Trump Unloads on ‘Liar’ Comey’s Memos: ‘He Put in a Lot of Phony Stuff’

James Comey’s memos detailing his conversations with President Trump contain “a lot of phony stuff,” the president alleged Thursday. 

The memos, which Comey leaked to the New York Times via an intermediary with the intent of sparking a special counsel inquiry, allege that Trump told him, for example, that he did not stay overnight in Moscow.

Not true, Trump says. 

"They are phony memos," Trump told Fox News. "He didn’t write the memos accurately. He put a lot of phony stuff. I went to Russia a day or so a day or two, because I own the Miss Universe pageant. I went there to watch it near Moscow. I go to Russia. Everybody knows, the logs are there, the planes are there. He said I didn’t stayed there overnight. Of course I stayed there a very short period of time. But of course I stayed. His memo said I left immediately. I never said that. I never said I left immediately."

Trump also took issue with Comey's argument that the memos he leaked were unclassified. 

"It is all classified," Trump countered. "It is totally classified. Legally he did an illegal act and he said it himself in order to get a special counsel against me. So the special counsel and, by the way, intelligence committee and everybody else has found no collusion. There is no collusion with me and the Russians." 

Here's a transcript:

DOOCY: “Meanwhile, let’s talk a little bit about you former FBI Director James Comey who you fired. He was on TV last night.”

TRUMP: “I did a great thing for the American people by firing him.”

DOOCY: “Well He says he is not a leaker. He disputed what Anderson Cooper said. What is interesting we learned through Catherine Herridge reporting is that apparently the guy he gave secret memos to, Dr. Richmond at Columbia University, he had special government employee status where he had, you know, he could look at secrets. He had a badge to the building and also apparently the memos were leaked to a wider group of people, or at least two, maybe three including former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Your opinion on what Mr. Comey is doing on his book tour and the fact that he had a special friend at Columbia University with an FBI badge?”

TRUMP: “Look, Comey is a leaker and he is a liar, and not only on this stuff, he has been leaking for years. He is probably been using his friend, the so-called professor who now turns out to have FBI clearance which he never said, he lied about that, because he never said that in Congress. He said he gave it to a friend. And he gave it to a friend to leak classified information. It’s all classified. It is totally classified. Legally he did an illegal act and he said it himself in order to get a special counsel against me. So the special counsel and, by the way, and intelligence committee and everybody else has found no collusion. There is no collusion with me and the Russians. Nobody has been tougher to Russia than I am. You can ask President Putin about that. There has been nobody. Between the military and the oil and all the other things I’ve done, the aluminum tax, they send us a lot of aluminum. And I put tariffs on aluminum coming in. The 60 people that we sent out, 60 so-called diplomats, nobody has been tougher. Nobody has been even been close to as tough as me we hear this nonsense. So there is no collusion whatsoever. Well Comey, what he did, Brian was terrible. He leaked classified information in order to try and get a special counsel. And I —“ [crosstalk]

DOOCY: “He says it wasn’t classified, Mr. President. He says it wasn’t classified.”

TRUMP: “Well it’s totally classified. And he also leaked the memos which were classified. Nobody unclassified them. And those memos were about me. And they are phony memos. He didn’t write those memos accurately. He put a lot of phony stuff. For instance, I went to Russia for a day or so a day or two, because I own the Miss Universe pageant. So I went there to watch it, because it was near Moscow. So I go to Russia. Now, I didn’t go there — everybody knows, the logs are there, the planes are there. He said I didn’t stayed there a night. Of course I stayed there. I stayed there a very short period of time. But of course I stayed. Well his memo said I left immediately. I never said that. I never said I left immediately. So he said — and you know the funny thing, he does these memos, and then fake news CNN who’s total fake, you know, they give Hillary Clinton the questions to the debate. Nobody — can you imagine, by the way, if you gave me the questions to a debate? They would have you out of business —“

KILMEADE: “Yeah.”

TRUMP: “— and they would have me, you better get out of this campaign. They don’t even bring it up. I mean, CNN, fake news CNN actually gave the questions to —“

KILMEADE: “Yeah, but don’t worry about them.”

EARHARDT: “Sir, I want to ask you —“

TRUMP: “No, but think of it. How bad is that? So anyway, so Comey leaked. And, by the way, also what he did with CNN in order to placate them, you saw that whole scenario, this is a big mistake this book. He is guilty of crimes. And if we had a Justice Department that was doing their job instead of spending time —“