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Trump attacks ex-FBI director Comey in early morning tweetstorm

Trump's tweets include numerous allegations that are unproven and unverified.

First Syria, now James Comey.

President Donald Trump fired off a barrage of angry tweets early Sunday morning, directing much of his ire at the the former head of the FBI, whom he called "the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!"

That fury was clearly in response to Comey's widely-leaked but unreleased new book "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership" in which the former law enforcement official describes the president's life as "a cocoon of alternative reality" and Trump himself as "untethered to truth."

Trump fired Comey in May 2017 and said Sunday that he "never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty."

Trump's tweets included numerous allegations that are unproven and unverified.

The president also seemed to be responding to the FBI raid on and court-authorized search of the office of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who authorities said has been under criminal investigation for months.

But Trump dedicated most of his morning to Comey, whom he called a "Slimeball!" in his first tweet, which is not his first use of that epithet in regards to Comey.

The president also claimed that Comey "states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe," adopting a broadside first deployed by White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday.

Image: U.S. President Donald Trump departs after announcing military strikes on Syria during a statement at the White House in Washington, April 13, 2018.
U.S. President Donald Trump departs after announcing military strikes on Syria during a statement at the White House in Washington, April 13, 2018.Yuri Gripas / Reuters

Days prior to the 2016 election, Comey sent a letter to Congress announcing his intention to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails after discovering additional emails on the former Rep. Anthony Weiner's computer while investigating him for alleged sexting with a underage girl.

But the president's characterization that Comey was influenced by polls is an oversimplification of what the former FBI director wrote. In his book, which is set to be released later this week, Comey writes that "because I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president, my concern about making her an illegitimate president by concealing the restarted investigation bore greater weight than it would have if the election appeared closer or if Donald Trump were ahead in the polls."

But that wasn't Trump's only complaint over a book that appeared to agitate him and those in the White House last week after members of the media obtained unreleased copies of the book.

“The big questions in Comey’s badly reviewed book aren’t answered, like how come he gave up classified information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give server to the FBI (why didn’t they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe’s $700,000 & more?” Trump tweeted.

Andrew McCabe served as deputy FBI director until he was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month.

Trump also mentioned former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who oversaw the Clinton investigation, in a follow up tweet.

"Comey throws AG Lynch 'under the bus!' Why can’t we all find out what happened on the tarmac in the back of the plane with Wild Bill [Clinton] and Lynch?" Trump wrote, referring to a summer 2016 meeting between Lynch and former president Bill Clinton. "Was she promised a Supreme Court seat, or AG, in order to lay off Hillary. No golf and grandkids talk (give us all a break)!"