The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website April 13, 2018:
Comey’s new book raises questions about Trump’s account of his time at the Moscow Ritz
Former FBI Director James Comey, called an “untruthful slime ball” by President Donald Trump Friday morning, is releasing a book based off of his brief time in the Trump White House.
The book, titled “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” details Comey’s struggles between following the rule of law while maintaining loyal to an “unethical” and “untethered” president.
“We are experiencing a dangerous time in our country,” Comey writes, “with a political environment where basic facts are disputed, fundamental truth is questioned, lying is normalized and unethical behavior is ignored, excused or rewarded.”
The book touches on one of the more scandalous allegations that have emerged in the Russia investigation: the “golden showers tape” alluded to in the infamous Steele dossier. According to Comey, Trump was obsessed with proving the tape was a lie.
“He just rolled on, unprompted, explaining why it couldn’t possibly be true, ending by saying he was thinking of asking me to investigate the allegation to prove it was a lie,” Comey writes in released excerpts. “I said it was up to him.”
Trump repeatedly denied the allegations to Comey.
“I’m a germaphobe,” Trump told Comey in a phone call on Jan. 11, 2017, according to the book. “There’s no way I would let people pee on each other around me. No way.”
He also told Comey he did not stay overnight at the Moscow Ritz, where the alleged incident with two Russian women occurred.
Trump’s denials, however, contradict testimony his own body guard gave before the House Intelligence Committee in November.
Natasha Bertrand
✔@NatashaBertrand
Trump told @Comey that he did not stay overnight in the Moscow Ritz in 2013, according to Comey’s new book. But Trump’s own bodyguard, Keith Schiller, testified that he did.
“Schiller testified that he stood outside Trump’s hotel room [at the Moscow Ritz] for a long time and then went to bed,” an NBC report from November 2017 notes. “One source noted that Schiller testified he eventually left Trump’s hotel room door and could not say for sure what happened during the remainder of the night.”
The contradiction does not mean that the incident occurred or that a tape exists, but it does raise questions about whether Trump is being truthful about his activities that evening.
In excerpts from an interview with ABC News 20/20 this Sunday, Comey said it “possible” that the so-called “pee-tape” is real.
“I honestly never thought this words would come out of my mouth, but I don’t know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013,” Comey told ABC. “It’s possible, but I don’t know.”