Comey was troubled by Trump, friend says

The NY Times Michael Schmidt reports President Trump called James Comey "weeks after taking office" to ask when the FBI would state publicly that he was not personally under investigation, and Comey told Trump not to take such questions up with him.

Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a friend of James Comey's, also published an account of his conversations with Comey on Thursday. Wittes writes that Comey told him Trump had "asked for loyalty" soon after taking office and been "perceptibly uncomfortable" when Comey offered only honesty.

• "Ever since, the President had been trying to be chummy in a fashion that Comey felt was designed to absorb him into Trump's world — to make him part of the team."

A wild anecdote: Per Wittes, Comey was hesitant to attend a White House reception in January. When he did go, he wore a dark blue suit and "tried to blend in with the blue curtains in the back of the room." Trump eventually spotted him, and called him over. "Comey said that as he was walking across the room he was determined that there wasn't going to be a hug," and it ended up as a "one-sided" embrace.

"Comey was disgusted. He regarded the episode as a physical attempt to show closeness and warmth in a fashion calculated to compromise him before Democrats who already mistrusted him."Comey also "expressed wariness" over Rod Rosenstein's nomination as Deputy Attorney General, telling Wittes: "Rod is a survivor. So I have some concerns." Wittes surmises that Comey was thinking Rosenstein, who later wrote the memo justifying Comey's ouster, must have been asked for a loyalty pledge.