Comey, in his book scheduled to be released next week, has said before that US President Donald Trump had seemed fixated about proving false an encounter with prostitutes in Moscow that Russian intelligence had alleged filmed.

world Updated: Apr 16, 2018 09:00 IST
Former FBI chief James Comey gave an interview to ABC ahead of his book release. (Reuters File Photo)

Donald Trump is “morally unfit” to be president of the United States, former FBI director James Comey told ABC in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

“I don’t buy this stuff about him being mentally incompetent or early stages of dementia,” Comey said of Trump, according to a transcript from ABC.

“I don’t think he’s medically unfit to be president. I think he’s morally unfit to be president,” he said.

“Our president must embody respect and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country. The most important being truth. This president is not able to do that,” he said.

Trump fired Comey in May 2017, citing the FBI’s behaviour in investigating Democrat Hillary Clinton and its probe into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia to tilt the 2016 presidential election.

Just 11 days before the election, Comey announced that the FBI would reopen an investigation into Clinton’s possible misuse of a private email server while she was secretary of state -- a move she has said played a part in her loss to Trump.

The President lashed out at Comey in a series of tweets earlier Sunday, saying that the email probe was handled “stupidly” and calling Comey a “slime ball.”

Comey also said in the interview he thinks it’s possible the Russians have compromising information on Trump and that there is “some evidence of obstruction of justice” in the President’s actions. That included Trump’s request to end an FBI investigation into former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The former FBI director acknowledged that it was “stunning” to think that Russia could have damaging information on a president but said he could not discount the possibility. “It is stunning and I wish I wasn’t saying it, but it’s just — it’s the truth. I cannot say that.”

“It always struck me and still strikes me as unlikely, and I would have been able to say with high confidence about any other president I dealt with, but I can’t. It’s possible,” Comey said.