James Comey is embarking on a publicity tour.
The former FBI director is planning a series of media appearances to promote his book, "A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership," starting with an ABC News interview airing Sunday evening at 10 p.m., ET. It's the first sit-down, televised interview Comey has given since he was fired by President Donald Trump last year and the first in a series of interviews he will sit for in the coming weeks. CNN's Jake Tapper is set to interview Comey on April 19. CNN's Anderson Cooper will host a town hall with Comey on April 25.
"A Higher Loyalty" won't be formally released until next week, but explosive details have already spilled out into the media. Major media outlets, including CNN, obtained copies of the book this week and quickly published reports on its scathing and unsparingly critical depictions of the President. According to those reports, Comey writes that Trump is "unethical and untethered to the truth" and compares his presidency to a "forest fire."
Trump and his allies have already launched a counterattack. The President called Comey "a LEAKER & LIAR" in a pair of tweets Friday morning, describing the former FBI director as an "untruthful slime ball" and saying that Comey should be prosecuted for leaking classified information. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders joined in the criticism by tweeting a link to a video from the Republican National Committee accusing Comey of lacking credibility.
Details about the ABC interview have already started to come out. On Friday, Stephanopoulos tweeted out a link to another preview where Comey describes warning Trump about one of the most infamous allegations in a dossier of claims involving Trump and Russia, parts of which remain unverified.
"I started to tell him about the allegation was that he had been involved with prostitutes in a hotel in Moscow in 2013," Comey says in the clip. In the clip, Comey characterizes the situation as surreal. "I'm about to meet with a person who doesn't know me, who has just been elected the president of the United States ... and I'm about to talk to him about allegations that he was involved with prostitutes in Moscow and that the Russians taped it and have leverage over him."
There is no indication that any such tape exists, and Trump has pushed back against the allegation.
"Does anyone really believe that story?" he said at a press conference last year after a reporter asked if he had ever "engaged in conduct that you now regret" during past visits to Russia and whether he was vulnerable to blackmail by Russia.