"A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership," will be released tomorrow, but excerpts about Comey's experience working with US President Donald Trump have already been released, and are earning praise for the former FBI director from the Trump resistance.
Dan Kovalik, a human rights and labor lawyer, told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear that Comey's new book has made him "a hero of liberals in the US."
"Everyone has forgotten his letter a few weeks before the elections that damaged Hillary," Kovalik told hosts Brian Becker and Walter Smolarek, referring to Comey's reopening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server just a few days before the 2016 election.
"There's a lot of amnesia around who Comey is and what he's done. It's strange that he's going on a book tour to trash the president of the US. He's getting a lot of publicity for it," Kovalik said.
One of the leaked excerpts from Comey's memoir states, "[Trump's] face appeared slightly orange with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles, and impressively coiffed, bright blonde hair, which upon close inspection looked to be all his… As he extended his hand, I made a mental note to check its size. It was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so."
Another passage questions Trump's morality, claiming, "this president is unethical and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven and about personal loyalty."
On Saturday, Comey tweeted, "My book is about ethical leadership & draws on stories from my life & lessons I learned from others. 3 presidents are in my book: 2 help illustrate the values at the heart of ethical leadership; 1 serves as a counterpoint. I hope folks read the whole thing and find it useful," referring to Trump as the counterpoint to former US president George W Bush and Barack Obama.
In a Sunday interview with ABC News, Comey said that the title of the book was inspired by a conversation with Trump at the White House in January 2017.
"He asked for my loyalty personally as the FBI director. My loyalty's supposed to be to the American people and to the institution," Comey said in the interview.
"I never asked Comey for personal loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies," Trump responded on Twitter Sunday.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018
According to Kovalik, Comey's book reveals his political bias.
"I think that in the case of Comey, in particular, he did not want Trump to be president, and so, there may have been some bias. The interesting thing is that liberals said Comey should be charged under the Hatch Act for interfering in the election by reopening the investigation into Clinton's use of a private server," Kovalik explained.
The Hatch Act is a US federal law that prohibits those in the executive branch of the government, other than the president, vice president and other high-level officials, from getting involved in some forms of political activity.
"Now, the same people who wanted the guy prosecuted are saying he's the next best thing since sliced bread," Kovalik told Radio Sputnik.
"The establishment is still furious that Trump won. People have had to whore themselves to get elected. He didn't have to do that. It's true that Trump doesn't have the collective interest in mind. A lot of what he does is aimed toward his own self-preservation. However, that doesn't distinguish him from other presidents," Kovalik added.
The Republican National Committee has already questioned the former director's credibility by launching a website titled "Lyin' Comey." The website features tweets from Trump criticizing Comey and includes a section called "The Truth."
That section of the website details Democrats' about-face on Comey's qualifications, noting that, "While Democrats feigned outrage over President Trump's firing of James Comey, they had long questioned Comey's ability to lead the FBI and even called for him to be fired. Nancy Pelosi suggested that Comey was ‘not in the right job;' Bernie Sanders said, ‘It would not be a bad thing for the American people if [Comey] did step down;' Chuck Schumer said, ‘I do not have confidence in [Comey] any longer;' Maxine Waters said, Comey ‘has no credibility' and deserved to be fired."
Trump fired Comey in May 2017, stating it was recommended by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Two days later, Trump said that he had been planning on forcing Comey out over his poor handling of the investigation regarding Clinton's private server and email scandal, "regardless" of any recommendation.
