Comey: Trump seemed surprised by the 'salacious' details that were revealed in Steele dossier
Speaking with Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, former FBI director James Comey admitted that President Donald Trump seemed startled to hear some of the "salacious" details included in the notorious Steele dossier when confronted by them.
According to Comey, he went in suspicious about Trump's "commitment to truth" but remained neutral while speaking with him.
"I was concerned about his commitment to truth telling, based on some things I'd see during the campaign" Comey explained. "But I went in trying to see what he was like as a leader."
The NBC host then pressed Comey on how the Steele dossier was received when the ex-FBI head brought it up, including allegations of sexual escapades with Russian prostitutes.
"When you told him the contents of the Steele dossier, did you get the impression that it was the first time he ever heard those allegations?' Todd asked.
"Yes. And I didn't give him a briefing on the whole dossier," Comey explained. "My assignment was to brief him on a small part of it that was salacious and personal. My sense was -- I didn't get a sense he knew about those."
"Why include that salacious part?" host Todd asked.
"We thought it was important that he knew," Comey replied. " I say we, I mean all of the intelligence chiefs that put together the intelligence community assessment. We thought it was important that he knew because we knew and we didn't want to be holding that back from the new president."
"The FBI's role is counter-intelligence and so we do a defensive briefing whether or not something is true, just to let the person know, who might be the target of a leverage effort that we have this information," he concluded.
Watch the video below via NBC:
EXCLUSIVE: @Comey tells @ChuckTodd that he didn't believe President Trump was aware of salacious allegations when he first briefed him.
Comey: "I didn't get a sense" that Trump knew about Steele dossier allegations #MTP pic.twitter.com/LJuJz3Vcnm
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 29, 2018